GroomPod 476 Groomer to Groomer March 26 transcript

Susy Hello, groomers. You found the groom pod. Welcome to our virtual salon. My name is Suzie, 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 You know, Susie, so glad to have you on the other line so we can talk. And so I can talk to somebody other than AI or my computer. Or my pets.

Susy Well, we are welcoming you all to episode four hundred seventy six of the group had recorded on March twenty eight, twenty twenty six. This week, we're going to talk about the March issue of groomer to groomer and other stuff. But most importantly, we're just going to hang out and do groomer things together. We like to do that on Sunday mornings and this is no exception. So what's new this week is brought to you by Best Shot. Let me tell you about best shots. Newest addition to the Ultramax Pro line. Ultramax Hair Hold is a flexible hairspray that can be layered on for a stronger hold. Ultramax hair hold spray is great, but my favorite new product is called the Max and I won't groom without it. It's a fragrance free ultra concentrate conditioner and detangler. It reduces drying time and handles undercoat and tangles like magic. Just a few drops in the final rinse or spray it on and dry it in. Contact your favorite best shot distributor or learn more online at Best Shot Pets.com grooming success begins with best shot in your tub made from the best stuff on earth. I am having so much fun showing everybody the van I pull up in the van. It's all shiny, clean and detailed, and it's got this adorable little graphic on the back with the dogs and the windows. And then of course, it has the nineteen twenties flapper on the side, grooming a dog in her high heels and short skirt. I'm always wondering what it is I'm selling in that van with with the groomer, with the high heels and the short skirt on the side. But I still love it. It's fun. Everybody is enthusiastic about it. They're all very excited. It looks so much better. Thousand questions from everyone. They all come inside and take a tour. But there's a downside to that. It's taking me even longer at every stop. I just have to realize that I'm not going to be on time until everyone has at least seen the van one time. Wow. It's cool. It's so cool. And I tell you, the difference between owning a groomer's husband conversion and a professionally converted at a factory conversion is night and day. It's way more built for lasting an entire career. It's not got really anything that is not functional, except I am having a difficult time with the super Sudser. And for all you guys who are in a Wagon Tales van and have a super sudser, I can't get the water to come out the hose. I can hear it working. It's cycling on, but in the morning it smells awful because there's a lot of water trapped in there that I can't get out. So I would love to have some suggestions on how to get that back to working properly and maintained. When my friend who sold me the van comes back from Chicago, I will definitely have them come out and help me get it going. But anything anybody wants to suggest about their wagon tail, super sudser and how to make it work so that it at least you can cycle through some vinegar in there, because right now I can't put anything in there. It's not sucking anything down. So that's a little fun, which makes it a little stinky in the morning. If I don't remember to blow all the water out of where I can reach it. But otherwise, I love the van. I'm excited about having the small dog rack because I did a cat, a ragdoll that gets a bath. Not many of my cats get baths because mostly it's maintenance. For the people who own the cats, as opposed to the cat that needs maintenance. But in this case, it's a ragdoll that does a lot of hiking, and the owner takes him up into the woods on a harness and he hikes and they have a good time together. Yeah. Really cool. Uh, and it's a, it's a not that this is relevant because it really isn't, but it's a dude who's transitioning into a girl. It's a, a young man transitioning into a girl and getting almost all the way there at this point. But she loves, he she loves this cat and they have so much fun. But when they go hiking in the woods, the cat brings back so much stuff and it gets all over her little dorm room apartment thing and it's a hassle. So we cut the hair off. But it's been a long time since I've had a rack that I could turn sideways and put the cat on. So now I can get underneath the belly because I spray through the underside of the rack and the cat is hanging on, so it's thinking about something else. In this case, Dipper is the name of the cat, and he just clung on to the edge and I was able to wash him and dry him so much more easily than I could in my own trailer. So I'm loving that aspect of it. One of the things, though, is it really uses a lot of gas. It is sucking the gas down like crazy. And because the generator gets gas out of the gas tank, as well as the vehicle getting gas out of the gas tank. I have no idea what my mileage is, which gives me anxiety. I can't tell if I'm priced right or wrong. So what I think I'm going to have to do is take a month of driving the van, and a month the same month last year in the trailer with the generator. Add both of the numbers together and compare it to what the van is doing. And that way I can kind of tell if I'm getting the same or if I need to raise my prices. But everybody's giving me big tips because of the van.

Barbara Oh, just raise your prices.

Susy I'm going to cut. I want to make sure I cover.

Barbara Gas has gone up right so much. Yeah, well, yeah, just go for it.

Susy I want to do the math. Right.

Barbara I mean. Okay.

Susy Yeah.

Barbara I'll let you do it because. Because you enjoy that I do. Yeah. Not not me. I would just like everybody. It's going to cost ten dollars more. What? You know.

Susy Yes, I get it. One of the things that has been challenging for me is I was primarily a shore power groomer. I always just plugged in at everybody's house. I knew where the twenty amps were at everyone's house. My canine two ran fine. I balanced the power out. I did the math every time, and now I thought, gee whiz, I'm going to primarily have to be a generator stop now, because now I'm getting spoiled that I can run everything at once and I'm a little lazy, you know? I'm like, oh, I'll just move my table up while I'm drying the dog with my canine two. And it doesn't have any effect, whereas I could not do that with the way the trailer was set up. So the problem I'm having is where to store the cord. Like there's a spot in the back of the trailer where you can put the cord, but it's not big enough to put a cord real like a hose reel, only you put the cord on it. Not enough room to store that. So I'm just going to carry my one hundred foot cord like I always have, but I'm going to Velcro it and I'll just coil it back up like it was a line on the boat, and then reattach it and then just put it in that spot. I've left enough off of either end so I can plug it in to the house if I'm reasonably close to the house, but I'll have to strip some off if I'm not. But I think this is going to work. So I tried it yesterday and it did work. It worked like a dream. So I'm back to primarily shore power. I didn't blow their circuit. I just did it as if I was grooming in the trailer and I shut everything off when I dried the dog except the lights, and it was fine. I'm good. So now I can cut my expenses and stop worrying about having a full tank of gas so it doesn't shut the generator off and use my short power like I have.

Barbara So now would be the time to check your gas mileage, even though you may be using it a little. The generator a little bit, but check your gas mileage now and then when down the line when. Uh.

Susy Yeah, no.

Barbara You may start using the using the generator more than you can do a month of generator and, and check the mileage then and then see what happens. Good point. I'll give you a comparison.

Susy Absolutely. Even if I just did.

Barbara This would.

Susy A week or two weeks is a better sample size.

Barbara Yeah.

Susy Two weeks with no generator is common for me. I have plenty of stops I can plug into. You know, normally.

Barbara Yeah. Try that, try that.

Susy Brilliant. That's c wait. I should give you a bell for.

Barbara That because me and I'm. I'm not even a mathematician. Not think of that.

Susy No, that makes perfect sense. Because if I'm not using the generator, then I'll get a better indication of what's going on with the gas. Another thing that I found this week is that I have a leaky tank. My water tank is leaking.

Barbara Oh, no.

Susy It's just like drip.

Barbara Is this the this is the, uh. The bath. What? Not not the after the bath water. This is the before the bath water. I think it is too bad.

Susy Because I'm running because I'm mostly rural. I have my gray water tank open, so it should not be collecting any water in there. And yet the drip is still happening. So I'm thinking it is somehow in the freshwater system.

Barbara You have your gray water tank open? Yeah. You mean you're just, like, peeing? Yeah. Dirty water. I never had to drive around.

Susy I never had a grey water tank in the trailer at all. I didn't have one, so I'm just doing it like that. No reason to, because it gets stinky. I understand. So since I'm in places where there's no regulation that way, if I have happen to pull up somewhere where there's a regulation, which I think I have two houses that have a water covenant. If I go there, I'll just shut it off, which I've never had the opportunity to do. So that's really cool. But in the big picture, I'm just going to leave it open most of the time and it drains into people's driveways and, you know, same as washing your car, so it's fine. I have never had a complaint. I've never I've had water companies come up, knock on the door, ask what it is. And I tell them and they're like, oh, no problem. As long as there's no covenant in the area I'm working in, I'm good to go. Like, I can't do that in Seattle. That's one of the places where I should not be dripping out. Water is in downtown Seattle. However, if you want to take a shit on the sidewalk, you're allowed to do that. But do not let your your water drip out of your tank. That will get you a ticket. Is that bizarre or what? It makes no sense.

Barbara If you have a grudge with the homeless, people there.

Susy Know I've been a homeless person. I mean, I lived in my car. I've done it. I don't have a grudge with them. You don't have to be a pig. It's perfectly easy to go to a toilet. We have lots of them there available for people. We we promote this lifestyle, so there's lots of availability of things like that. You do not have to stand on a street corner, pull your pants down and poop. And yet that's legal. But your gray water dripping out of your gray water tank, that's not okay. I just think it's ironic. I find it ironic.

Barbara Yeah, it's fucked up.

Susy Yep. They need to fix it. They need to either make it so simple for people to get to the bathroom that they would choose a bathroom. But see, then they go in there and shoot up. That's the the problem. And then nobody can use the bathroom because they've passed out against the door. Anyway, I digress. It's just the has been downtown and I do have, I have two, two houses down there, two houses down there where that they would write me a ticket and let the person poop outside, but the rest of them and mostly I'm, I'm in a rural spot. So yeah, I'm dying.

Barbara Yeah. I'm dying. Yeah, it's it's entertaining.

Susy It keeps me laughing. Well, that short power thing was a huge hurdle for me because I was really fixated on the loss of the ability to be quiet to not run the generator, even though the generator in the van is really well insulated and it's not as noisy as it was when it was in the back of my truck. So I feel better with the neighbors, you know, using it. And like I said.

Barbara Yeah.

Susy The summertime when it's hot out and I get to crank that air conditioner on, I'm going to go, heck yeah, this is awesome. So anything? Yeah. Anything going on with you, Kevin?

Barbara I could fuck you. Yeah, right. Come on, come on. The whole thing.

Susy Yes!

Barbara The heck with the heck.

Susy Yes. Well, you know.

Barbara You know. Did I tell you that I, um, passed out my some of my tiny fucks you did at the, uh, at the show and at, at the show, at the trade show. And, um. They were a big hit. Good. I was, quite discreet. I didn't do a lot of them. I didn't do them in full view of other people. I did it kind of privately under the counter, so to speak, under the table.

Susy I said.

Barbara Here, I have something for you. I give a fuck and I give them. And they would, I would give them my, my tiny little gold. Fuck that. The the guy that works with Dave Campanella at his booth. He went nuts over his book. Yeah, he he just he just thought I was a treasure.

Susy You are a treasure. By golly.

Barbara He. Yeah. And, you know, so yeah, mostly the the men really responded well. So I've kind of found out where they go Over the past. I didn't have any mishaps with passing out the good. Um, I was all, all the people I chose to. Bestow with a fuck a golden fuck. Um. Were cool. Good. The cool kids good. Just with the cool kids, you know, like. Yeah. So, um, so.

Susy You were saying the coat defense people called you after they they hounded you at the trade show? Yeah, yeah.

Barbara Uh, the guy Vincent. Yeah, they're my my phone rang. And so I had, I had, uh, permitted him, I gave him permission to call. And when I did that at the trade show, I put his number in my contacts and he put my number in his. And so I knew that if he called, I would see him because I reject at least ten phone calls a day.

Susy Me too.

Barbara That are mostly creditors. After my ass. And they'll never get another penny. Um, they they we're we're calling about your loan. As if I have a loan. Right. With Chase Bank. Uh, as if, you know, like. Right. So, um, here it comes. Vincent and I, I, and I picked up the phone and he just, like, jumps right into a conversation. He's really a good guy. I like him. And he, um, I told him that I, I measured the FPS on his shampoo and it came to six zero and it puzzled me because I couldn't understand how it could be six zero because there's nothing acidic in the ingredients to push that because it's a soap. It's a liquid soap. It's going to be high and there's no acidic ingredient to like push it acidic. So I don't understand. And, and as a result, I was just living in, uh, you know, like, whoa, this is interesting. So I told him that, but now I am, um, challenging my measurement. Oh, I'm a challenge. I got some new strips and I might be reading them wrong. Okay. Um, and because it's one of those, it's a, it's one of those strip systems where there's like four bands that have to match. Well, there wasn't any matching of any for I did the best I could. So I did, I did find my more professional. R p reader and I've gotta do this now. I've gotta do it again before he starts telling people he's got a six point oh right. Um, I've got like this one.

Susy Oh yeah. Yeah. No, it's. Yeah.

Barbara And I've got to calibrate it and all of that. And I'm going to do that, uh, maybe tomorrow. Always. That's my, that's my motto. Manana. Mahna mahna mahna. Mahna. Mahna is good enough for me.

Susy I've got an idea.

Barbara That was a popular song in the forties when I was a child. I was a child in the forties. That I was a child when that stupid song was popular. That's. And I learned how to sing it.

Susy All right. Well, why don't we?

Barbara So.

Susy Yes.

Barbara So anyway, he assured me that his shampoo is going to help, uh, Little and Marco with his skin situation. And so I'm. I've gave, uh, little a bath.

Susy You had a little fun with the dryer, too. With the blue. The black light thing. On the neck dryer. The light on the neck dryer.

Barbara Oh, the neck dryer. Yeah. The the, um. Your pet. Is that what it is? Yeah. Your pet?

Susy Yep.

Barbara A a r p e t. I bought that neck dryer, and I used. I used it to dry a little and the neck gadget worked a lot. But by the end, when I was doing the feet, the table wasn't high enough. And so I was just like bending over and missing the point. But I started doing using the little light and it's a weird light. It is like a blue light or something. It makes the skin look white. And there was a white powdery substance all the way up her legs, all over her body. Is that yeast?

Susy I don't know how interesting.

Barbara I don't know, but the next day, after the coat defense shampoo, it wasn't there anymore. That had sort of gone away, so I don't know, but it didn't blow off. It wasn't something that blew off, but it just sort of looked like dandruff.

Susy Interesting.

Barbara It looked like it looked like something. And I, and I so it did occur to me that, damn it, I forgot to look at the skin before I took the bath. Because given that it's a liquid soap, it could be a.

Susy Residue.

Barbara Thank you. My brain. See, I get right up to the point and my brain loses the vocabulary that I need to finish my sentence. This is what you go through when you're freaking eighty six years old. You'll have a perfectly clear thought, and you start to express it with your mouth. And before you get to the end of the sentence, you lose the necessary precipitant a precipitancy. Now I got it back. Thank you. My brain.

Susy Yes.

Barbara Thank you. Good girl. You're a good girl. You know? Yeah, yeah. God. So I thought it might be a soap participant. I know I sound like Trump participant. No. Precipitant.

Susy Yes.

Barbara Uh, residue from the soap, connecting the minerals in the soap. Uh, connecting and making soap scum. Maybe that was soap scum. I so now the next time I bathe her, which will probably be tomorrow, I'm going to look at it. The skin with the light before I do the bath so that I'll have a before memory. Um. I might even try to take a picture of it, but that's going to mean holding one thing in one hand and doing the the. How do I make the phone click?

Susy Yeah.

Barbara The picture. Wah wah.

Susy Wah.

Barbara So technology is so fun. Uh, the the light with the. That is worth the extra price. That is absolutely. Because you can really see what's going on in the skin. You just need to know how to interpret it.

Susy Yes. Oh my goodness.

Barbara Which I will learn. Which I will learn. Yeah. You know, uh, we'll get there. Alright, so, um, it's just so valuable. I, I have never seen skin so clearly, you know, because it's a very spot. Perfect blast of air and it just like clears the hair away from a certain area and then it lights that certain area of skin and you say, whoa, there's my dog skin looking like that, you know?

Susy Cool.

Barbara Yeah.

Susy Well, stay tuned because we'll have more on this.

Barbara Stay tuned. Alright. Because and I, and I just want to say I really like the people of the coat defense product. And to me in this industry, that's tons. That's just huge. You know, I've got to like the people that I if I'm going to present for them. Yes, you know, I'm going to speak on their behalf of their product. I've got to really like the people. And if I like a product and I don't really like the people, I'm not going to give them much of a to do.

Susy Right?

Barbara So there. So there you all better be nice to me. Really, really nice. Well, you better, like, give me lots of goodies.

Susy Yes. All right.

Barbara I like gifts.

Susy Well, let's take a break here from our sponsors. And then we're going to come back with our discussion of the groomer to groomer March issue twenty twenty six.

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Susy Ready, groomers. Here comes our first appointment. What did you think of the cover on groomer to groomer this month? Or actually last month? Because it'll be April when this comes out. Probably.

Barbara Well, not probably for sure.

Susy Yes.

Barbara Um, I didn't really like it.

Susy Yeah, it was the least appealing of all the covers so far.

Barbara And I, I think it was partly because of the, uh, the clothing in the surrounding the surroundings in the photograph did not help show the dog's creative grooming and the colors and it just made the dog look kind of a mess. And, uh, and plus I plus along the top line of the dog. You see the fishnet tights? Oh the groomer. But that's not super cool thing to wear unless you're doing a kind of a, um. Um, I don't know, uh, a risqué, more risque kind of a image. Yeah. Uh, remember that dog? Remember that dog in creative at Atlanta one year that was done like a hooker in, uh, in the. Yeah, in the with the boobs and, and the fishnet and everything and, and, uh, like a burlesque dancer. Yeah. It was like a, um, Mardi Gras. Like a, like a Mardi Gras costume. It was just really, I mean, and she had done, she had sculpted the chest to look like with cleavage. It was really well done. I wanted so much for her to win and she didn't. Probably some buddy took offense or something. We can't give that one the cover. Um, no. It's the it's the people's choice that gets the cover anyway. Right?

Susy I think so, but I don't think this is a people's choice. I think that let me see if it says. Now I have to look.

Barbara I think it I think that it is. I think it always is. I think that's the the award for the people's choice is you get the cover.

Susy Yeah. Uh oh it is, it was. Okay. It is. Miranda. Seem. People's choice creative groom Expo twenty twenty five. So I.

Barbara Ate it. I expected something a little bit more, uh, exciting from Groom Expo. Uh, I thought that it was. And then I looked at it carefully and I said, you know what? It it's the problem is with the photograph.

Susy I think so.

Barbara More than anything else.

Susy It's certainly.

Barbara Not the.

Susy Whole thing.

Barbara Yeah. I don't think it was the grooming. I think we just didn't get to see it. Like the crowd who applauded her to win the People's choice. Saw it, you know.

Susy Yes.

Barbara I can't wait. I can't wait to see the photographs from Atlanta.

Susy Yeah, they did a lot of different stuff. They did the team event, which I thought that was really cool. That's something that I could get into it. Groom with somebody else like Brandi and I or something like we used to do in the old days.

Barbara Oh, yeah, it was like that. And everybody had the same kind of a backdrop. Yeah, that gave uniformity to the whole class.

Susy Cool.

Barbara Rather than some people not having one. And, you know. I think it was a part of everybody's, um, entry was a backdrop on a, on a certain kind of frame that was the same dimensions for everybody. So that just really gave uniformity to the whole class. And I, unfortunately, they were set up so far away from where the chairs for the audience, where they were clear on the other side of this huge ring that I couldn't see them that well, but I immediately fell in love with this gorgeous white swan on bright, handy blue And I think that was Laurie Craig and I think she took the prize.

Susy It was actually Laurie, Craig and Angela in the team event. And they did get the prize. Oh man. I mean, but how do you beat them?

Barbara How do you beat them? And and it was it was not a cartoon. Yeah. It was not a cartoon character. So I think we're we are. Hopefully kind of transitioning to the next phase of creativity beyond just, uh, cartoon characters.

Susy Speaking of.

Barbara Time.

Susy Yes. Speaking of cartoon characters humor, A Groomer's Lifeline by Cathy Hassler was a great article talked about how to have a little lighter moments in your shop. I thought that was so nice and well needed. And she writes well, and it was a good article and a good way to start off the issue, I thought. Did you enjoy that one as well?

Barbara Yeah, I like that because of course I'm a humor person myself, humorous, and I often bring the humor. And I remember very fondly when Dave and I would work together, he often had comedy. Audio that he would play and we would crack up. I would make him crank it up so I could hear in the other room and we would laugh and we. We had a lot of laughs and. And with Yvonne, we had last two and with my customers, I would make them laugh. And you know, like that really. Made it lovely. It made it made the day. So it just made it good. You know, I love to laugh with people, and I totally believe that it's stress relieving and helps you kind of clear your head.

Susy I listen to some comedy podcasts through my headphones, and occasionally it'll be funny enough that I will laugh out loud. And it's always startling to the dog I'm working on. I mean, usually I just have a conversation with the dog or I'm listening to a podcast, but I'll break out in a bar and the dog goes, what's happening?

Barbara What did I do?

Susy The second article was it had an interesting title. It said The Power of Patience, and it had just about the coolest picture of a dog with a cookie on its nose. And it was just the dog's nose and the cookie on its nose. And I thought, what a lovely entry to an article that has nothing to do with patients.

Barbara And you know what? I don't remember that article.

Susy Right.

Barbara Because it has about it.

Susy It has to. It was by Angela Bucci. Hentschel and I have Hentschel relatives, although my Hentschel have two L's, but just thought I'd throw that in. It's actually about desensitization on the table and.

Barbara Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Susy But the title of it, The Power of Patience, really confused me a little bit. And the picture also was not really what the article was about.

Barbara The dog having patience.

Susy Yes. It was about.

Barbara Not so much as having patience to desensitize. So it's like patience plus time.

Susy Yes. And she talked a little bit about how you can add training into, especially like a puppy's regime. But you can even teach older dogs training on the tabletop where they get come in. They don't necessarily have a groom, but you turn on all the equipment, you get them used to the noises and the smells and, uh, tabletop desensitization. Very handy. The difficult thing is how to reward that. Did you?

Barbara I did that. Yeah, I did that. And, and I, I called it, um, orientation, puppy puppy, puppy orientation. And I also sold it. I mean, I named it as a package and I would do like twenty minutes for fifteen dollars. And, and I always did it with puppy while I, I didn't think of it until the last couple of years, but I did think of it then and it paid off to have the puppy come in and get acquainted with you. And the whole thing of mom or parents leaving the puppy. And then the table, the tools, the sounds, my voice. A little calming, a little brushing, uh, you know, the sound of the dryer, what it was like back there. Put it in a crate, take it out of a crate. You know, like just a whole little walk through of, um, and this is where grooming happens and it kind of sounds like this and it's, oh, can you dig this and check it out? This is the tub and you're not going to get a bath today, but I might even if there was a, a particularly, um, needy pet to a bath and no other grooming or even do a brush out and no other grooming. I would I could break apart my services and charge for that. The time that that took. I think being able to be flexible like that is very helpful to the pets that we serve, because not everyone comes equipped to deal with the groomers being at the groomers.

Susy Yes. And being in the noise and the smells. And I think the tricky part about tabletop training is there are often so much stimulus, there is often so much stimulus going on around the dog that the reward portion of tabletop training where you encouraging them and giving them love and maybe a treat or maybe a toy that can be difficult because they don't really pick up on that because you're not their human. They don't want a cookie. There's too much going on. So that's where it gets a little tricky.

Barbara Yeah, I've had dogs say, I don't want your fucking treat. Yes, but I but I but I would encourage people to bring the dog's favorite treat. Bring the dog. Something that is irresistible. You know, like freshly boiled and chopped chicken or string cheese. Yes. Or string cheese or peanut butter. You know, one one of the vendors at the show was giving away those peanut butter pads. The pads you put on the the lick mats. Yeah, I got one, I got one. I've got three of them.

Susy Sitting right over there. I have two cats and a dog one.

Barbara And I and I did want to report that the, uh, the hammock that I used on little, it almost was too large, but, um, they've done a, a good thing since I last bought a hammock from Hanvey. They now have a strap that goes around the midsection and. Velcros. How long has it been?

Susy My goodness. Mine have always had that. Well, good for you.

Barbara Well.

Susy Good for you.

Barbara So. And and I was able I was able to, uh, do her toenails without. I mean, it would be such a fuss to do her toenails on the table, but I just lifted her a little, just an inch off the table, and I was able to get the nails done. Excellent. And it's it was so successful. It was like, oh, this is this is Great.

Susy Cool. I love it when things work out that way. Yeah. So anyway, I thought this was a good article. I just thought it was weirdly titled. That was all.

Barbara Yeah, I thought, I thought it was a worthwhile article. What was next?

Susy Next is doctor Cliff. And he wrote about.

Barbara Oh, doctor Cliff. Yeah. He wrote about.

Susy Combating compassion fatigue.

Barbara This is a concept that comes from veterinary medicine, because I've seen it written about in, um, journals for veterinarians. So veterinarians have a high suicide rate, which is interesting because now the field is majority female. So this means a lot of women are killing themselves while veterinarians. It's because they have this extreme type of burnout that is greater than ours, because it has death of the pets and responsibility for death of the pets and stuff like that attached. And oh my God. Um, I thought it was an interesting article and I, I don't know if I opposed anything that he said.

Susy No, it was good.

Barbara I thought it was.

Susy It, it focused on something that, that we deal with, you know, a little bit. But you're right. We had we don't have access to the drugs that will take you out, uh, peacefully and quietly as you fall asleep on the table, which is what happened with one of the texts that I worked with. We came in and in the morning and she was gone. She had gotten in there somehow and done herself in. So it does happen. It's hard because you are responsible for the life and death of that pet in that case. But for me, you might remember I talked about finding a lump on a dog a month ago or so, and then they said, oh, it's just one of those elbow kind of things that happens when the dog's well, it wasn't, it was a very serious and extremely aggressive cancer. And I have been beating myself up over not finding it in the previous month's grooming or even, you know, two months grooming. It's an aggressive cancer, but now the dog is on. Uh, they've taken it off. The dog healed pretty well, but they're doing a year of chemotherapy to try and kind of combat this very aggressive form of cancer that I found on the dog. But we do have some of that that happens. Yeah, I apparently I'm not supposed to groom the dog when it's on chemotherapy or there's some stuff about that. So I'm going to do a little research and we're going to talk about that on an upcoming podcast because the oncologist mentioned it to them and they in turn mentioned it to me. And I don't know enough about it yet to learn to know whether I want to groom the dog or not, or what precautions I have to take, or because in the old days, we didn't do anything special, but they didn't use these aggressive chemotherapies on the dogs. So we'll see what happens. But I felt that compassion fatigue there. Why didn't I catch it? I'm responsible for this dog not getting treated soon enough, but I'm not really. But in my mind, my mind goes there because I'm the queen of finding lumps and helping to, to figure out what they are, you know, sending them to the vet and having them poked and all that stuff. So that was a shocker. Anyway, good article, doctor Cliff. And the next one was an awesome grooming salon that I just totally went bonkers over. And it's called Barking Creek Dog Kitchen and Bath, and it's a fantastic, beautiful high end salon and dog kitchen where they make their own. I loved it. Oh so cool.

Barbara I loved it also. I, you know, it was one of my favorites too. And I, you know, I, I really, I always look at those salon features, but I, it's like sometimes it's kind of. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Very good. Yeah. I could never do that. Well, this was just like it was the whole story was uplifting. And, um, I enjoyed it a lot. I enjoyed the salon a lot and the whole idea, their whole idea and their making their dog cookies and all that kind of stuff. I thought, I thought it was really inspiring.

Susy Their focus was on respect between the groomers, the pets and their people, and the idea of making dog diets is to give the groomers healthy skin on the pets they get to work on, you know, and start from the inside out. I just loved it. I thought it was beautiful. I would love to take my dog there to have it groomed. I would be honored to work in a place like that. Very cool. They did a great job. Then we have Behind the Mask. Oh, I forgot to say that was written by Keith Lauria behind the mask, providing support and protective care for groomers by Stephanie Calhoun. And Stephanie is a neurodivergent groomer who is kind of focused on that type of thing. And she talks a little bit about supporting each other at work and noticing how the people around you are doing and, and offering support that way. And what did you think of that one?

Barbara Well, I liked that article and I liked her pointing out how we tend to put on a mask of everything's all right at work, because we think that's what we want to project. And, uh, so then we don't take care of what's behind the mask, which is ourselves. And, um. Uh, so I thought that that kind of went in, went along with Doctor Cliff's article. It was kind of a companion piece in a way, from a really different point of view, but still the same area topic area.

Susy I think the theme of this issue was self-care because also on the next one, which is our friend Chris Anthony. She said, you don't have to do anything. You get to. And I love that change in looking at things, that's one of the ways I go through life, is thinking that I'm so lucky because I get to make these choices, because I'm here to see AI take over, because I'm allowed to be a dog groomer and spend time in people's in their families, you know, and be part of it. Very cool. More self-care, uh, remembering. We don't have to groom, but we get to groom and then yeah.

Speaker 6 You know.

Barbara What I have, I have a naughty girl. Oh, reaction to the.

Susy Yes.

Barbara I just, I just resent well, I'm just going to say I say fuck you. I, I just resist, uh, the pollyannaish The nature of looking at the good side, you know, like, no, I'm mad. I want to be mad. I need to be mad. And so on. So I, you know, like, I, I know, but it's, it, it, but I do believe firmly in trying to live your life not being a victim. And that's what that points to. Um, and it depends largely on you and your brain. And sometimes you have to take hold of your brain and retrain it. And just every time you feel victimized, you say, because I get to oh.

Susy Ways look on the bright side of life.

Barbara Oh fuck you.

Susy I mean, you, you are the co-host with the perennially happy person over here. It's hard not to not to have to do that. I mean, I, I am I have been described as stoic and also as pragmatic. I take things as they come. I recognize that I can't change it. Part of that's being in recovery and knowing the stupid serenity thing, you know, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. It's that wisdom to know the difference part that gets very tricky in that kind of a situation. But I choose to look on the bright side because that's me.

Barbara I, I often do, you do. I don't want to just come on like a negative Nelly here because I'm not I don't live in a negative space. I'm mostly Optimistic and happy. She does visit.

Susy The negative space occasionally.

Barbara But I, I, I, I choose to go to the dark side once in a while. Well, I pass.

Susy Through there because, you know, I spent what, four days talking myself out of changing into the van until I was able to, to work through that. So I mean, I'm not completely absent of it as well, right? But I, I try to choose the positive. The next thing is one of those that I am a big fan of and that's organized, not overwhelmed by Amanda McGrath. And I feel that organization is such a big stress protector. I don't know, it keeps you from getting stressed, the organization helps keep you from getting stressed. And that's kind of what she wrote on.

Barbara And I should have I should have read that, you know, like twenty five years ago. Um, I liked that article too. And one thing I really liked about it is that she got down to some detail. You know, it wasn't just the generalization, but she actually got down to some, uh, you know, some concrete ideas for and how it relates to how organization relates to stress.

Susy And.

Barbara Burnout. And, um, I, I know because I got, I got to the point in my shop where I would just like almost collapse if I couldn't find something because somebody had disorganized it, I just like, couldn't stand. I just, I, you know, like I patiently looked around for stuff for decades. And then I reached this point about, I just don't want to have to look around. Where's my so and so? You know, like, uh, put it over here. Well, that's not where it belongs. Yes, I place for everything and put them. Put them back. Especially if you use my shit. So I like that she.

Susy Identified the physical, emotional and cognitive signs of burnout. I thought that was good.

Barbara Yeah, that was that was so concrete, you know, like that it was. We need that. Yup. Because it's really hard to identify your own burnout. And you say people sort of say, I think I'm burned out. There should be no think about it. You should, you should, you should know. And then this kind of gives you a checklist to go back and say, well, is this happening? Well, is that happening? And yell, yeah, well no wonder. Yeah. You know.

Susy Absolutely.

Barbara I, you know, I can't count on my employees to come on time.

Susy That's or, or put their stuff.

Barbara Back or put their stuff back or clean up after themselves or whatever it is, you know? Um, I know you know what I'm, I, what happens in other organizations, that doesn't hardly ever happen in grooming organizations. What are grooming salons? Staff meetings.

Susy Right.

Barbara Where you sit down, it's required. That's because you do the. They do this, excuse me, stupid percentage type payment of groomers so that they think they only get paid by the dog, whereas in a in a normal where in other in other settings, you would have a staff meeting at least once a month where people would verbalize what's working in their department and what's not, and work through conflict and work to solutions and that kind of thing, instead of just plugging along and plugging along and then you quit your job.

Susy I agree, I also think that performance reviews are lacking in our industry, and that's another place where you get the opportunity to talk to your employer about what's working and what's not working is when you get a performance review. And we just I've never worked in a vet hospital. Yeah, I don't think I've ever worked in a vet hospital or a grooming place that had performance reviews. Anyway, I digress.

Barbara And so then so then. So then she builds up. Yep. It sure builds up, you know? And, uh, you need to have a valve. You need to have a valve somewhere where things get addressed in a safe and wholesome way instead of backstabbing or having a violent argument or, you know, like I there was one grooming salon owner in Tucson. Her employee pulled a gun on her.

Susy Yikes.

Barbara Of course, Tucson is a, you know, gun swinging state, but still, you know, like, whoa. And yes, she was a bitch. But you don't just pull Pulling gun on your employer. You know, because you don't like how she's treating you. Let's have there's got to be dialogue. You know, I mean, more than just. And I'm not. I don't mean just like buying them a pizza once a month, right? No, you got to have the conversation. You got to do the work stuff. Yeah. And you've got, you know, and a lot of salon owners don't know how to have that sort of a manage. They don't have that management skills of how to facilitate a staff meeting. It's true. Well, you can go to seminars that are, um, available to the public and costs like maybe seventy five dollars or something. And you go for a day to talk about how to conduct a staff meeting.

Susy I bet.

Barbara It's on.

Susy YouTube.

Barbara Yeah, well, I.

Susy Bet.

Barbara You, I mean, I, I, I, I attended a number of these seminars that were for business people that helped me, um, in my role as a owner.

Susy Good advice, I like it. So the next one, we have an interesting article that was called minimizing Moral injury in the Grooming Industry. Oh, by missing and I cannot say Misty's last name, but it starts with a G and it's a military term. And it means profound distress resulting from actions that violate one's deeply held moral or ethical beliefs. And we are faced with this every day. Yeah.

Barbara Well, we shouldn't be.

Susy Okay, maybe not every.

Barbara Day.

Susy But far too often. Yep. Far too often.

Barbara Far too often. Yeah. Sometimes it's because the owner puts us in a squeeze box, and sometimes it's because staff puts us in a squeeze box, or we put them in a squeeze box and, you know, like here again, this whole business of paying people by the dog, instead of valuing their time and giving them enough time to do a good job and charging enough of a price to pay them a good amount for their time.

Susy This is also known as groomer guilt. And it it's it's awful because we are in a situation where we can see and see a lump. but maybe the owner can't afford to take care of the lump. Or perhaps, uh. They are unwilling to take care of the lump, and then we feel guilty over it. Or if there's. A mad.

Barbara Dog.

Susy And then. Yeah, so.

Barbara This goes, this fits in with that that compassion burnout thing.

Susy Yes.

Barbara Yeah. It's, it leads to that, you know, we have those incidents all the time. I thought that was an excellent article.

Susy Yeah. Really cool, really good stuff. And she mentioned that to use the forms to create conversation with the owners about this stuff, like the matted dog form or the senior dog form or the behavior form. And basically this is all a way to manage their expectations with what you can do. Because we aren't, we aren't magicians. We don't have a magic wand, we can't wave it and make all the health problems go away. All we can do is get the dogs clean and deal with what's in front of us. So. Um, I thought that was great. I mean, really good, actually. I recommend everybody reads that. It's good stuff. Yep. And then comes the article that I had the most difficulty with and that is better. Cat grooming starts in the tub by Lynn who also's last name. I can't say palillo or something and I know it's wrong. Sorry Lynn P. Anyway, there were just a bunch of things that are different than the way I do it, and I don't know wrong or right. What I do know is I'm not a fan of applying product to a dry coat and then letting it sit there. That's not one of my favorite ways to use shampoo.

Barbara And there's no, there's no, there's no science that, that says that, that sitting shampoo is going to like drip down to the skin. No. And if you foam it a little bit. The foam creates a trellis that holds the shampoo at the surface. So you've. You've got to use your. I mean, the whole thing, I, I had trouble with that cat article too, because it was always take a few minutes to get the coat more wet. Well, why don't you just use a bathing beauty recirculating system? That coat is wet and shampooed in like two to three minutes.

Susy She also recommended using a rubber curry on a cat. And I don't agree with that either. I think that's rough on the hair, number one. And it's rough on the cat.

Barbara Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Susy It just seems.

Barbara Anything that you do, anything, any rubbing on the hair creates friction which creates rubbing hair shaft to hair shaft, which creates damage to the outer surface of the cuticle, which accumulates over time. You don't. I totally object to using these rubber crew. These are all tools that you use. If you don't have good water pressure, I. Recirculating bathing system.

Susy I just I did, I did agree with her comment to rinse well, but if you're using a recirculating bathing system, you're not coating the hair with undiluted shampoo. So you don't need to spend as much time rinsing, which I don't think. I think when cat grooming you're operating on cat time, you only have a certain amount of time where the cat is tolerant and then things can go awry very quickly. So I'm not a fan of taking a long time to do the process. I am a fan of thorough grooming, but I don't think that unless there's a health issue, that the bath is the most important part of the grooming. Depends on what the cat's in for, but I think grooming often takes place for the convenience of the owner, especially if you're taking like a rag doll and cutting doing a comb cut on it. That's for the convenience of the owner. It's certainly not for the cat, so why torture the cat longer than you have to? I say torture lovingly, but the cat probably does think you're torturing it. I mean, you know.

Barbara Um, well, I agree, and I happen to know of three incidents with three separate groomers in my old community that experienced death of a cat in the tub from stress. You don't know what that cat stress tolerance is. You don't know how much time you have on the cat clock. And if you go beyond the dogs clock, you're definitely into the stress zone. And, uh, you know, I, um, I was actually because of those examples that were like brought to my attention early in my cat grooming career. I tended to skip bathing a lot of the times unless it was clearly necessary for the health of the animal. And I would use a, I used to use aqueous spray as a kind of type of dry cleaner. And I would, um, brush that through the coat and the coat would, it would be a freshening, you know, the coat would be fresh? It would. You know, like if you needed to do the paws. I used to use, uh, there was a a foaming cleaner from Chris Christiansen that I used to use on paws. If the paws and the lower leg were dirty, I would just use that with toweling a non rinse. You know, like though there are those no rinse cleaners are there for a reason. That's because sometimes they're really handy to have on hand.

Susy And when you're stacking triggers on a cat it's actually can be it's dangerous to the cat and it's dangerous to you. And if you start with the bath, then you bring out the HP dryer and blow dry the cat. That's two really severe trigger stacks on top of each other. So I use a handheld dryer. I would use that neck dryer or I would use a single speed on the HP dryer, but I don't ever feel the need to put an HP dryer on a cat full speed. I just have never needed it.

Barbara No, no. I used to use fans in cages. Oh yeah.

Susy For sure.

Barbara But but I would, I would never start out with a bath. Why? Why do the hardest, most stressful, most likely to blow up in your face part of the groom. Before you get to the. Take the matted belly hair off? No. Do do any clipper work. I used to always use a clipper vac, my handy clipper vac, and I would use an eight and a half blade. And I rarely had mistakes.

Susy Yeah, I, I just, I, I just didn't love the article. You know, I, I and I'm the kind of person who says everybody's allowed to do it differently, but I don't think that I would choose to do the stuff the way she's suggesting it.

Barbara That's all. Well, not only that, but we also agreed to talk about it openly. Yes, because we think you should hear what we have to say.

Susy Absolutely.

Barbara You know.

Susy Yeah. Alright. We got, I think, two more to go. Yeah. Two more to go. Identifying stressors in the workplace. No, wait. No stress management by Louise Dunn. Defining stress as a body's reaction to change. And it identified things in the workplace that are stressful and also gave solutions to dealing with some of them. So good article, solid stuff. Nothing groundbreaking, but I thought it was good information. And then the last article was our grooming article about doing a round head, creating a regally round headpiece by Blake. I love the title, creating a regally round headpiece, I love it. And I thought it was okay. I thought it was pretty good advice, but I like I like to make.

Barbara I thought, I thought. I thought it was okay, but I didn't love the total, the outcome of the look a whole lot. Yeah, I, you know, like, yeah, I probably wouldn't want to do that to that dog, but um, yeah.

Susy That that was fine. It's hard.

Barbara Okay. It was okay. It was okay. And it's always good to have an alternative. Another thing to look at it. Maybe I should do that. You need to find out. You need to figure out for yourself what dogs do best with around head. Some dogs do better with.

Susy An.

Barbara Egg shaped head or angles.

Susy Yep.

Barbara Or. Yeah. Or um. Plain. You know, like when you when you do, it's in some of the Asian trimming the like peanut head where you go in where it's, it's kind of wide here goes in here and then it has the donut mustache. Yeah. That's kind of 3D grooming and that shortens the distance between the chin and the top of the head, the rounded head, especially if you leave very much underneath the chin, it can start, it can elongate the head and make it a little bit distorted looking. I just have, uh, I would like, I would have enjoyed a conversation of where that had most applies.

Susy And I, and I.

Barbara I hate it when they. And I hate it when they do that. Head on doodles. I gotta say that I hate that round head on doodles. To me that's. I mean, I know they're not supposed to be considered a breed, but I think that's undue too. Like, there, I said it.

Susy You did. I myself have difficulty sculpting, so I like to make a square and then cut off the edges and round it up. That's my best way. I mean, I love his technique, but that doesn't it's not helpful for me because I am not a sculptor. So that's where I come from. That's okay. I'm fine. I don't need to be a sculptor.

Barbara No, but, you know, like, the thing about Blake's things is that there's enough photographs that if you if you were to put the photographs in front of you and do it step by step, like he's doing it in the magazine, you might be able to learn to sculpt a little bit.

Susy Okay. I'm more than willing to try.

Barbara Okay.

Susy Yes, I'm more than willing.

Barbara And I'll shut up.

Susy All right. Actually, why don't we both shut up at this point, and let's go on about our busy day. Thank you for being here. Remember to support our sponsors. Thank you to everyone who supports us on Patreon. That really is the best way to support the show in a big picture. But if you don't do any of that, let your friends know to listen to the show. Happy grooming everyone. See you next time on the Groom pod. Bye bye now.

Barbara Okay, bye. And please take care of yourselves, because we love you.