GroomPod 491 Quality of Educators and Chronic and Acute stress transcript
Susy the Groomer Producer (00:14)
Hi, welcome to episode 491 of the groom pod, where we, Barbara and I, talk grooming. And today I am gonna talk about acute stress versus chronic stress and how that affects us at work. Barbara, what's your topic today?
Barbara (00:32)
I'm going to talk about peptides, but there's something I want to talk about before I get into my scheduled topic. was almost
Susy the Groomer Producer (00:41)
Okay.
Barbara (00:43)
late to recording that this morning because I got sidetracked by a post in the Facebook group called Professional Pet Grooming Industry Roundtable.
Barbara (01:00)
And
Barbara (01:01)
it's mostly pet educators in there. And our friend, Melissa Jepson, she posted this. Hi guys, welcome to Motivational Monday. It must have been, yeah, was October the 5th. I've been seeing some chatter lately.
Barbara (01:25)
based on some influencers and educators teaching outright faults and or outdated information. And I personally do think this is a topic that should get more elevated conversation. If you are a student pursuing educational continuing ed, how do you know what's being said is correct? Good question.
Barbara (01:55)
And of course, not surprisingly, the first answer here is Christine Pearson, also known as Christine Sertzel or
Barbara (02:08)
Christine Pertzel as we call her.
Barbara (02:12)
her group name. Anyway, she says, thank you so much for bringing this up for group discussion. I don't know who specifically is involved, but we need to do more.
Barbara (02:26)
Of course, that was just a short beginning of her little booklet that she... you know, our beloved friend.
Barbara (02:38)
boy, she's going to town. You want me to read the whole thing? It's interesting. She says,
Susy the Groomer Producer (02:44)
Okay. Do you think yeah. As long as
Susy the Groomer Producer (02:46)
you think she'd be okay with it.
Barbara (02:48)
Well, she posted it. She
Susy the Groomer Producer (02:50)
Okay.
Barbara (02:51)
said, it's been a low rumble within our industry for a really long time. Thank you. I was there. That
Susy the Groomer Producer (02:58)
Me too.
Barbara (02:59)
seems to reach a peak every so often. As an educator who is constantly pursuing their own ongoing continuing education.
Barbara (03:10)
I don't think there's a way for the student to know when they're being given infactual or bad advice that could set them back or inherit them liability. Well, I think that's strong.
Susy the Groomer Producer (03:27)
Yeah.
Barbara (03:28)
But she says, I don't think that educators
Barbara (03:35)
Look too much to legal liability when we post and when we teach.
Barbara (03:43)
But it's a rampant, lazy cancel culture that is fed by social media, which only encourages an all-or-nothing stance of throwing the baby out with the bathwater simply because someone didn't know something at the time, or maybe they even just used the wrong word, or suddenly for some stupid reason everything they say is BS.
Barbara (04:10)
curiosity and being willing to suss out more information through open dialogue before labeling it is in short supply these days. Well, that's the reaction. But a lot of times, groomers don't know that they're being educated to incorrect information. And sometimes,
Barbara (04:39)
educators don't realize that they're really over their skis.
Barbara (04:45)
as someone that has spent a good third of my adult life immersed in science of pet grooming product ingredients,
Barbara (04:59)
I see it a lot in my lane, but in the lane of product information. Everybody thinks they know. the truth is, the science behind grooming products and cosmetics in general is so rapidly changing.
Barbara (05:27)
that you can be up to date one year and outdated the next year. And unless educators are re-educating themselves as to the science behind their topic, they are at risk of being topically old. And so let's just say not intending to misinform, but just
Barbara (05:57)
not fully informed themselves.
Barbara (06:00)
at least every five years, you got to go back and look at everything, look at everything that you're teaching. And very few people do that. And the other thing that happens within the grooming industry is that educators who have a name,
Barbara (06:19)
who are hired to do their specialized topic are often asked to present something in another topic or two to make their presence and their travel worthwhile for the producer, the event producer. And then people are kind of
Barbara (06:46)
pressured into covering topics that they might not be so fully educated on. I'll just say that.
Susy the Groomer Producer (06:57)
I'd like to point out that when you become an educator and you go to trade shows and you're speaking at the trade show, how often do you see those people attend a class from another speaker? How about never?
Barbara (07:11)
yeah, I know. What would happen
Barbara (07:13)
to me, the one class that I really would want to see was at the same time as my class.
Susy the Groomer Producer (07:22)
I think sometimes you need to go and take the classes to remind yourself of the young and upcoming newer information that potentially is out there and then go back and look at what you're presenting at the next trade show and maybe make some adjustments. I don't think they do it because I've not seen other educators in the classrooms when I'm in a classroom.
Barbara (07:44)
Well, no, I'm not either, but I remember the few times that I did it made me very nervous when other MAME educators were in my classroom because I felt like I was being assessed or shall I say judged.
Susy the Groomer Producer (08:12)
But I think we need a little more of that. I think we need to I hate to say it because it's not what we've been taught, but we need to judge a little bit more on some of this information.
Barbara (08:22)
Well, and I'm going to say this about published information. We need to read each other's publication before it gets published so
Susy the Groomer Producer (08:33)
Yeah.
Barbara (08:34)
that we can fact check each other. And so we can say, but did you see that new study that was about such and such? That fits in with what you're saying. You might want to check that out.
Barbara (08:52)
Peer review, really peer review. And I've read online some papers or articles that are written that will say read by so and so and another name or reviewed by so and so with their little PhD
Susy the Groomer Producer (09:12)
Yeah.
Barbara (09:14)
or whatever behind it. You know, we need to do more of that. I'm just reminded of the time.
Barbara (09:22)
that in groomer and groomer on an article, this was many years ago, but it just like slapped me in the face, on an article about cat grooming, a cat expert teacher person wrote that cat hair grows differently than dog hair because it grows from the ends out.
Barbara (09:51)
And like that's so incredibly, I don't even know what I
Susy the Groomer Producer (09:54)
I don't even know what to say about that.
Barbara (09:57)
mean. I just said, holy fuck. You know,
Susy the Groomer Producer (10:00)
Ha ha okay, that's something.
Barbara (10:05)
because it was obvious that the editor didn't fact check, you know, like that's such a huge statement. You think it would jump out and.
Barbara (10:18)
the editing staff and they
Susy the Groomer Producer (10:18)
Someone.
Barbara (10:20)
would say, and can you give us a source for that information? That's what used to happen when I wrote for Pet Age, which was another industry journal that I thought was actually more on top of their editing. mean, I would go back and forth with them.
Barbara (10:47)
several times before my article was accepted. And the other thing that I've heard from another educator is that when writers for Groomer to Groomer submit their articles, they give them to Groomer to Groomer and Groomer to Groomer.
Barbara (11:14)
cuts them to fit the magazine issue. So they can beat some of what they have written and clarified in their language might be removed just for being too many words. Isn't
Susy the Groomer Producer (11:35)
Interesting. I didn't realize that.
Barbara (11:37)
that interesting?
Barbara (11:39)
Yeah, I'm not going to name the names, but it's somebody that writes often and they just have no control over what's the final version. Now when I wrote for Pet Age magazine, we changed things together, but I always knew
Susy the Groomer Producer (11:58)
Together.
Barbara (11:59)
what was going to be there in the end.
Susy the Groomer Producer (12:03)
Yeah. That hmm yeah. That does make it a little difficult. Sometimes when we have guests on the podcast, I will edit if we talk over each other, but I never take out content that is filed of a discussion.
Barbara (12:18)
Yeah, the assertions
Barbara (12:20)
are considered. That's our...
Barbara (12:24)
are roots, that's what we're here for is to make assertions.
Susy the Groomer Producer (12:29)
Yes.
Barbara (12:30)
But, you know, assertions need to be factually truth. And, you know, like when we're dealing with groomers who weren't from other groomers,
Barbara (12:48)
didn't go to a school,
Susy the Groomer Producer (12:48)
Right.
Barbara (12:49)
learned from other groomers, is still the majority of people who are out there grooming learn from a mentor or an employer or another groomer or on their own watching YouTube. And then we have...
Barbara (13:13)
people who devoted their time in competition grooming and are so popularly known that then they're asked to write.
Susy the Groomer Producer (13:25)
Yes.
Barbara (13:26)
Liz, what's her name?
Susy the Groomer Producer (13:28)
Good old Liz, what's her name?
Barbara (13:30)
Good old...
Barbara (13:31)
listen. she was so famous.
Susy the Groomer Producer (13:37)
Paul.
Barbara (13:38)
Paul, you got it. Liz Paul, well, she's dead now so I can talk about her. Liz Paul was one of the standard bearers of grooming in the 90s when I came into the education business. But she was not equipped to teach a class.
Barbara (14:08)
She was not educated. She was not articulate. She was a fabulous groomer. She had a lot to teach about scissoring and styling and breed profiles and doing her work, but she wasn't equipped to talk about it. And there are other people that...
Barbara (14:37)
are more so equipped, but there's no qualifications for educators. I I just slipped in there. You know, how I got started was that the Colorado Groomers Association called me one day and said, we're in a real bind because one of our speakers can't make it.
Barbara (15:07)
and we've heard that you could do this.
Susy the Groomer Producer (15:11)
Yeah.
Barbara (15:13)
I said, yes, I've been waiting for an invitation. And so I went. I mean, I public speaking. I went and I spoke and I was good at it. then, know, Curtis Hanvey suggested me to.
Barbara (15:32)
and staff, you
Susy the Groomer Producer (15:32)
Atlanta Pet Fair.
Barbara (15:33)
know, so that was word of mouth. That was just a vendor approving me. And then I got run out of trade shows by vendors disapproving of me, I got, you know, crucified for using.
Barbara (15:55)
Ivory Snow dish soap with glycerin and citric acid to make a homemade medicated shampoo for Bichon-Frisay that had allergies. And it was actually a hypoallergenic formula, but it was dish soap. that followed me for...
Barbara (16:23)
Decades.
Susy the Groomer Producer (16:25)
Well,
Susy the Groomer Producer (16:25)
and then to be closely followed by the F word, which also got you in trouble.
Barbara (16:30)
Yeah, and then I dropped the F-bomb at Atlanta Pet Theater one time, and Atlanta was just like not the place. I dropped the
Susy the Groomer Producer (16:38)
Apparently.
Barbara (16:40)
F-bomb, it just slipped out of my lips, and I couldn't, I couldn't swoop it back. I just said,
Susy the Groomer Producer (16:45)
Yeah, I was like, come back.
Barbara (16:50)
I said that. And it went right.
Barbara (16:54)
two and stared. And I got reamed out and I never got invited to go to Texas. you know, like, okay, I just, I'm so happy to be here today, Susie, in my pajama top and pink hair and dropping the, dropping the at-bomb.
Susy the Groomer Producer (17:13)
Well it's nice to have it's nice to have our own venue.
Barbara (17:18)
Yeah, and you know, like I cannot tell you how much research I do on my topics. I'm constantly reading studies. I read studies every week. I read cosmetic trade magazines. I ask
Barbara (17:43)
questions and get answers and figure it out and check myself over and over again. And I never make a presentation without reviewing it. I don't give the same presentation twice ever, although I may use the same slideshow with slight adjustments. But I never, I never say.
Barbara (18:12)
something without checking it again, is this still true?
Susy the Groomer Producer (18:40)
I would like to say that there are there is a phrase that is not used nearly enough amongst educators, and it's the phrase I don't know.
Susy the Groomer Producer (18:54)
Because when you're up there and you've got the microphone and someone's asking a question from the gallery and you don't actually fully know, but you might think or perhaps could speculate, don't do it. Just say you don't know. You can say after you don't know that perhaps this is what your theory is, but those words, I don't know, are so powerful. They're just massively powerful and they mean so much. Don't fake.
Susy the Groomer Producer (19:24)
an answer when you're an educator, please.
Barbara (19:26)
Yeah, don't fake an answer. That's
Barbara (19:28)
a good, very good point, Suzy Scott.
Susy the Groomer Producer (19:32)
Yeah. Well thank you. And on that point, let's take a break and hear from our sponsors. And then we're gonna go to our first appointment, which is a scientific look at stress and how it affects us in our grooming shop.
Susy the Groomer Producer (20:59)
Okay, Barbara, I'm heading into a sciencey topic.
Susy the Groomer Producer (21:05)
I also do a lot of research before I put these topics up, but I will say this. This is more Barbara's area than it is mine, but I have to make my way into the science realm. So I'm doing this subject knowing that I have someone who's a really good expert on things like this. So I'm gonna give you my impression. I'm also gonna ask Barbara some questions and we're gonna discuss it. And this is a learning process for me.
Susy the Groomer Producer (21:34)
How to approach things from a scientific area and from a scientific mind. So here we go. We're going to talk about stress and we're going to understand the difference between just having a bad day or having a bad incident versus continuous burnout, repeat chronic stress, because they
Susy the Groomer Producer (21:56)
They both affect your grooming. They both affect the dogs, but the chronic stress is really deadly. It's it's bad stuff. We don't want to go there. We want to fix that if we can. So I'm gonna put up my graphic.
Susy the Groomer Producer (22:12)
Acute stress is like I said, it's like having a bad day.
Susy the Groomer Producer (22:15)
And it's an isolated situational trigger that happens. Like for instance, your grooming shears break or your clipper fails or you nick a dog or heaven forbid a freshly bathed dog poops in their crate while waiting for the owner to pick them up. These are these are having a bad day kind of acute stress. So acute meaning it's happening. Yes.
Barbara (22:41)
Have a nice day!
Susy the Groomer Producer (22:46)
Yes. Yeah, you're having a shitty day. And owners showing up early, that's another way. But the biological response within your body is cortisol spikes to handle
Susy the Groomer Producer (23:03)
The situation. And cortisol, I had to look up what cortisol was because I really didn't know what it was. It's a steroid hormone produced by your adrenal gland. And it spikes to handle the immediate threat. It sharpens your focus, it increases your heart rate temporarily. And the outcome of it though is you go home, your cortisol levels drop back to baseline, and your body gets over it. It's acute. It's just one incident and it goes away. Bye-bye.
Susy the Groomer Producer (23:33)
When this happens though, the dog's reacting too while they're on your table. So they're, you know, they're they're feeding off of your body just like well, just like everybody does. You the room is stressful, you're gonna be stressful. Chronic stress is flight or fight response by your body. And it is cumulative.
Susy the Groomer Producer (23:57)
Daily strain without your body ever recovers from it. for instance,
Barbara (24:02)
you
Susy the Groomer Producer (24:03)
if you work somewhere where they don't maintain their tools and there's other poor working conditions, it's not clean as you would like, like people are grumpy and grouchy, especially boss type people, your biological response is to stay locked into the fight or flight situation. You wanna be able to protect yourself and your body just goes on high alert.
Susy the Groomer Producer (24:27)
Stress tolerance rewires downward, leading to physical exhaustion and irritability. Some of the warning signs are you're grooming on autopilot. I remember I used to be a delivery driver for a very large union bakery here. And I would go out at I had to be at work at 4:30 in the morning, and I would head out on the road and there was nobody out there at that time, downtown Seattle.
Susy the Groomer Producer (24:56)
And I would drive on autopilot. the light would change and I would pull out and I would realize that I don't know if I even recognize that that light changed or not because I'd be so in my head while I was driving. Very dangerous. Not quite as dangerous as a groomer, but it's still dangerous. The dogs are gonna pick up on it. and sometimes they'll shut down too. And as we talked about last time, we don't want the dogs to shut down. We want them to be actively participating in the grooming experience.
Susy the Groomer Producer (25:26)
Dreading going to work, full body tension, muscle aches, sleep disorders, compassion fatigue and emotional detachment, also known as burnout, are all effects or consequences of living in the fight or flight reflex. It's not a good thing.
Susy the Groomer Producer (25:45)
What are some of the things you can think of at work that would like be, for instance, acute stress causers? Anything that I didn't mention?
Barbara (25:54)
Well,
Barbara (25:55)
not having time for yourself. I was thinking about myself standing over the tub, drinking a can of fat-free soup.
Susy the Groomer Producer (26:18)
cold. You drank your soup cold. I remember that.
Barbara (26:21)
cold.
Barbara (26:22)
mean, I didn't even have time to put it in a bowl and put it in the microwave, which we had. But I'm just sitting there, just chugging it at the tub, two minutes and my lunch is over and I'm back at the next dog. that was common at my shop. and then...
Barbara (26:48)
I got to thinking, know, nurses who undergo a lot of acute and chronic stress, they have a break room on every floor. They have a place where they can go and detach and have a cup of coffee and sit down.
Susy the Groomer Producer (27:15)
Oftentimes the closest we have is like a bathroom.
Barbara (27:16)
How might have you ever seen it? I
Barbara (27:19)
don't think I've ever seen a grooming salon with a break room.
Susy the Groomer Producer (27:23)
I don't I
Susy the Groomer Producer (27:24)
well, other than the vet hospitals where I worked at, they had a break room, but no.
Barbara (27:29)
because the
Barbara (27:31)
medical field has incorporated break rooms from the beginning. We
Susy the Groomer Producer (27:38)
Right.
Barbara (27:39)
didn't.
Susy the Groomer Producer (27:41)
Very good point.
Barbara (27:44)
salon does not need to have a break room. So of course, that also means you don't have a room for a staff meeting, which is another thing that grooming salons are missing, even though a lot of people don't want a staff meeting. But staff meetings are opportunities for employees to
Barbara (28:11)
let go,
Susy the Groomer Producer (28:12)
Vent.
Barbara (28:13)
you know, like give feedback as to some of the things that's not working for them on the job, as well as to get praise and to praise each other for things that, I mean, it's just time to balance the scales and we never take that time.
Barbara (28:34)
And we never have a break room where somebody I mean my employees would have to go hide in the bathroom You know Right, you know like who wants to be sitting on the fucking head, you know, like that's relaxing. I once thought about like putting Vacation destination posters in my bathroom. So
Barbara (29:00)
could sit there and go to Hawaii for five minutes.
Susy the Groomer Producer (29:07)
Yes.
Barbara (29:08)
And actually, that's not a bad idea.
Susy the Groomer Producer (29:13)
let's talk about the repeated stress, the chronic stress. What kind of things cause chronic stress in the shop?
Barbara (29:19)
Well, staff problems, either between
Susy the Groomer Producer (29:24)
Right.
Barbara (29:24)
staff and staff or staff and employer. know, like stuff that we stew on.
Barbara (29:31)
stewing on discontent, just
Susy the Groomer Producer (29:35)
Yeah.
Barbara (29:37)
magnifies the discontent and gives us juice to have a blow up and fire someone
Susy the Groomer Producer (29:47)
Yes.
Barbara (29:48)
or quit or...
Barbara (29:52)
have a big argument or whatever and there's you know like not having a way to work out conflict no conflict resolution happens in many grooming situations you just eat it
Barbara (30:13)
being pressured to do too many dogs at your average work and not ever being able to do your best work and admire it and identify with yourself as a better groomer. That's stressful.
Barbara (30:36)
just assembly line grooming is to some people heaven but to me it would be hell because I'm kind of artistic you know and if I
Susy the Groomer Producer (30:47)
I think that yes, I think that scheduling conflicts
Susy the Groomer Producer (30:52)
are a big part of what makes it difficult at work. If you've got somebody doing your scheduling who doesn't understand how to groom or have a lot of turnover in that position, or you have a boss that picks and chooses the dogs they want and then you get the extra dogs, I think that makes for an overall stressful situation, requiring people to
Barbara (31:12)
Or, you know, like, or
Barbara (31:14)
in the vet situation, if the vet tech up front is making your appointments and has no idea really how much that this certain dog takes extra time or this certain coat type takes a lot more time.
Barbara (31:35)
I can remember someone who came to work for me from another place told me that they were given a flat 15 minutes to finish each dog.
Barbara (31:50)
had
Barbara (31:50)
to be able to finish your dog in 15 minutes. And what can you do in 15 minutes? Not a whole lot. I mean, you can do some things, but you can't put any
Susy the Groomer Producer (32:02)
Yeah I'd
Barbara (32:03)
kind of perfection. I mean, I'll tell you what you
Susy the Groomer Producer (32:05)
Thinking about the dog.
Barbara (32:07)
can do. What you can do is cut a dog.
Susy the Groomer Producer (32:11)
Yep. Or give a bad haircut. send a dog home that looks bad.
Barbara (32:17)
and I just feel so sorry for groomers that are starting out saying, well, when will I be able to do 10 dogs? Well, hopefully you'll never have to do 10 dogs. You know, like I
Susy the Groomer Producer (32:29)
Right.
Barbara (32:30)
can remember, I can remember on the phone, people would like call up on the phone to see if I was hiring.
Barbara (32:37)
What is your strongest area of grooming? What's your strongest point? I can groom 10 dogs a day without a bather. Bye bye.
Barbara (32:50)
I just can't imagine pushing ten dogs through on a day over and over and over and over again. Saturdays are always a big day. I could pretty much count on Saturday being a stressful day.
Barbara (33:09)
I could always count on days right before holidays, it becomes stressful. Christmas time would become stressful because the clients would be having stress. They didn't have their mother-in-law present yet. know, like,
Susy the Groomer Producer (33:27)
Ha ha ha.
Barbara (33:28)
I didn't want to get her one and they had to, and not only that, they had to go to her house for dinner.
Barbara (33:36)
there's just so much emotional crap around the holidays that just loads everybody up with stress. Even some of it is
Susy the Groomer Producer (33:47)
Not to mention
Barbara (33:48)
unconscious, you know.
Susy the Groomer Producer (33:52)
Yes.
Barbara (33:52)
I just
Susy the Groomer Producer (33:53)
Well
Barbara (33:54)
always had the fear for a holiday that my father was going to get too drunk and would shoot the television like he did one time because he didn't like the woman on there.
Susy the Groomer Producer (34:12)
Yeah, that'll definitely wreck your holiday. Well
Barbara (34:15)
You know, like,
Susy the Groomer Producer (34:17)
I was pretty lucky. I've lived a fairly stress-free life except for about twenty years of drug addiction. But other than that, it was pretty good. So let's talk about things we can do to kind of relieve some of that chronic stress, because chronic stress really has some long-term effects. And I have another graphic.
Barbara (34:37)
What are those
Barbara (34:38)
effects, is he?
Susy the Groomer Producer (34:42)
So some of the things that can happen is constant fatigue, muscle tension, sleep disruption, exhaustion, irritability, loss of joy in work, because this is a job that we do because we love it. And if you don't love it, you don't belong in the industry.
Susy the Groomer Producer (35:00)
psychological exhaustion, that compassion fatigue and all that. also the feeling l like you can never switch it off, like you're always on in that flight or flight mode are kind of indicative this chronic stress burnout. And some of the things you can do to combat this are like micro breaks and somatic resets. Do you know what somatic means?
Barbara (35:28)
muscles.
Susy the Groomer Producer (35:30)
Well body. It means the whole body.
Barbara (35:33)
there's
Barbara (35:34)
even more physical reactions to chronic stress, including it's hard on the heart. It's hard on your gut, especially if you're not eating properly.
Barbara (35:56)
Your whole self-care doesn't have a chance.
Susy the Groomer Producer (36:02)
Yeah.
Susy the Groomer Producer (36:05)
So that
Barbara (36:06)
There's only
Barbara (36:07)
so much that a bubble bath can fix, but a bubble bath after work in...
Barbara (36:16)
That was a little bit of a de-stress for me. was going to say, I got to say, I used to get high.
Susy the Groomer Producer (36:24)
Well, there's that. So let's talk about things
Barbara (36:26)
But that can lead you into
Barbara (36:28)
more and more and more. You want to,
Susy the Groomer Producer (36:30)
Yeah.
Barbara (36:31)
you know, drugs are not the answer. Drugs are not the answer to chronic stress. I'm just going to say that, okay?
Barbara (36:41)
your judgment about things like drugs is not trustworthy when you're under chronic stress. your mental assessment of the situation is likely to be
Barbara (36:58)
faulty when you're under extreme stress. And there is a tendency in our culture and in our country to just either use alcohol, marijuana, opiates, to excess.
Barbara (37:19)
Things that might be recreational at one point in our life in excess when we're under constant stress because we're looking for stress relief without any way of working it out. If you don't have a therapist and you don't have a break room at work
Barbara (37:44)
I just always hate it when people just stuff problems and stuff it and don't talk. And the next thing you know, they won't talk at work about anything, you know? And I hate getting the silent treatment.
Susy the Groomer Producer (38:00)
You can feel it. It's just palpable in the room.
Barbara (38:03)
You just feel it,
Barbara (38:05)
right?
Susy the Groomer Producer (39:12)
Okay, well very quickly I'm gonna go over some of the things you can do to help you deal with your chronic stress. So in the salon you can take micro breaks, just like Barbara was saying, hopefully not in your bathroom because nobody wants to sit on the toilet and drink a cup of coffee. That's just a little creepy.
Susy the Groomer Producer (39:33)
it like take two to five minutes outside if you can step outside of the building, stretch, drink a glass of water, in my case a Pepsi. you can do the breathing exercises, you know, yoga breaths, breathe in for four counts, breathe out for four counts through your nose to activate your parasympathetic nervous system.
Susy the Groomer Producer (39:55)
You can also do the somatic release or the full body release where you go in and you just shake it off and shed that bad shit. Just shed it away. Wash it off. Wash your hands. Get rid of it. Stand over the sink. Do whatever you've got to do to like
Barbara (40:06)
Spiritual
Barbara (40:09)
cleansing, spiritual cleansing. Yeah, I used to do that.
Susy the Groomer Producer (40:12)
Yes.
Susy the Groomer Producer (40:14)
Yep. for me I have
Barbara (40:15)
because I was very spiritual in my hippie days.
Susy the Groomer Producer (40:20)
a tendency to bounce up and down with like bounce on my heels a little bit to get some of my excess energy out or or stress. in you can do some environmental controls. Use headphones, like to block out some of the exterior noise while you're working. Just
Susy the Groomer Producer (40:38)
You should be wearing those headphones anyway. I wear for my whole room. you can listen to an audiobook. Just put on some calming music
Susy the Groomer Producer (40:49)
I like I said earlier, I think that scheduling is one of those things that causes a lot of stress, whether it's scheduling you're not getting enough dogs, or you're getting overscheduled, or the type of dogs you're picking, or the person doesn't understand it. So avoid booking dog difficult dogs back to back, and that's a big thing for me. I only do one dog that has a difficult time with grooming a day if I can help it, because it does take a lot out of you.
Susy the Groomer Producer (41:15)
practice boundary setting and saying no to overbooking and dismiss abusive or unsafe clients. I have certainly done that.
Susy the Groomer Producer (41:22)
after work transition rituals will help. Like Barbara said, take a bubble bath, thoroughly clean s clean and sanitize your station to signal your body that it's the end of the day and shut your wolf brain off.
Susy the Groomer Producer (41:35)
And I use my commute as a de stressor and I listen to a good audiobook or a podcast.
Susy the Groomer Producer (41:41)
How to overcome your disassociation and compassion fatigue. Spend the first two minutes of each groom making gentle non-procedural connection with the dog. I love that part. Just play with the dog a little bit before you start. And engage in peer support groups to share experiences and break the professional isolation because we are very isolated. Upgrade your ergonomic
Susy the Groomer Producer (42:02)
tables and bathing systems to make sure you're physically able to do your job a little more comfortably. Regularly schedule chiropractic massage or yoga classes and protect your core health foundations by getting seven or eight hours of sleep. Drinking and eating good food. Not drinking. Not drinking. I didn't mean drinking. Meant drinking water. Sorry. Okay.
Susy the Groomer Producer (42:32)
I'm gonna wrap this up
Barbara (42:32)
You
Susy the Groomer Producer (42:33)
since Barbara can't hear me anyway, managing chronic stress is not
Barbara (42:36)
Help!
Susy the Groomer Producer (42:37)
about quick fixes. It requires a systemic shift in how you protect your physical, emotional, and mental energy. Setting clear boundaries and prioritizing self-care protects both you and your longevity in the craft, as well as the pets in your care. All right, that's it.
Susy the Groomer Producer (42:53)
Let's get the heck outta here,
Susy the Groomer Producer (42:54)
All right. Thanks for being here, everyone. I hope I can make a cohesive effort of this. if not, well, you're gonna get it anyway, so what the heck? That's what live podcasting is all about. All right, happy grooming, everyone. See you next time on the groom pod. Bye-bye.
Barbara (43:13)
Take care of yourselves because we need you.