GroomPod 479 Groomer to Groomer April 2026 transcript

GroomPod 479 

Susy Hello, groomers. You found the groom pod. Welcome to our virtual salon. My name is Susie, and I'm your host. I'm a mobile groomer from Seattle, Washington. And anybody who knows me will tell you I love to talk, especially about my job. And one of my favorite people to talk to is my friend and mentor and the co-star of the show, the curator of ingredients, Miss Barbara Bird.

Barbara Hi. Hi. Woo! Susie. Hi there. So glad to be here again on another Sunday. Boy, I miss it when we don't. When we don't meet. Uh. That's true. Yeah.

Susy Welcome to episode four seventy nine of the Groom Pod recorded on April twenty six, twenty twenty six. I'm Susie, the groomer. This is my mentor and good friend, Barbara Bird, my partner in crime. And it's time for us to review the April issue of Groomer to Groomer twenty twenty six. So this week, what's new is brought to you by Best Shot. Pet It's grooming day. A battle against mats and tangles. Take control with the ultimate duo from Best Shot Pet first. Transform your grooming routine with the max. This ultra concentrated single ingredient conditioner is a total game changer. It conquers stubborn mats, reduces drying time, and turns your recirculator into a high performance de shedding machine. Then put the finishing touches on your masterpiece with the all new ultra Max Anti-Static Scissoring Spray. It's perfect lightweight companion for effortless combing and precise scissoring while completely eliminating static and those pesky flyaways. Plus, it smells like coconut, and I really like it a lot. Professional results start with the right products. Visit Best Shot pet dot com or your local distributor like Cascade Grooming Supply and grab your bottle of the Max and the new Scissoring Spray today. Best shot Pet made from the best stuff on earth. Well, as you can all see, I've had a fight with the shop back in the back of my van. It landed on my face. See it up there? So it looks like I have a Betty Boop or a maybe I have a goatee. Maybe that's a goatee. No it's.

Barbara Not.

Susy I'm just too short for the van. It's built for taller people than I am now. I'm five feet tall, and I couldn't reach the shop vac. The shop vac. The whole situation back there with the shop vac is kind of interesting. I did not realize that shop vacs are now made with the hose inlet coming into the canister part where you have to empty it. My shop vac, which is twenty plus years old from my trailer, has the hose coming into the top, and you can just lift the top out and pull the canister out. You can't do that with the newer shop vac. So the shop vac that was in the van had the hose coming into the canister, and I couldn't get it out. And it was really annoying. And it also had a divider where the hose came into the canister. So the hair would get split on the divider and it would cause this huge blockage. Bad design. If I ever have to use that shop-vac, I'm going to cut that divider out of it. It's so stupid.

Barbara Not designed by Curtis. Handy for definitely not.

Susy I mean, I don't know how quickly the hair gets stuck on it, but every time I've had to empty that thing, which is shaped like a big saucer, it's just really weird design. It's just coated with hair and the block goes way in. So I thought I should just take my shop back and put it in. So I did that. But then yesterday when I was emptying it out, I hit myself in the face with it because it was so tall and I just, the whole thing just came down and hit me, right. I got a cut on the inside of my lip. I got this weird little thing. I'm really making the van my own. And I have gone through and labeled everything that needed labeling. And I labeled some things that didn't even need labeling just because I like my label maker. It's so much fun. So everything's got nicely labeled. I put all my stuff away. I don't have any stuff piled or sitting in the corner or anything. I've got bins. They all have labels on them. I know what's in them. Just by glancing at it. I feel so much more at home now that I've got everything put away. And I popped my circuit on the generator for the first time. So I went out and found that my propane. I filled up my propane. That was the first. It was really fun. I had a little pimply faced dude come out and say, do you want me to fill your propane? And I said, yes, please. And he said, is this your first time? And I said, yes, it is. He said, let me show you how to do it. And he showed me how to do it. He said, you have to bleed this and push this and screw this. And then I got to my first appointment and I was stood there for ten minutes trying to figure out why I wasn't getting any gas, any propane to my heater, my water heater of all things. And it turned out that he just didn't open the valve. Maybe that's something I'm supposed to do. It was interesting though. The the whole thing was interesting, but everybody's loving the van and I'm loving the van and I put the air conditioning on, and that was kind of fun too. So there you go. So that's all I've had that's been going on. It's just me settling in and labeling everything. So anything exciting with you, what's piquing your curiosity? What have you been doing?

Barbara Well, I, when I was in Atlanta, I got a couple of things. Grooming things to help me groom my ungroomed dog. So, you know, I have not been able to give Marco his summer haircut. But now I have the hammock and the new cord in the helper. And so I was able, with the help of the hammock, especially, to give Marco a full haircut. Number five all over down the legs. Had to do it, had to do a five in one at the lowest setting for part of the legs near the feet, because he had licked a big mats there. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was, but it was way ungroomed and he sort of freaked out in the, um, in the hammock. At first. I want to warn people who buy the hammock and use it for the first time on a dog, that the dog may not just automatically go into submission. He was like, oh fuck, this is fucked up. I'm going to die, you know?

Susy Let's take a little training.

Barbara And so fortunately, Jody was there. I laugh because Jody's idea of helping is to hold the dog, like, close to his chest and then sing little things to them. He's like, he's like, he's like a groomer, mommy. You know, he's like, no, he's like a pet mommy, you know, like, like. And there's my little Marco. He's all right, you know? And I just want to say, shut the fuck up. But he's helping me, so I can't. So I have to just I have to put up with it and I. I but the the short story is that I got him clipped down. It's not picture ready. I can't show you his picture because his face is a mess. Because I had to shave like I had to. Just like. Hit and miss shave around his mouth because he had boogies and stuff that had gathered. And, uh, it was just looking too terrible and I can't pull the hair around his mouth. So I had to do that. So he just got very uneven thing and I tried to make his ears even I, you know, like I did the best I could. It's not picture ready, so I'm not going to shame myself by showing you him. But it did get done. And I want to thank Hanvey Engineering for those, you know, and it took us a while because I. At first I had the, uh, the hammock on backwards, so I had the part that should be up around the neck, around his butt, and then the, then the other part. And he was just kind of like really uncomfortable in it. Yeah. He was kind of, uh, and so we turned it around and, um.

Susy There's training for the groomer too with the hammock.

Barbara You know, like it's a little bit of a learning curve, but I'm going to say it's worth it. It is so worth it that when you need it, you got it, you know, and you just now, I wish I could go back and groom that Scotty that I never could get groomed because I had hammocks at the shop. Why didn't I just dig it out?

Susy It's I never understood.

Barbara That because my employees, like didn't believe in the hammocks or they or any restraints.

Susy I get it. I mean, I, I'm not that way. I like restraint, as you know, but it does. But I wish that I had.

Barbara I, I, I wish that I, I, it seems to me that I did try everything possible without Scotty. And I think he somersaulted and turned himself inside out, literally inside out and, you know, used his back legs to get climb the pole, I mean that he was a monkey. He could just get out of anything and he escaped me. Well, Marco's not that.

Susy Not as athletic.

Barbara Not as athletic. Yeah, yeah. But, um.

Susy I'm glad you were able to get him done.

Barbara My dogs are like fourteen years old now, so I've realized that I have to change my perspective of them to fit their aging process. And, um. And Marco's doing a funny thing now, because sometimes in the evening, he'll spook. I mean, he's such, like he things he, he can't see well and so things frighten him. And it's mostly that I think he's starting to kind of bump into things. And then he runs away from that, you know, and goes onto the middle of my little rug that I have here in that safe territory because he knows nothing's bordering that rock. He's got it. I got this now, you know, and, uh. But he goes, he. What was that? Oh, almost got me. You know, the kind of stuff in the evening. Poor guy.

Susy Yeah, I know.

Barbara I just gotta give him.

Susy I was gonna I was gonna say what?

Barbara He fell out of the bed. He fell out of the bed and he didn't tell me, but I noticed because when I got up, he was no longer on the bed. And he said, oh, will you lift me up on the bed? And I said, and didn't we do that? You know, like three hours ago. But now, since he had that little falling out of the bed, as soon as I get into bed, he lays down his backside to my leg. He wants to be right there where he can touch me, and then he knows he's not falling off the bed. So, um.

Susy So speaking of on the other end of aging is the puppy. And I groomed the puppy yesterday. So those who don't know, I am a shared puppy mom with a girl who has a dog three weeks out of the month. And then I have the dog one week out of the month. We share her and we gotta have a niece. She's six months old. We just got her spades. She's spayed now because she was just a terror. This dog will push down any baby gate or will squeeze through it, or will go under it, or will dig around it. She is just an unconditioned. She's annoying. She's just in your face all the time. She never, ever gives you a break. So we thought perhaps Springer would slow her down a little bit, and they pulled a few baby teeth and fixed her little hernia. But she is a red havanese with white accents, and we gave her a big girl haircut yesterday. I took her down with the green comb and she was so excited to get rid of all that hair. You don't think they care? But man, when that hair came off, it was like it added twenty five more miles per hour to her zoomies around the house. She was crazy. She did really well. I've given her two baths and we've been brushing her a lot, and Jessica's doing a lot of training with her with the help of a professional because she just needed. Yeah. Needed to get a hold of some separation anxiety problems and stuff. The dog is going to daycare twice a week. She's just becoming this really neat little individual, different than all the other dogs we've shared. We've shared two other dogs together. So this is the third one. And it was really fun to give her a little haircut. So I'll put that picture up on the discussion group. And how about we get into our agreement to groomer magazine? But first let's hear from Precision Sharp. Are your shears working as hard as you are? If you're ready to level up your scissoring game, it's time to check out Precision Sharp. Whether you're sculpting intricate styles or tackling heavy bulk work there, Sliding Thumb Lynx and Bobcat series are built for the job. The Lynx shares are your go to for lightweight, lightning fast precision. While the Bobcat series gives you that extra power and control you need for those challenging coats. They hold an edge beautifully and feel perfectly balanced in your hand all day long, thanks to the sliding thumb ring. Find your next favorite pair at precision sharp dot com, where performance meets perfection. You love grooming, but the business side? Not so much. Between the constant phone calls, the no shows, and the messy calendars, it's hard to focus on the pets. Meet groomer the all in one software built specifically for salon, mobile and house call groomers. Let clients book online twenty four over seven, send automatic text reminders, and manage your payments all in one place. spend less time on paperwork and more time doing what you love. Start your free trial by putting Groom Pod twenty two in the coupon code at groom more dot com.

Barbara Okay, love the groom more. Yes, love love love love. Sitting at my groom table. Put pushing a button and get sending a text to the people saying it's time to get him.

Susy It's true. Okay, the first thing that caught my attention about this April's Groom or Groom magazine was the cover photo of a real dog getting groomed. Just a dog getting groomed. I loved.

Barbara It.

Susy It's such a nice cover, such a good picture, such a real life picture of depicting what we do every day, all day long. It's just a really nice entry into it. And then boom, the first article, Daryl Conner, Daryl Connor, our friend who lost her husband unexpectedly, which both of us just feel. Just wish her the best and hopefully she's going to heal up from that. But she talked about bathing and how important bathing is, and the first thing she mentioned is looking into getting a bathing system. And she did mention like the shampoo delivery systems as well, but she did make an effort to mention the Recirculator. So that puts her pretty doggone high on my list. What did you think of her article?

Barbara Well, I, I thought it lacked um, I liked it. I mean, I always she's always easy to read and, and to understand, but I thought, um, as I often do with groomer to groomer, not necessarily. Daryl but it was pretty surface. Mhm. You know, I agree. Uh, you know, and then and then big thing about rinse, rinse and then rinse some more. Well, if you have a good recirculating bathing system, you don't need to be a, you're, you're going to rinse really quickly and be thorough, easily. Be very thorough. And, and you know, it just didn't really come together for me. But, you know, knowing what Daryl's been going through, I definitely give her a pass. I was, I was frankly, um. I didn't expect to see an article from her this, this issue.

Susy Yeah. Me either. You know what I think is bugging me about groomer to groomer right now? And it's very mild. It's a minor minor complaint. I think that after the people submit their article. Groomer to groomer lets AI pick a a title for the articles because all the article titles are very AI appearing, they're very AI structured in the way they do the titles. They're very long. I don't think the title needs to be that long. I don't think there needs to be that much information in the title. Yes.

Barbara Speaking of which, do you let AI pick the title of the groom pod sometimes?

Susy Uh, it depends.

Barbara This is this title that we had, um, last week or so was, uh, well, The Science of Coat Defense. We didn't get into any science with coat defense. So what, what science? We skip that part. Art.

Susy I thought I edited that maybe it didn't take.

Barbara Yeah, it was.

Susy Because I was just going to put. Yeah, I didn't.

Barbara It was really it was really. A a a barber bramble. It was a bramble that snagged me because of my, um, identification with science. And so I did change that. I said I was science minded, and then I said, you know what, we didn't get into any science about, um, defense. Yes. In fact, I was thinking about, I've been thinking about doing a, um, review of the ingredients of the shampoo and, and just to give it our coverage a little bit more of a science, um, base.

Susy Yeah. Yeah it did. Oh I did leave that in there. It wasn't in the title. It was in the description. That's how I missed it. Yeah. I might fix that. Yeah. Sorry, folks.

Barbara I mean, it's only me. It's probably only for me, but people might be reading it looking for the same thing. Well, maybe the next paragraph. Well.

Susy It tweaked me also, which is why I rewrote it, but it apparently didn't take. So that was my posting error. I was tired, it happens. I'm sorry. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Okay. And I and well, anyway, so that's how come I can recognize the AI titles. And I don't know if that's what they're doing or not, but it sure feels like it because it's always statement colon explanation of what's in the article. And that's exactly how AI does it every time. So I'm thinking that he's retitling things, but so am I. I mean, I'm it's all good. It's all fine.

Barbara It's all good. And I, you know, like, I, I appreciate what, what AI comes up with, uh, in terms of suggestions for our articles. Um, and they, I use AI, uh, in partnership a lot these days because I'm just, uh, old and tired. I don't know. Well, because it's no, because it's there. If it had been there, um, you know, like, I can't wait to get back to writing my book and I'm, and I have now completed my eight weeks of post surgery, post knee surgery, pt physical therapy. So I have two days more whole days at home and I can either go crazy being bored or I can get into my book and I have made, I made there's a. I made somebody a promise that I would use Fridays to work on my book every week. If I do one day a week, every week, I'll get the goddamn thing finished. And then. Yes. Yes.

Susy We can only hope.

Barbara And I can only hope. And, uh, and I am hoping that, uh, AI is going to help me with some of the drawings and the graphics of the book. So that'll be just like, uh, less of something that I just lifted off of the internet and more authentic, authentically me. So yeah. So let's go. What else?

Susy Let's go. Okay.

Barbara What was the next article?

Susy The next article gets my article of the of the issue award. Because. Because I'm giving one of those. And it is Stephanie Calhoun's structure before style, her description of grooming in Korea and her experience there. And I was riveted by the whole thing. I thought it was so cool. And, um, I think that what she got out of it was the importance of structured learning in grooming schools. And she is doing a grooming school. So for her to come out of there with the feeling that you need to have structure is she's singing my song, Barbara. She is singing my freaking song. I want structure in our education system for groomers where it's yeah.

Barbara And standardization so that we're grooming schools and, and academies are teaching the same things and the same thing to lead up to the next level, and then so on and so forth. And instead of it's all hit and miss, um, uh, I had, I, I liked the article. Um, but it, it didn't, it didn't give me quite what I was hoping by the title and what I'm hoping for. I see it's.

Susy AI, it's AI, it's the same thing that happened with mine. It just grabbed something out of it and it's not exactly right.

Barbara I, I wanted to know a little bit more about their prep. I wanted to know if they are always, um, I want to know if they ever scissor down dogs before they bathe them. I wanted to know what is that stuff that they soak dogs in and it seems to make them so all happy and, and relaxed and they're pouring it over and then they, they hit on the head and like in the little ducks. Oh, yeah.

Susy It seemed to me the article was more about the difference in the way they structure their learning program, rather than how they groom or that kind of stuff.

Barbara Yeah. Well, and they and, and everything is structured around canine structure. Yes.

Susy And shapes and angles.

Barbara Cool. I think, I think the way that I learned it was more structured around code type.

Susy Right. And there's so many different.

Barbara Breed.

Susy And.

Barbara Breed profile. I had to start by reading the, um, the dog, the dog book with all.

Susy The AKC book.

Barbara The AKC but that's all we had. And I had to study all of that for every kind of dog that we were grooming. And, um, and then I, and then I struggled to understand what the, I mean, nobody like interpreted it for me. So I had to sort of figure it out myself. And then basically I had to learn by experience. So and I looked at her pictures. And that's probably why it took me forever to become a good groomer.

Susy And this is why I never understood angulation is because I was never taught with these diagrams. So she put up some pictures and there's a picture of a diagram with the angles coming off the dog and all these different directions. And I was like, oh, it's a it's a geometry problem. I get it, it's Geometry. Yeah.

Barbara You know who it reminded me. It reminded me of, um. Uh, I am sorry, but.

Susy This is the eighty six year old mind. Sometimes there's.

Barbara A eighty six. No. And and I and I just. Okay, what's the name of the, the woman who, who I certified under who then went on who teaches there? Is it Michele.

Susy Evans? Evans, Michele Evans.

Barbara Michele Evans, Michele Evans has kind of has that perspective. I think she comes the closest in presenters anyway, of teaching that kind of a method of of the structure. I mean the um. it's it's in there in some of the schools, but it's kind of an after the fact instead of before the fact. So these, these Korean groomers to be, they have to understand canine structure before they ever pick up a scissors.

Susy Yeah. I think that's cool. I think it's a part that's missing in our education.

Barbara And then I also, I like very much that they used model dogs to learn to scissor on. I would have given my left tit. Oh, maybe the right one. I would have, I would have given up a favorite body part in order to have that at that time, because I was so afraid of fucking it up that I didn't do it completely. You know, that I, I held back instead of moving into what I was creating in my mind. So he has a picture.

Susy She has a picture of all the model dogs being worked on in a room. And I was curious if you noticed anything unusual about all those dogs.

Barbara They were all the same dog.

Susy They all had muzzles. Their model dogs all had muzzles on. So I'm wondering if they groom with muzzles on. Because why would you put a muzzle on a on a model dog? But they all had it. They all had a little muzzle on all the way down the row. I'm like, what the heck is on there? Oh my gosh, they're wearing little muzzles. So I don't know if that's just.

Barbara Hey! Yes. Good catch girl. I didn't notice that. I just they all just look to me like white poodles with puffs and. Yeah, yeah, you.

Susy Go back and look. I would show you. Except I'm not good enough with screen share to get it to pop up quickly. But every one of those dogs has a little muzzle on. So cute.

Barbara So I would like to have heard that. Yeah, that would be we we ought to get get that question answered. Yeah. That's a real difference. Yeah. Because instead of who.

Susy Maybe we could get Stephanie on the show to come on and talk about her experience in Korea. Oh, yeah. Wouldn't that be fun? Let's do it. Yes. Okay. I think that'll be fun. All right. Let's move on to doctor Cliff because he was third. Uh, okay.

Barbara So, uh, I thought this was an. I thought this was just a very cursory. It didn't offend me. This article. I didn't find anything that I was really kind of burned about, but it was very cursory and it never went a little bit deeper. He he says his his, his saying, his one of his favorite sayings is that, you know, if you kill the yeast, you feed the bacteria. If you kill the bacteria, you feed the yeast. So he kind of hit on that, but he didn't give any explanation or engage in additional discussion of that, which I think is a really important point that he made. He, he sort of. I just, I sort of just felt like, you know what? It made me want to take his class. Oh, that's.

Susy That's probably what it's for.

Barbara It's probably how he writes it. You know, I think that's what he wants. It's exactly what he wants. He wants to just, like, open your mind enough that you want it fully explained and you have to you have to pay for for the additional explanation. Well, uh.

Susy As a, as a former veterinary groomer. So I started in a vet hospital. I was the receptionist, then I went to manager. Then I took the groomer to cash your paycheck. And I thought, what am I doing up here at the front desk? This is crazy. I want to play with the dogs. So I learned how to groom because of that, what I the feeling I got is he was just telling us what happens in the vet office that we never get to be part of or see unless we have a skin dog. So I didn't mind so much that he didn't go deep. I thought he gave a really good assessment of how the vet goes through their appointment with the dog and deciding what to do. But yeah, it didn't give us any information that we could like use in our own.

Barbara Yeah. Didn't you know? And he didn't say how many dogs go home with an antibiotic prescription.

Susy He did mention that a little bit. He talked about that being the first line of defense. That's what they do. Yeah.

Barbara And an antibiotic so bad.

Susy Not helpful. Not helpful in the long run. Helpful for people trying to get to sleep. And their dog is itching on the bed. Maybe, but it's not really a solution. It's a band aid.

Barbara It's a band aid. And, and there. And there's times when you'll pay one hundred dollars for a band aid.

Susy Yep. It's true. If you can't get to sleep because your dog is itching all night and it's right against you in the bed is shaking like this, and you're like, please just stop. And yeah, that's worth one hundred bucks, I would say. So that was, that was neither here nor there. The next one was salons and strays and inside look at India's Dog Population by Jennifer Bishop Jenkins. Jennifer Jenkins, Bishop. Jennifer Bishop Jenkins I did it again by Jennifer. Hi, Jennifer. Oh, I said the F word. There you go.

Barbara Did I? No. I'm proud of you. Anyway. Don't you dare. Don't you dare edit that out.

Susy Okay. That's fine. I did put explicit on a video. So now that people know there's going to be some language anyway. She talked about what it was like. I don't know that she ever went to India, but she did some research on what it's like grooming in India. And I thought the most interesting thing that came out of that discussion. I believe it was that article that she talked about that most people have strays. They don't have purebred dogs. So the grooming is focusing on how to groom mixed breed dogs more than it is how to improve it.

Barbara Was that no, no, no, no.

Susy That wasn't.

Barbara Hers. You're you're they.

Susy That must have been the Ukrainian one.

Barbara I mean, I'm sure that there are some people that have that do own strays, but that's not who goes to the groomer. It I didn't get that. Okay.

Susy Then it probably then I'll cut that. I'll cut that, but I'll leave the I.

Barbara I felt that it was an interesting overview. I, I, I wanted more information, I wanted more and um, like I did get that they seemed to like drop coated dogs, you know, so That's interesting. Um, I've, I, I like that she touched on the issue of street dogs and. That they. Um, that they should, what they should do is catch them, sterilize them, neuter them and.

Susy Oh yeah. That's right.

Barbara Free. Um, and, but what they're going to do is just like they're going to just like jail them all and not set them back out. But you know, uh, it's a, it's a, I, it's a big problem in India. We have nothing compared to what they've got there. And there is a problem that's real. That doesn't really happen here. And that's a street dogs biting people and giving them rabies.

Susy So oh man.

Barbara That's really scary.

Susy That is really scary.

Barbara And, uh, I don't know. I would like to know, do kind hearted people ever fall in love with the street dog? I'd like to know that I in fact, I'm going to ask Jennifer.

Susy She has a friend. She has a friend that grew up in Indian. I think that's where she got a lot of her information. Yeah, I think that was her first student.

Barbara That was her picture. She used her friend's picture. And, um, I thought it was interesting that her friend then moved to Spain, and it wasn't so easy for her to get her a level of, Uh, business going is as she thought it was going to be in Spain because it took, it took her a long time to kind of really had to start from scratch again. Um.

Susy I think the focus of this issue is international. I just got that feeling well.

Barbara Because there was also the, the article from, um, Blake Hernandez.

Susy Yes. Yeah. About and once again, more about teaching than about grooming. I think more about how teaching was different in my opinion, than how grooming was different.

Barbara Well, I think everything is different in South Africa or. Yeah, like I don't, I expect um more. Kitchen grooming and backyard grooming and, and um, informal grooming going on then structured. Right. And the and why. And I would like to to and I would like to hear from Brian about grooming in Africa. Uh.

Susy We do have a, we do have an interview with him probably a couple of years ago. If you want to talk, just Google Brian Taylor the groom pod and you'll come up with his interview about teaching in Africa. That was really cool. I think we did two of them. So those are really interesting. Um, they also had an article about, uh, the European perspective on modern grooming, the groomers path, the modern grooming path. And that was by guest.

Barbara Of somebody whose name we can't pronounce. Yes.

Susy But he was talking about how in Europe they're changing the ideal being what used to be like assembly line grooming, and is now changing to more of a holistic focus on groomers being able to present something of value other than just running the dogs through the mill. So I thought that was good. Good.

Barbara I thought that was good. You know, the article that I thought was the best article of the issue was the having difficult conversation articles, because I thought that was. Written really well with specific phrases with more specifics and um, I and that is having difficult conversations is a very uncomfortable part of pet grooming. And it's why some groomers really prefer to just hide in the back room and groom dogs and not deal with with people.

Susy And that article was written by Amanda McGrath and she's written a lot of good stuff. I like the way she writes as well. I think you did too. Yeah. Good tips in there.

Barbara I thought I thought that was, you know, like sometimes I finish reading grimmer and grimmer and I just think like, wow, what did I learn? Or what did I, what did I take home? What did I, is there anything there that's going to help me tomorrow? Um, and that I got one thing I thought, I thought that article really gave groomers. Um, I think that was worth the issue.

Susy And the very bottom of her article, she talks about the choice of the language that you use. And I think that's a very important thing today. The words you choose to put out there, you need to think about them. And you need to realize that people receive them in a different, potentially in a different way than you send them out. So be thoughtful about your choices.

Barbara And that kind of dovetails into the article about body language. You need to also be aware of your body language and what you convey with your facial expressions, your physical being, how you hold your hands or don't. And, you know, um, that combined with the how to deal with, you know, like difficult, you really need to work on having neutral body language. It's not something that comes naturally, although it is natural, you know what I'm saying? But it's, um, especially if you're a if you're like a drama queen like me, you, you're going to show your shit on your body. And, uh, so you have to work at not doing that. You need to work at having relaxed hands. You're not gripping the table or the dog or, you know, and, and.

Susy It's not just the dog. I mean, it's not just the people body language to the people. It's body language to the dog too. Because remember, they communicate completely by body language and a little bit of voice, but they're reading us all the time. The horses, they read us all the time. And if you walk straight forward at a horse, that horse is going to turn and run. But if you come sideways in a less threatening posture, they're going to like, mm, what are you up here for? Same thing with the dogs. We've got to really be thoughtful. Yeah.

Barbara Yeah. Then we went over to sidle up to the dogs. Just like I'm standing beside you now. And there goes my hand. Oh, it's touching you. There it is. Oh my, oh my. Yeah.

Susy Yep yep yep yep, I enjoy that.

Barbara I liked it and I liked it. I always liked it when I, I sidle up to a dog and I finally I touch them and then I feel their weight against my leg. That was.

Susy I would dig on her just biggest honor there is.

Barbara Yeah. Biggest honor there is. Oh yeah. I also I had this situation, which I really recommend other places model. I had two chairs side by side in the front of my shop away from the grooming. And I would go forward and sit in one of those chairs and the owner would sit in the other chair and I could meet the dog sitting down and the dog could sniff my foot and everything before, you know, I. I made a move towards them. And I loved it when those dogs kind of like sit beside my leg and put their body up against my leg. And I said, oh, I got you, honey.

Susy I'm in.

Barbara I'm in, I'm in. We're going to have a good grooming today. You know, like I, I love that. And I and that set up of having those chairs in my waiting room where I could sit down and the owner could sit down and the dog be between us. That just worked over and over and over again for me.

Susy So yeah, that's a good tip about that. So I enjoyed Chris Anthony's article about Shia's world tour because she talked about the different collections that groomers have and and depending on where they live, what they focus on, and all of that, I thought that was fun, nice light read, not much meat in there, but interesting stuff. And then, uh, we had a really nice look at a grooming salon in with a lady who started in Ukraine. And that was fun. Mary Groom is the name of her shop and she had groom. Yeah, yeah, very nice looking facility. And, um, although I thought in her school, she had everybody really close together, that was the only thing I noticed. I was like, whew, those tables are close, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Barbara Space and space. Well, space is space. Um, yeah, I like that one too.

Susy It's fun to look in people's.

Barbara Stuff and, and, you know, like there was just some very smart moves that were made there because they, they, they didn't just start grooming. They started grooming a grooming school, a grooming of grooming tools, business. Yeah. You know, like they just covered all the bases and then, you know, and then leashes, collars and, you know, like, that's because there was just like nothing out there for the, for the dogs at all. And um, yeah, beautiful shop. I just, I just feel so bad about Ukraine. I know, I.

Susy I know it. Yep. Okay. So you know what I really like.

Barbara What.

Susy I like show season Brighton. Let's hear from them right now.

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Susy The last article because I was going to forget to run that ad, so sneak it in there at the end. The last article was a cat owners helping cat owners understand the importance of professional grooming by Lynn Paolello. That was fine. Yeah, not much in there. Just just some interesting, uh, thoughts. Well.

Barbara I, I'm going to give it to Barkley for having regular contributions about cat grooming. Every issue they have something. So you know, like that's come a long ways baby. And yes it has. That's good.

Susy I agree. I agree. Definitely. Good. Okay. Well that brings us to the end of our review of Groomer to Groomer April twenty twenty six issue and on to very exciting things like whatever we're doing today. I've got a golden retriever groom and then my niece is coming out. We're going to hang out for a little bit. It's going to be a good day. It's beautifully sunny. Barbara, what's on your agenda?

Barbara Well, I'm going to turn my attention to the comparison of recirculating bathers that are out there so that I can give you a rundown next week. Yes or soon yes. But so let's.

Susy Not be committal. Let's just say I leave that kind of open soon. Uh, yes. Yeah. And we also in the future, coming up very soon, we're going to talk to the groomers choice guy about the show, season groomers, choice, deely bobber, and, uh, other stuff with groomers choice. So there you go. Okay. Happy grooming everyone. Thanks for being here. Please support our sponsors. Continue to support us if you like it, and we'll see you next time on the groom pod. Bye now.

Barbara Bye bye. Take care of yourselves, because we love you. Why do I say that?