Career Change

This is full of good info, and I am putting it here almost in its entirety. Read on!


Andis - very little maintenance..... change the drive assembly here and there.... and that's about it. Anything else is basically for your clipper man to do (or so I think, anyways... it's what I pay him for *wink*).

Osters - take more maintenance than the Andis.... Once every 2 months, I take mine apart, remove old grease, replace new, clean gears, blow hair out. One clipper takes approximately 5 minutes - not a lot of time really!!

So - - my clipper man loves my clippers. I have 5 hanging at the ready at all times (I have 7 Oster clippers and when I do my maintenance, I rotate one to inactive service and bring one back into service. This lengthens their working life. I have 7 Oster clippers and in NINE years have only had to have ONE part replaced on ONE clipper!!! Pretty good for 35 minutes maintenance one every 2 months, right?? (5 minutes or less for each of my 7 clippers) I have 3 Andis clippers - for less than a year - - and they have all had AT LEAST 2 repairs/replacements done on them EACH!

The Oster clipper itself gets hot as you use it - and if you use it and overheat it, you can blow a motor. The thing is the clipper in your hand gets warm - so you can feel it. This is like a warning signal... stop and use another clipper for a while, lady!!! With the Andis, it runs soo fast that the blade gets hot, not the clipper itself. You have to train yourself to feel the blade throughout using it to make sure you're not going to hurt the pet you're working on - as it gets VERY HOT!, if you're not monitoring it. There is no warning system - it's up to you to monitor the heat of the blade. They should make blades that change colour with the level of heat produced???

The Andis are the better clipper for those awful, matted messes that come in once a year. They run faster and can cut through the mess easier than the Osters can. Except the Oster Turbo - it can do an equal do to the Andis, IMO.

The Oster is louder than the Andis. The Oster has a fan blow hole - that will blow air out of, the Andis doesn't.

Some groomers say the Oster is heavier than the Andis. I do not agree at all! One is bottom heavy, and one is top heavy... is all I find (where the motor is located).

However, the Oster Turbo clipper - I feel - is very equal to the Andis. I reach for it much more often than I do the Andis for those filthy messes.

Oster A-5's don't like to do a "wet clip" (ask Valerie), but the Oster Turbo's and Andis can easily handle this situation.

Over all I am obviously an Oster fan. It might just come down to the maintenance. "I" have control over it - I can see what is happening, I can do something about it.... With the Andis, you have to wait until it happens and just change the piece - you have no insight as to when it will happen (usually while doing a pet)..... less hands on knowledge..... more of a waiting game.

A nice thing is the Oster and Andis clippers can use the same clipper blades. There are other clipper brands, but you can't use the Oster or Andis blades with them.



Valerie recommended I get Laube. I guess Kim doesn't have any of those to comment about.
And here's another email that Kim forwarded from a mailing list, about a supply catalog:

I don't know if you guys are familiar with Revival. I have been shopping with them since 2001. I have always been impressed with their customer service, fast shipping, and easy ordering. Last December I was going through the catalog and I couldn't believe how many grooming supplies Revival had added! They are as much a groomers' supplier as a breeders' supplier now! I would definitely recommend them. And they don't charge a fee for a small order (under $50)!



Just info in this post, sorry! More later!

Whew. I am absolutely exHAUSTed, daahlings. All this shopping has taken SUCH a toll. However, I'm pleased to report that Kim has some clippers she wants me to ask Valerie about, and I've bought my first bit of *supplies*, per Valerie's instructions. I have ordered from King Wholesale ANOTHER hundred bucks worth of goodies. An 8-bladed MatKing (start small and get a bigger one if I need it?), a pair of 5.5 inch hemostats, a medium comb with grip handle, a Poodle comb, a Tidbit trimmer, and a nylon jacket that Valerie and Kim both say will protect me from getting clipped hairs embedded in my tender flesh. Now, I'm going to go back and insert all the links, which will take me about an hour. I'm getting GOOD at this blogging stuff! hahahahaha!!!!

OK, it's not all THAT exciting. But today I did make my first official Dog Grooming Purchases. I ordered the two books Valerie recommended for me. First, I went to White Dog Enterprises and bought Notes From the Grooming Table. They're running a sale during April, and it's $14 off of regular price. It looks great - check it out here. So including shipping, I spent $64.45 American Dollars on my first official Educational Item! Yay!!!!!

Heady with my first success, I went immediately to the American Kennel Club site for more shopping. *smile* I bought The Complete Dog Book, 19th Revised Edition, for the bargain price of $25.95 USD. As I am constitutionally unable to complete any shopping experience without spending at least $30, I also bought a couple of posters. As I can't get a decent URL to show up for a link, I'll have to make you suffer through the AKC's description of the 2-poster deal. "Two great posters, one low price! The AKC Guide to Purebred Dogs Poster is a full-color 25" x 38" wall poster that features more than 145 breeds currently registered by the AKC and is a useful reference tool for schools, libraries, veterinarians, shelters and anyone interested in purebred dogs. The AKC Breed Puppy Poster is a charming 21.5" x 32" poster depicting all of our AKC-recognized breeds, shown through the magical images of puppies. This special offer gives dog lovers two of our most popular items for the low price of $5.95 delivered." See? How could I resist? So I bought these as well, bringing my total AKC tab to a whopping $31.90.

Celebrate this milestone with me! I spent my first hundred bucks on the path of thousands!

I've got to say this for Valerie - she has got some COOL STUFF. After seeing how well her tools work, no way I'm going to want to settle for cheapies. I wanna be JUST LIKE VALERIE!

More later.

After an evening spent drinking happily in the company of friends, morning came very early indeed on Sunday April 25th. I’d sent Valerie an email upon arriving home just before 1am, warning her that my arrival might be a little later than I’d planned. I was up until after 2am, but woke readily at 7 and was on the road by 7:30. I made excellent time, arriving at Valerie’s shop before 11. She had only Zen Chi, her own Maltese, there, for his weekly grooming. After a bit of a chat, Valerie bathed Zen Chi and demonstrated the tools of the trade for me.

The bathtub was mounted a couple feet off the ground, and was equipped with hooks for attaching a noose, as well as a bathing system that drew soapy water in and then sprayed it in a shower onto the dog. It saves the skin from excess rubbing, does a more thorough job than slopping shampoo onto a wet dog and then rubbing through, saves in the amount of shampoo used, and lessens the risk of getting a bite as the groomer is not leaning all over the dog and the hands aren’t threatening the dog. There’s also a high-velocity blower next to the tub, to blow off most of the water from the dog’s coat and legs. Not to be used on the face or ears, though – that air is MOVING. Valerie uses a variety of products for bathing. Not sure yet what shampoo we used, but we used diluted baby shampoo on the face, Dawn dishwashing detergent on and in the ears, and followed up with VO5 Strawberries and Creme cream rinse. Valerie always uses cream rinse, because it replenishes the oils the washing takes out of the skin. It enables her clients to use oil-based dispersing products like Frontline even right after getting a bath, which usually is not recommended, as there’s no skin oils left after the bath to disperse the product.

Valerie does not use blowdryers for the dogs. When she was finished bathing Zen Chi, she towel-dried him and put him into a crate with a regular box fan blowing on him. It keeps the hair fluffy and does not expose the skin to more drying-out.

While Zen Chi was drying, Valerie told me a bit about clipper blades. The higher the number, the less hair it leaves. It seems we will be using a #10 blade and a #7 blade most, I think. Of course, I didn’t touch the clippers at all, and only touched the scissors long enough to learn the correct way to hold them. Who knew there was a correct way, and that I hadn't known what it was? I learned about the kinds of scissors available, as well as rakes, clipper comb attachments, and slicker brushes. I’m not going to buy any equipment yet, I don’t think, but will start pricing out the list of things Valerie says I’ll need when I am ready to start working.

The only paying 'customers' Valerie had while I was there were two Cocker spaniels, Raven and Sasha. Raven gave Valerie a terrible time last time they were there (which was also the first time they were there) so she was prepared for him to be a total shit, which he was not. He reacted very well to me, and that fact as well as that Zen Chi seemed to tolerate me, if not actually like me, was what convinced Valerie that I may be worth training.

As Raven had been a double-handful last time, Valerie did all the bathing and handling of him, demoing technique again so that I could prepare to do Sasha. Which I did, and she gave me zero problems aside from amoeba-dogging as I tried to get her clean. I needed to be particularly careful to get all the eye-goobies, which were plentiful, as well as making sure to wash the pads out well. The feet must be clean as any dirt in them can harm the clipper blades when Valerie is trimming between the pads.

They got put in crates to dry under a stronger fan. When mostly dry, Valerie took Sasha first, and started with a very high-velocity dryer. Put the nozzle very close to the skin on body and legs, but hold far back from the ears, and only blow the outside of the ears. Hold the ear flaps so that they are not blown aside by the strong blast, because it could damage the ear canal. Don’t blow at all on the face. She then started trimming feet, getting out all the matted hair between the pads, and using scissors when necessary. The LIPS system she has attached to the grooming table is extremely helpful in restraining dogs as it’s infinitely adjustable. A series of lamp-cord chains in different lengths with spring clips liberally interspersed makes up the LIPS system, along with a stainless-steel tube attached securely to each short end of the table and running over the middle. It’s much sturdier than the one-sided grooming arm that I’ll be using when I start working on dogs.

Sasha was a complete sweetie, and, though shaking, she didn’t show the least amount of resistance. Sasha’s an older girl, and warty, so need to remember to be very careful when clipping so as not to hit the warts. Raven was muzzled for his trip to the table, and kept a watchful eye on Valerie, especially as she was doing his forefeet and ears. His ears were the biggest bugaboo for him, and several times he whacked his muzzle on the grooming post as he tried to whip his head around to warn Valerie off of whatever she was doing. She called it good correction, as he was doing it to himself and knew that he was doing it to himself. She had another customer come in while grooming Raven, and I told him what a good boy he was being while Valerie booked the appointment for the lady. She asked Valerie about breeding her dog (sight-unseen by Valerie!), even though she was dysplastic. Valerie was very diplomatic, saying that if the mom had hip dysplasia, all the pups would be predisposed as well, and she’d make unhealthy puppies, and the mom probably wouldn’t carry them very well either. A situation that I’d not considered, and I’ll need to learn customer-handling technique from Valerie too, as she gently discouraged this lady from breeding by making it seem that she was doing a service to dogdom by not inflicting pain on the mother or by producing puppies that would be in pain later.

Raven actually does try to be a good dog and he responds very well to praise, even kissing while muzzled. He is used to being boss at home, though, and it’s always stressful when dogs have to be boss. They do much better when muzzled, Valerie says, because it takes the stress of decision-making (to bite or not to bite?) away from them, and she can hug them and praise lavishly for good behavior without worrying about losing face. Literally.

Speaking of praise, Valerie says she hates it when owners come for their dogs too early, because the dogs go nuts when their folks are there, and the owners invariably coo and pet the dogs to settle them down, not realizing that they’re reinforcing the bad behavior by petting at the wrong time. This is yet another reason it’s a bad idea for me to do housecall grooming – dogs are much better behaved away from their home turf and not around their humans. I’ve already learned a great deal from Valerie, and am looking forward to the next time I can go help her.

The plan is looking like this, so far. If I can arrange pet sitting, I’m going to drive down to WV early early Friday mornings, and spend Friday nights in Hurricane. That’ll enable me to groom with Jan on Fridays and Saturdays, her busiest days. I’m going to try and line up 3 visits for my own dogs, 2 on Friday plus Saturday morning. If I can get Jan to come Saturday morning, as well as Friday morning, and Jim to come Friday night after work, I should be home in time Saturday to take care of the girls in the evening. Valerie can’t afford to pay me now, which is fine by me, because I’m a net-loss for her now in terms of time spent. I’m hoping that her client base will increase as my skill level does, and that she’ll be able to pay me a little bit when I’m actually able to help her book more dogs on days that I’ll be there. She charged $60 and $70 for Sasha and Raven last time, but only $25 and $30 this time because they were much better looking, and Raven was much better-behaved.

All in all, today was well worth the 7 hours I spent on the road. I hope that we can continue to work together, as I’m already vastly impressed by her knowledge. I’d much rather work for her without getting money, than pay for a school that might not teach me what I need to know.

As I've said, I thought housecall grooming was an excellent place to start. But Valerie shared her wisdom and opened my eyes to common sense problems that I hadn't considered. I'm going to paste most of her email here for the edification of anyone else thinking about jumping in this way.

"OK I think as a good starting point, you should come see the shop, and maybe work with me for a couple days to decide if this is really what you want to do. I hate to be discouraging, but there's some problems with your plans that I wouldn't be fair if I didn't bring up discussion about. I require a certain level of commitment before starting this! LOL
First would be your choice of wanting to do housecall grooming. I have done it, years ago. It is probably the most difficult way to groom pets. First, let me tell you, many pets do not like being groomed, no matter how well you treat them. They are afraid of the bath, afraid of the blower, and often have had bad experiences with their nails being trimmed too short, or matting being brushed out, and it just leaves many with bad feelings about grooming. In housecall grooming, you are in THEIR territory. This makes you the intruder, and many will be worse behaved at home than they would be away from it. You would also have to deal with Mommy cooing to them while you work, and often this makes it next to impossible to groom them as they are being rewarded for bad behavior. You also will have to physically carry MUCH equipment with you everywhere. Minimum would be a table, grooming arm, dryer and hand tools. You will also not be able to have the best equipment to work with as some of it, like a hydraulic table or a LIPS system, is not portable.
Second is your age. While there is nothing wrong with learning to groom at 40 or even 50 it is HARD physical work. I strongly recommend considering working in a shop environment especially as you are not 20 anymore! LOL Please don't take offense at this, it is a simple fact that many groomers get out of grooming due to back, shoulder or other physical injuries due to the nature of our work. Bending over a home tub to bathe even ONE dog I can't even do anymore at all. SO from my experience, I would really think you need to consider working in either your own shop or with others when you are done learning.
Third problem. Once you leave my instruction, you will know basic grooming skills. There is SO much to learn in grooming, you would really benefit from working for an extended period of time with other groomers. Working alone, you have no one to help hold an ornery pet, no one to help wrestle a big guy into a tub he doesn't want to go in, and no one to ask about the correct lines on a Wheaten Terrier (or any other not so common breed) as none ever came in the shop while you were there. I feel I was in training for the first 10 years I groomed! Now I intend to have my apprentice better educated than I was, but there is still only so much you can learn in a year's time.
Aside from that.. part time is doable. Flexibility is one thing this job offers to a huge degree. You will need to buy your basic tools to work with. But you will need to decide which tools (with some help from me & possibly your groomer friends and the list) you need to buy to begin with. Basic tools will include:
* Clippers (brand of your choice, but I recommend Laube's)
* Blades.. one of each of these sizes: 10, 9, 5F, 4F, 3F and two 7F blades
* Scissors, both straight and curved, recommend you start with 81/2"
* Nail clippers
* Slicker brush and comb
* I Coat King or similar tool for dematting
* hemostats for ear plucking
* grooming noose
* All breed grooming guide, Notes From The Grooming Table
* AKC Complete Dog Book, which will tell you the standards for their recognized breeds
I can provide all consumables, like shampoos, conditioners, finishing sprays, ear powders. I do have a grooming table and arm you could use at my shop, but eventually you will need to buy your own. The extra one I have is adjustable leg, but not THAT adjustable and you may find you have too much back pain to use it and need a hydraulic one with ultimate adjust ability for the dogs height you would be working on.


Now, a lot of her warnings I knew about. But I wasn't applying my knowledge of dogs to the notion of being a housecall groomer. My older Dalmatian, Cassidy, is a case in point supporting Valerie's first problem. Cass is a real pain in the ass when it comes to getting her nails trimmed. When I do it, she carries on like I'm doing a quadruple amputation without anesthetic. Howling, crying, wiggling... you name it. Not like I've ever quicked her, either - her nails are white and it's easy to miss the bloodsupply. So I take her to the vet, pay them for it, and it's snipsnip and done. She just does not carry on for other people the way she does when I do it. I know that dogs act differently in their turf than in someone else's, too. But I just hadn't considered that when I had the idea in my head.

The equipment was another matter. I envisioned myself with a folding card-table kind of thing, and a toolbox with grooming equipment. Easy to pack, easy to transport. Right? That's because I had never actually been into a grooming shop, and had no idea of the equipment that's available to make the job quicker, easier, safer, and more thorough. Maybe housecall grooming isn't the right thing for me, after all?

After getting home from Delaware, I emailed my friend Kim in Canada. I told her what I had begun thinking of, and asked for any resources she could provide on where to start. Her reply email had this to say about learning the trade:

"#1 - - - learn how to groom. There are good schools out there - AND BAD! Wish you were here - I'd teach you! Most grooming schools cost around $5000 for less than a year - comes with the VERY basic tools to get started. With no GOOD school around - apprentice somewhere.... there is no governing board over grooming schools. ANYONE can open one and give anyone a certificate and say - there you're a certified groomer. It means about as much as the paper it's printed on and that's it. There is no body that states you must know XXX and be able to do YYYY before you can graduate - like high schools, colleges, etc.. So be careful!!!"

Eeeek. That's kind of scary to me. Kim also let me know about some mailing lists she's on, and I joined one. My first post was an introduction:

"Hi, all- Kim S in Canada recommended I join this list, so here I am. :-) I live in Columbus, Ohio and am considering a career in dog grooming. Can anyone give me any information - good or bad - as to grooming schools in Central Ohio? House-call grooming sounds very appealing to me, but I've got to learn how first! "

And very shortly after that I got a reply from Valerie

"Hi Kimberly, welcome to the list! I have been grooming so long I really don't know of any schools around, unless I have heard of them here. I am not real far from you, (just checked it's about a 3 hour drive) and I have considered in the not so far future taking on an apprentice. Maybe we could get together sometime for lunch and chat?"

Kim was SO excited for me that Valerie had replied to me! Kim could not say enough good things about Valerie. She's vastly experienced, very helpful to the grooming list, and on and on! It really excited me to have someone so well-thought-of by someone I have known for many years show an interest in getting to know me. So I replied via email to Valerie that I'd love to drive down to WV, see her shop, and talk to her.

I'd also got some replies about grooming schools in the area. I was very wary, especially since Kim had told me that there's no universal governing body for groomers. So I looked at as many websites as I could, and saw stuff that was great, as well as stuff that made me shudder. Here's a school that has a written test before graduation, and here's one of the requirements on the test: "Testimonial: This should cover what you liked about [redacted] Dog Grooming School, Inc. and what you will do with your new career. Please sign and give permission to recopy for distribution to new students." Wait. Let me make sure I understand this. If I go to this school, in order to graduate, I have to suck up to the owner AND give her permission to use that suckuppage to lure other students? There's a highly-thought-of school in the NE corner of Ohio, but nothing close to me. Apprenticing with someone is looking better and better.

# posted by kimberly : 8:51 PM

I went to visit my family on the East Coast the week before Easter. Being unemployed has definite advantages, among which is incredible freedom to do things like take off for a week and a half without having to ask permission from anyone! OK - I lie. I lie like a big spotted dog. I had to make sure that my family would be willing to put up with me for 10 days, and I had to ask Jan, my pet sitter, if she could visit my house twice a day during the time I was going to be away. But once the details of where I was going to sleep and who was going to feed my critters had been arranged, I was free to go. And go I did.

I was only able to see one of my friends from Delaware. I had lunch with Elaine, and told her that I'd been trying to think of a job that was up my alley. I'd considered dog training, but that's really people training, and that wasn't at all what I was interested in doing. Elaine said that April and Matt, two mutual friends of ours, were then in dog grooming school. Seems that April is going to be buying a dog grooming salon and Matt's going to groom for her. Elaine has been a dog groomer for many years, and plans on helping April out as well. What intrigued me was that Elaine has been a housecall groomer and a mobile groomer as well as a salon groomer.

For the rest of the day, I was unable to get the thought of grooming dogs out of my head. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not a girly-girl, not overly fond of prissiness or froufrou in any shape or form. But I am a dog person, and always have been. I wanted a job where, instead of working with tightassed banker types I could work with wagging tails and wet noses. I thought that housecall grooming would be an ideal place to start, as I would be able to begin with a minimal investment of money, past the cost of attending a grooming school to learn the ropes. I considered it quite appealing that I'd be able to carry my equipment in my little car, without having to invest in a van (which can cost upwards of $50,000), or rent a salon of my own.

I began running down the list of people I knew that might be able to help me get started. I've got quite a few friends in the local retail pet supply business. I've got my petsitter Jan, who knows what it's like to go to peoples' houses to do business. I know a dog trainer. I know someone who knows someone who owns a grooming salon, and that owner might be willing to train me to groom. I've got a friend in Canada who operates a thriving grooming business in part of her home. I've got Resources, by golly! I'm Connected. This could really work! I'm thrilled. Dog grooming is the first thing I've considered that makes me go "Oooohh!!" rather than "Bleh" when I ponder the thought of doing it for a living.