Is anyone a dog groomer?

Skippys Mum said:
Faithkat, I am one of the cheaper groomers (although after reading this thread I may just relocate ;) ) but I am a good groomer. People travel from far and wide to get to me. I am based in the West of Scotland but I have clients travel from as far as Dunfermline (East of Scotland), Aviemore (up further north) and even one from Birmingham. Tbh, they are not coming to me to save a fiver (I'm still always stunned because I only class myself as a pet groomer not a fancy posh "proper" groomer), so its not just about cost.
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Lordy no, they won't spend £20 in fuel to save a fiver! ;)

People DO travel to go to a groomer they like and trust. We get the same (had one coming from Cornwall...but have since relocated to closer -- and a few coming from Dundee...many coming over the bridge from Fife too)

Sometimes it's not even JUST about the groom but the personality of the groomer and whether or not they feel their dog is in good hands. There's lots of reasons why a person chooses a groomer.
 
PucciNPoni said:
Faithcat - I'm not quite sure how to word this without sounding awkward...but one thing I've learned about grooming for profit and speed/efficiency is that until you've HAD to do it, you don't know that you CAN.

When I first started grooming from my shop, I was happy to bumble along doing 3/4 dogs a day. But I wasn't really making much money (like *any* because it was all going back in to the business) - I was taking a long time to do those three or four because I was new and still a bit cautious. However, I had to PUSH myself in order to cover the expenses and really work at it to improve my speed (and still be careful). I learned there were ways to reduce the time without cutting corners. I started to multi-task and do other time saving techniques...and then you get hte confidence of KNOWING your trims inside and out (which you will cetainly have had with 25 years of experience). But with the advent of grooming forums, magazines and seminars, you learn new ways, about new equipment and so on - which helps to no end.

Many at home groomers who are isolated a bit just don't get that information unless they actively seek it out.

Nowadays you do get a lot of cowboy groomers who just do some quick training and don't get the ins and outs of conformation, health issues, styling to breed standard - some don't get any training at all in fact!

A favorite saying of mine (that I learned on a grooming forum in fact)

A good groom is never cheap.....a cheap groom is never good

People will try cheaper groomers because they're cheaper, but will nearly almost always go back to the better groomer because of the value that they are in fact getting. Some groomers still have the idea that people won't go to a higher priced groomer, but I can assure you that they do.
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After husband #2 walked out on me I DID have to groom as my "living". I used to work 12-15 hour days doing around 6 dogs a day 6 days a week but the amount of money people were prepared to pay did not allow a living that would pay the mortgage and bills and leave enough to live on (mortgage rates in those days were around 12%, not like nowadays). One of my clients was a standard poodle which the owners brought 4 times a year (that was as frequent as they deemed necessary). The first time she came I thought she was chocolate brown . . . . nope, she was pale apricot! She used to take me 5 hours and the most I could get out them was £25 . . . . . . Believe me, I never took a minute longer than I needed to. I think out of the 25 years of grooming there were only ever about half a dozen dogs that I loved and would happily have kept!!!!!

I agree with your comment about cheap groomers though and I am continually shocked at the quality (or lack of it) of some groomers. I was spurred on to learn grooming after my boss brought her standard poodle into the office after collecting him from his groomer. At the time I was showing CKCS and was used to a high level of grooming in the show ring. I was horrified at the state of her dog and thought "I can do better than that" and went off to learn grooming. Mind you, coming from a showing background, it was quite a revelation to see the state that people let their dogs get into. If they can't be bothered to groom it, why on earth don't they buy whippets/greyhounds/labradors etc?!!!!!
 
Faithkat, I started grooming after my first husband died so I was desperately needing it to work.

As for the likes of standard poodles - all I will do is a basic lamb trim and thats assuming they come in every 6 weeks. If they dont, then fine, they can go elsewhere. It took me a long time to toughen up enough to say this and mean it though. Its a whole lot easier to have firm principles when your diary is full. The first couple of years I was in business I would come home at night in tears, too knackered to even eat. Now I am much tougher and if the dog is a mess, the only thing I will do is a full shave off. Funnily enough, once you are adamant thats what you will do, I find people either come in regularly or accept a shave off with no issue.
 
Faithkat said:
). The first time she came I thought she was chocolate brown . . . . nope, she was pale apricot! She used to take me 5 hours and the most I could get out them was £25 . . . . . . QUOTE]

Well, without knowing how long ago that was, I can imagine that it still was below NMW that you actually earned for that job. You couldn't have covered your overheads with that small fee for such a big job. That would be most of a day's takings for such a silly low amount - defintely not the way to earn a living - more like killing yourself!

If you ever do come back to the business, I do hope you'll have a closer look at your fee structure so that you don't fall in to that trap again. PM me if you want I can send you a profitability formula.
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Faithkat that would be me that said I can do a westie in 45 min. I can bath, blow dry, clip, and scissor a non matted well behaved westie in that time and make and put a bow on its collar.

The training and equipment must have changed a lot from 25 years ago. Not all of my westies are done in 45min some take 60 min. I am very choosy as to what dogs i groom. I only do pet dogs, I don't hand strip or do big dogs because neither are cost effective. I do not spend hours de matting either. I make a very nice living thank you. I have set my stall out for my requirements and it works very nicely. I am a professional, qualified pet dog groomer who grooms small pet dogs to high standard. The training I received was not just dog grooming it was also how to run a successful pet dog grooming business.
 
Skippys Mum said:
Faithkat, I started grooming after my first husband died so I was desperately needing it to work.

As for the likes of standard poodles - all I will do is a basic lamb trim and thats assuming they come in every 6 weeks. If they dont, then fine, they can go elsewhere. It took me a long time to toughen up enough to say this and mean it though. Its a whole lot easier to have firm principles when your diary is full. The first couple of years I was in business I would come home at night in tears, too knackered to even eat. Now I am much tougher and if the dog is a mess, the only thing I will do is a full shave off. Funnily enough, once you are adamant thats what you will do, I find people either come in regularly or accept a shave off with no issue.
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Absolutely hit the nail on the head. If you continuously allow clients to dictate what you'll do, when you'll do it, how you'll do it and how much you'll charge for it, you will always be chasing your ar$e and never getting anywhere but deeper in the poo. I see it all the time - people are so afraid of losing few clients that they just turn in to yes-men and women. Really if they want to be respected in their chosen field, they be firm but fair with their approach. Saying NO is a good thing at times.

Burnout rate on groomers is pretty high. It's physically and mentally demanding. We have to understand dog psychology and goodness knows sometimes we need to be human psychologists as well! We get people who try to emotionally blackmail us over a dog's haircut!

The main thing to remember is that YOU have responsibility for the dog that's in front of you WHEN that dog is in front of you. You can't and should not attempt to undo months of neglect in a few short hours. You can't and should not attempt to demat and untangle a severely matted coat JUST to please an owner at risk of the dog's mental and physical wellbeing. The AWA protects animals and US alike in that regard.
 
Lol at this post, (all to familair) I burned out (well ill health) at the time did not help the old stress levels, I was a bit younger and more willing to please and now I please myself, people come to be to get there nasty little/big nipper groomed or people who have followed me, the few dogs I do now know better than to demand anything, they hand the dog over and get it back (simples):p
I remember I was grooming at the vets once (I used to do it at the vets) and one woman called 3 times whilst I was grooming her westi to say the following "can you tell her to give it a cauliflower head"... "can you tell her to leave his tail extra bushy and on the third call...I said to the receptioist "tell her to come get the damned dog or stop calling", she never rang back and he was cut to my liking and not hers:p:D and yet he came back time again.
So true that people don't appreciate how back breaking and knackerizing it is:rolleyes:
 
I have made some enquiries and got some ideas about training from the suggested places.

I need to start saving ;)

I think mobile grooming would suit me.

I like being out and about :)
 
That's excellent Oberon. I would also highly suggest joining some of the grooming forums - PM me if you would like the name of a few? Best of luck :)
 
GeeGeeboy said:
An entire groom and bath in 45 mins? Wow! That is impressive!
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45 minutes seems inconceivable especially when you're newer, but it's totally do-able. I remember being surprised one day when my time went under two hours, and then again when it went under one hour. You find little ways to save time, get more confident and suddenly it takes no time at all.

I do one extremely thick coated, massive lhasa in a shave down. Tail is always pretty thick and has a few mats. By the time I've washed, blasted, dried, nails, ears, clipped and finished it's only taken 40 odd minutes to complete. So a westie in a reasonably good coat - totally do-able :)
 
Yeah, when you put it like that Puccinponi it does sound do-able. I'm very slow but have just started so it's understandable. Also think I'm really rubbish too but that's another story! What's your usual routine if you don't mind me asking? Do you rough clip then bath then finish or just bath straight away?
 
Unless a dog is very matted and heavy coated (or I have to wait for the bath) I nearly never ever pre clip. I prefer to wash and dry the coat before ever touching it with my blades (saves the blades to only work on clean, but also the finish is better, and there is no real time saving by pre clipping). It is different if it's a cocker, for example, that's not been clipped for a year - those coats can take ages to dry so stripping it all off first does help. But for normal grooming, I always always always bath first. Knots brush out easier if the coat is absolutely squeaky clean and then sprayed with a detangling spray.

Literally it takes me less than ten minutes to bath and blast a smaller dog (cocker in full feathers, lhasa with 8 week teddy growth, poodle in lamb trim), and then on the drying table for usually about 20 minutes. The rest is spent trimming. I can't trim and style all dogs in 20 minutes or less, but many I can. Quick shave off dogs we're about 5 minutes bath/blasting. Twenty minutes max drying and then another 15=20 or so clipping and nails/ears.

What DOES slow me down are things like the door / phone going and having to down tools every time someone calls in or comes in. :rolleyes:

I've got quite a lot on coming up between now and December, but next article I'm doing for the magazine will be on speed/efficiency - how to speed up without cutting corners.
 
Oberon said:
I have made some enquiries and got some ideas about training from the suggested places.

I need to start saving ;)

I think mobile grooming would suit me.

I like being out and about :)
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Oberon, come up to me for a holiday and I'll give you a "basic starter/make sure you like it before you spend money on it" visit:D (and you get to meet Arnie;) - oh and Brightbay and Jackson :D). My only qualm with mobile is that you waste time travelling and setting up for the next dog. If you like being out and about try collections instead. You can drive around and pick up 2 or 3 dogs, do them then drive them home:D

Today was Chow Day at my shop:eek:. 3 of them. I am still spitting out Chow fluff:D
 
Skippy's Mum is right about the time spent travelling, however if done correctly it can still be pretty profitable. One major downside is that if you arrive to someone's door and they're not there to hand over the dog, not only are you out the space time for the groom, but also the travel time and expense it took to get there. Most mobiles will only manage four visits a day, unless they can very carfully plan which areas to go to and keep them geographically close - which sounds obvious. But sometimes it easier to herd kittens than it is to organise stuff like that. Thus the price of mobile grooming needs to be even higher than salon grooming...and well it should be as it is considered more of a luxury to have someone come to you rather than the other way round.

Mobile woudln't be for me (but then neither would collection/delivery). Those that do it seem to love it.

Another thing to consider re mobile - when the vehicle breaks down or needs to go in for maintenance, you're off work. If the weather is freezing, you have more concerns as the system in the unit can freeze easier (unless you have a heated garage to store your van). You can have these issues in a salon (to a degree) but it always sounds to me -- judging from the comments that mobile groomers make in the winter - that it's a greater hardship and takes a bit of planning.
 
Geegeeboy - It'll be in Total Grooming Magazine. It'll be the December issue as I'm still writing in...it's a free magazine that comes out ever 2 months (2nd issue just went out last week -but if you go to the website, you can probably still get a copy). :)
 
Plenty of places selling training courses, even some online ones but unfortunately many are not providing a sound basis for a long-term business and are unrealistic in the equipment needed.
I too get regular calls offering nearly new equipment.

City & Guilds is pet grooming. Show grooming is different.
 
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