Sunday, August 22, 2004
On Hold For Now
I stayed home today.
Last Sunday was kind of a small-scale mess. I got to bed around 1am the night before. Saturdays, I work until 9pm, and my boyfriend has his son those nights. So between work, dinner, tending the dogs, et cetera, it's just not possible for me to get enough sleep to make driving 3 each way hours safe or fun.
I was going because Valerie had 5 dogs scheduled. Rascal and Bianca, and 3 others with the same owner. Not a bad day, so I made the drive to see what I could do. But the owner of the 3 didn't show, so I'd ended up driving 6 hours round trip to bathe Bianca. She's a doll, mind you. But still.
So here's the new plan. Right now, my days off are Saturday and Wednesday. All the other days I work till 9pm. Valerie's closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. If I can manage to get my job to let me have 2 days off in a row (any two will work, except Monday/Tuesday or Tuesday/Wednesday), I can spend the first one doing home stuff and go to bed early. Then on the second, I can drive to groom with Valerie.
It's not working out exactly the way I's pictured it, but what ever does in life?
Last Sunday was kind of a small-scale mess. I got to bed around 1am the night before. Saturdays, I work until 9pm, and my boyfriend has his son those nights. So between work, dinner, tending the dogs, et cetera, it's just not possible for me to get enough sleep to make driving 3 each way hours safe or fun.
I was going because Valerie had 5 dogs scheduled. Rascal and Bianca, and 3 others with the same owner. Not a bad day, so I made the drive to see what I could do. But the owner of the 3 didn't show, so I'd ended up driving 6 hours round trip to bathe Bianca. She's a doll, mind you. But still.
So here's the new plan. Right now, my days off are Saturday and Wednesday. All the other days I work till 9pm. Valerie's closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. If I can manage to get my job to let me have 2 days off in a row (any two will work, except Monday/Tuesday or Tuesday/Wednesday), I can spend the first one doing home stuff and go to bed early. Then on the second, I can drive to groom with Valerie.
It's not working out exactly the way I's pictured it, but what ever does in life?
Thursday, July 29, 2004
Hand Stripping vs Clippers
Valerie just sent me a link to an article that shows vividly the difference between a hand-stripped coat and one that's been clippered - on the SAME DOG. This is a Wire Fox Terrier who was clippered for 5 years and then the owner learned to hand strip. See the difference in color? And the feel of the hand-stripped coat would be much more terrierish and less fuzzy or cottony. The article recommends a 6-pack of beer to help in the learning process. *smile*
Same picture, but enlarged just a bit
Same picture, but enlarged just a bit
Saturday, July 24, 2004
Finally! I've mastered the Art of the Armpit!!
hahahahaha!! Today we had a matted Shih-mix in, and he needed a 7F clipdown. I do those, some times better than other times, and today was a not-too-bad time. Valerie did say I'm getting better, but I had to ask her before she'd say it. So I'm not good yet. BUT - I did get the armpit move down! I was so ecstatic I almost spiked my clippers and did an endzone dance a la Ickey Woods. It's a simple delicate scooping motion with the clippers, but has taken me months to get it down. Maybe today I just lifted the legs to the correct angle or something, but I actually got the inside of the legs and the armpits!! I'm just beside myself with glee. Now I need to figure out how to do it without having to squat down and peer up from underneath the dog. And if I can do it without falling on my ass, so much the better. Don't ask.
Today we had the Shih, and another tiny female Shih that we've had in before - a puppy mill dog. Valerie says she's a reject puppy that shouldn't have lived. She has breathing issues - openmouthed gasps when stressed. Valerie found a mammary tumor on her today - the pup's 6 months old and they have let her go into heat. Congratulations - here's a tumor for you. Bad breeding and bad blood will out, just like Aunt Marge told Harry. Don't ask.
We had a late-booking Pom today, too. Valerie made that dog SO CUTE. Especially considering the handicap of the owner's kid barking and running all over the store. Yes, the kid was barking. Don't ask.
Sunday had only one Yorkie booked, and no drama required because it was supposed to be in good condition. So I cancelled my motel room and came home. It is going to be paradise on earth not to have to set the alarm when I go to bed in a few minutes. I've spent the evening online chatting with friends, and at one point a movie had been planned. That ended up not happening, though. Don't ask.
Today we had the Shih, and another tiny female Shih that we've had in before - a puppy mill dog. Valerie says she's a reject puppy that shouldn't have lived. She has breathing issues - openmouthed gasps when stressed. Valerie found a mammary tumor on her today - the pup's 6 months old and they have let her go into heat. Congratulations - here's a tumor for you. Bad breeding and bad blood will out, just like Aunt Marge told Harry. Don't ask.
We had a late-booking Pom today, too. Valerie made that dog SO CUTE. Especially considering the handicap of the owner's kid barking and running all over the store. Yes, the kid was barking. Don't ask.
Sunday had only one Yorkie booked, and no drama required because it was supposed to be in good condition. So I cancelled my motel room and came home. It is going to be paradise on earth not to have to set the alarm when I go to bed in a few minutes. I've spent the evening online chatting with friends, and at one point a movie had been planned. That ended up not happening, though. Don't ask.
Monday, July 19, 2004
Poor Pud!
This weekend, I hurt my first dog. Three times. :-(
Pud's a midsize Cockapooish thing, black, older fellow, in for a 7F shavedown. Valerie let me have him for the shavedown, and I am pleased to report that I'm getting a little better on legs. But I poked poor Pudwith the points of my blades while trying to trim the inside of one leg from the opposite side. He yelped and I felt terrible. Valerie told me to check if I'd cut him, but there was no blood, his dinger was intact, and he had no balls when he'd come in. So I continued, trimming around his sanitary area. I thought I did a great job on the area under the tail, but Valerie said I'd done TOO good a job and that I'd need to put some aloe on the ridge of skin under his anus. Clipper burn. He didn't complain about that while I was doing it, though. The third hurt was when I was trying to tidy up his tummy - there was some hair sticking out, so I grabbed a pair of scissors and snipped... except that the hair was poking out because it was attached to a little fat lump, like older dogs get. Poor Pud yelped again, and I have him a big hug and some kisses, and told him what an idiot I was.
Valerie told me later that everyone makes mistakes and hurts dogs occasionally, especially when learning. It made me feel a little better, but not much.
Speaking of mistakes, there's quite a bit of discussion on the grooming list today about escaped client pets. That sounds awful, and another reason for having the shop divided a little. Some of the stories, though, I'm not sure much if anything could have been done to prevent the escape. I definitely won't allow loose dogs to hang around in my shop, if I ever have one. It looks fun and homey, but I know just how fast a doggy dust-up can arise, and what if you've got a dog on the table when a fight breaks out? Do you risk having the dog you're grooming jump off the table and hang itself while you break up the fight? Or do you watch the dogs go at it and hope there's not too much clean-up to be done afterward? Of course, if you have the LIPSystem, you're a little bit safer leaving a dog on the table because it's restrained at both ends. I'll just be safest I can, and keep dogs in crates while they wait to be picked up.
I love being on the grooming list, because I'm seeing so many different people discuss the way they do things. Some of the ideas sound great and some of them not-so-great, but they all work for the people who use them. The list is a great resource for lots of different perspectives, for sure!
Valerie and I also did a couple of cats on Sunday. The owner had them loose in the car when he drove them up, and Cat B escaped while he was leaning into the car to get Cat A out to bring in. The dimwit owner was luckier than he deserved, though, and Cat B allowed himself to be picked up from the sidewalk without much of a fuss. Cat A was a Himalayan, and had quite an attitude, the owner said, so Valerie muzzled him for the shave and bath. Cat B was much nicer, though.
We also had a couple Peke-a-poos on Sunday. One looked all Peke and the other looked mostly Poo. The owners stayed with the dogs the whole time. Valerie said that the Poo barked constantly even when the people weren't there. And the gentleman did help hold her for getting her feet done, so that all worked out OK.
Pud's a midsize Cockapooish thing, black, older fellow, in for a 7F shavedown. Valerie let me have him for the shavedown, and I am pleased to report that I'm getting a little better on legs. But I poked poor Pudwith the points of my blades while trying to trim the inside of one leg from the opposite side. He yelped and I felt terrible. Valerie told me to check if I'd cut him, but there was no blood, his dinger was intact, and he had no balls when he'd come in. So I continued, trimming around his sanitary area. I thought I did a great job on the area under the tail, but Valerie said I'd done TOO good a job and that I'd need to put some aloe on the ridge of skin under his anus. Clipper burn. He didn't complain about that while I was doing it, though. The third hurt was when I was trying to tidy up his tummy - there was some hair sticking out, so I grabbed a pair of scissors and snipped... except that the hair was poking out because it was attached to a little fat lump, like older dogs get. Poor Pud yelped again, and I have him a big hug and some kisses, and told him what an idiot I was.
Valerie told me later that everyone makes mistakes and hurts dogs occasionally, especially when learning. It made me feel a little better, but not much.
Speaking of mistakes, there's quite a bit of discussion on the grooming list today about escaped client pets. That sounds awful, and another reason for having the shop divided a little. Some of the stories, though, I'm not sure much if anything could have been done to prevent the escape. I definitely won't allow loose dogs to hang around in my shop, if I ever have one. It looks fun and homey, but I know just how fast a doggy dust-up can arise, and what if you've got a dog on the table when a fight breaks out? Do you risk having the dog you're grooming jump off the table and hang itself while you break up the fight? Or do you watch the dogs go at it and hope there's not too much clean-up to be done afterward? Of course, if you have the LIPSystem, you're a little bit safer leaving a dog on the table because it's restrained at both ends. I'll just be safest I can, and keep dogs in crates while they wait to be picked up.
I love being on the grooming list, because I'm seeing so many different people discuss the way they do things. Some of the ideas sound great and some of them not-so-great, but they all work for the people who use them. The list is a great resource for lots of different perspectives, for sure!
Valerie and I also did a couple of cats on Sunday. The owner had them loose in the car when he drove them up, and Cat B escaped while he was leaning into the car to get Cat A out to bring in. The dimwit owner was luckier than he deserved, though, and Cat B allowed himself to be picked up from the sidewalk without much of a fuss. Cat A was a Himalayan, and had quite an attitude, the owner said, so Valerie muzzled him for the shave and bath. Cat B was much nicer, though.
We also had a couple Peke-a-poos on Sunday. One looked all Peke and the other looked mostly Poo. The owners stayed with the dogs the whole time. Valerie said that the Poo barked constantly even when the people weren't there. And the gentleman did help hold her for getting her feet done, so that all worked out OK.
Thursday, July 15, 2004
Scheduling Woes
I have got to weigh in and say that this working shit pretty well sucks balls. I've been informed this week that when I am out of training, I'll have Sunday and Wednesday as my days off. This means I won't be able to groom two days a week with Valerie any more. I am willing to drive down and back on Sundays, but Sundays are just SO slow. Valerie has said she'll try to book more clients on Sundays, so we'll see how that goes. I wish I could make money grooming, but I just don't *know* anything yet. Maybe I'll be able to get a part time job as a bather soon. Have to see how Valerie feels about that.
It looks like there's been another Blogger upgrade. It seems I now can choose different fonts and colors while I'm posting, as opposed to having to do the HTML myself. Interesting.
It looks like there's been another Blogger upgrade. It seems I now can choose different fonts and colors while I'm posting, as opposed to having to do the HTML myself. Interesting.
Sunday, July 11, 2004
Too Tight = More Fight, and Other Words Of Wisdom
Saturday was a pretty busy day, with a lot of new breeds. OK, new to me, anyway. We had a Miniature Schnauzer (I'm SURE this is the same dog that I didn't get his ears clean enough last time I did him either) and an Airedale, a Bichon, a Shih Tzu, a "Yorkie" (actually probably a Shih Tzu mix), a Papillon (adorable!) and a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (I'm so in love!).
Bathing the Airedale was different. That coat just holds onto the suds!
Valerie let me comb out the Papillon, and I did a good job except I forgot a foreleg. Maybe I should have a wipe-off board so I can put a checklist for every dog. Portside foreleg? Check. Portside hindleg? Check. Starboard hindleg? Check. Starboard foreleg? ooops!!! *grin*
And then I did most all of the Cavalier, too. I'm very excited about that. I messed up her feet, but only had to be rescues a little bit on the insides of the legs. Valerie checked my work a few times and told me what needed to be done next, so I didn't have a chance to go too far afield. I did trim too much between the toes, though, so that the toenails were exposed. I started out OK, just brushing up the between-toes hairs and trimming them off. Then I saw more hairs, and more hairs, and more hairs, and before I knew it we were halfway to Poodle Feet. I know Cavaliers are supposed to have slipper feet, but Mrs. Jackson wants all of hers clean and comfortable, so the feet were done. What I should have done was first clean between the pads with my Peanut, then brushed up the toehairs and cleaned them up, and then gone around the foot to the toenails, and then trimmed the toenails so they wouldn't be exposed. Make a note, I.T.! It was while starting the Cavalier that I ran into trouble with the T-strap on the rear. I had it too high up, and the dog didn't like that, and climbed out. So I tried to make it higher, so the dog wouldn't climb out. Valerie told me it was too high, and once she lowered it my little Cav stood there like a trooper. Too tight = more fight.
Sunday we had a (HUGE GIGANTIC) Maine Coon cat in for bath and brush. Here's what I learned about grooming cats. Too tight = more fight goes about quadruple for cats. The less restraint you can manage with, the better. Best to do as much brushing, toenails, dematting as possible before the bath, while they may still like you a little bit. Bathtub noose goes around the neck and one foreleg. Dawn can be mixed with whitening shampoo if you want, but it sudses a LOT in the Bathing Beauty. A little Cowboy Magic is all it takes to make a real soft kitty. Towel-dry, don't use the HV. Put kitty in the crate with fans on to dry, and even then it'll take forever and kitty will probably go home with damp legs anyway. Cats get clippered with a 7 or a 10. Nothing longer, as their skin is so easy to cut. (I'm going to do Ferris with a 7 next time.) If you have a greasy-looking cat, rub some cornstarch into the fur - it'll absorb the oil and the mats will just slide out. The coat oil is what holds the mats together. Ummm, I think that's all. Valerie, I'm sure, will comment if I missed something important.
The dog we had on Sunday was a Long-Haired Dachshund. (Here's a pic of one, Jim!) He was a victim of what Valerie calles "Neuter Coat" and essentially, he was all undercoat. Floofy, fluffy, cottony undercoat, all over. What Valerie did was to shave his back down with a 7, leaving furnishings underneath. She then used the stone on him, to remove as much of the fluff as possible, and then shined him up with some Mink Oil. He still didn't look quite right, but he did look a LOT better. :-)
We changed the lever on Valerie's Litenings, so I got another lesson on clipper maintenance. It would have been great if my Laubes had ever come, but the fucktards at American Pet Pro and UPS are working in concert, it seems, to keep both my money *and* my clippers. The shipment containing my clippers seems to be going back and forth between IN and CA. Which is absurd, because they're supposed to have gone to Valerie's shop in WV. American Pet Pro will not refund my credit card because I haven't returned the order to them, I guess. And UPS has the nerve to call the shop on Saturday and ask Valerie "I hear you're having some problems with a shipment?" Uh, yeah. The shipment was supposed to be here in the beginning of FUCKING JUNE and at this rate it never will come. I'm out $200 and you'd think the idiots at UPS would notice SOMETHING amiss when they scan the package for the 200th time and it's still in transit!!!
Yeah, I'm a little upset. I'm going to be busting some serious ass at American Pet "Pro" this week. I am absolutely fed up with their refusal to do anything. And I'm getting a tracking number, and busting some ass at UPS, too. I'm fed up with them as well. grrrrrrrr.
Bathing the Airedale was different. That coat just holds onto the suds!
Valerie let me comb out the Papillon, and I did a good job except I forgot a foreleg. Maybe I should have a wipe-off board so I can put a checklist for every dog. Portside foreleg? Check. Portside hindleg? Check. Starboard hindleg? Check. Starboard foreleg? ooops!!! *grin*
And then I did most all of the Cavalier, too. I'm very excited about that. I messed up her feet, but only had to be rescues a little bit on the insides of the legs. Valerie checked my work a few times and told me what needed to be done next, so I didn't have a chance to go too far afield. I did trim too much between the toes, though, so that the toenails were exposed. I started out OK, just brushing up the between-toes hairs and trimming them off. Then I saw more hairs, and more hairs, and more hairs, and before I knew it we were halfway to Poodle Feet. I know Cavaliers are supposed to have slipper feet, but Mrs. Jackson wants all of hers clean and comfortable, so the feet were done. What I should have done was first clean between the pads with my Peanut, then brushed up the toehairs and cleaned them up, and then gone around the foot to the toenails, and then trimmed the toenails so they wouldn't be exposed. Make a note, I.T.! It was while starting the Cavalier that I ran into trouble with the T-strap on the rear. I had it too high up, and the dog didn't like that, and climbed out. So I tried to make it higher, so the dog wouldn't climb out. Valerie told me it was too high, and once she lowered it my little Cav stood there like a trooper. Too tight = more fight.
Sunday we had a (HUGE GIGANTIC) Maine Coon cat in for bath and brush. Here's what I learned about grooming cats. Too tight = more fight goes about quadruple for cats. The less restraint you can manage with, the better. Best to do as much brushing, toenails, dematting as possible before the bath, while they may still like you a little bit. Bathtub noose goes around the neck and one foreleg. Dawn can be mixed with whitening shampoo if you want, but it sudses a LOT in the Bathing Beauty. A little Cowboy Magic is all it takes to make a real soft kitty. Towel-dry, don't use the HV. Put kitty in the crate with fans on to dry, and even then it'll take forever and kitty will probably go home with damp legs anyway. Cats get clippered with a 7 or a 10. Nothing longer, as their skin is so easy to cut. (I'm going to do Ferris with a 7 next time.) If you have a greasy-looking cat, rub some cornstarch into the fur - it'll absorb the oil and the mats will just slide out. The coat oil is what holds the mats together. Ummm, I think that's all. Valerie, I'm sure, will comment if I missed something important.
The dog we had on Sunday was a Long-Haired Dachshund. (Here's a pic of one, Jim!) He was a victim of what Valerie calles "Neuter Coat" and essentially, he was all undercoat. Floofy, fluffy, cottony undercoat, all over. What Valerie did was to shave his back down with a 7, leaving furnishings underneath. She then used the stone on him, to remove as much of the fluff as possible, and then shined him up with some Mink Oil. He still didn't look quite right, but he did look a LOT better. :-)
We changed the lever on Valerie's Litenings, so I got another lesson on clipper maintenance. It would have been great if my Laubes had ever come, but the fucktards at American Pet Pro and UPS are working in concert, it seems, to keep both my money *and* my clippers. The shipment containing my clippers seems to be going back and forth between IN and CA. Which is absurd, because they're supposed to have gone to Valerie's shop in WV. American Pet Pro will not refund my credit card because I haven't returned the order to them, I guess. And UPS has the nerve to call the shop on Saturday and ask Valerie "I hear you're having some problems with a shipment?" Uh, yeah. The shipment was supposed to be here in the beginning of FUCKING JUNE and at this rate it never will come. I'm out $200 and you'd think the idiots at UPS would notice SOMETHING amiss when they scan the package for the 200th time and it's still in transit!!!
Yeah, I'm a little upset. I'm going to be busting some serious ass at American Pet "Pro" this week. I am absolutely fed up with their refusal to do anything. And I'm getting a tracking number, and busting some ass at UPS, too. I'm fed up with them as well. grrrrrrrr.
Friday, July 09, 2004
You asked for it!
Well, I did promise I'd say how the Jenga got into my grooming post, if ONE person asked.
First, let me make clear for my non-regular readers (Hi, Deidre!) that apprenticing with Valerie is *not* the paying job I was talking about. I don't get paid (yet! *grin*) for working with Valerie. I drive 3 hours one way to groom with her, pay for a motel room so I can spend the night, and don't get paid a thing. Yep, she's that good. :-) I'm bathing for her, and am now learning the finer points of HV drying and brushouts. I guess I'm doing OK on the bathing now, because she hasn't mentioned anything to me about dirty ears lately. Of course, we haven't had a cocker come in lately, either. At least not on my watch.
But I had to find a paying job, to keep myself afloat until I can start making money grooming. So I work as a temp at CheckFree Corp, the electronic money-movers. If you have ever joined a fitness club that debits your checking account every month, you were probably doing business with CheckFree. If your bank has online bill payment services, there's an excellent chance it's through CheckFree. If you get electronic bills from your electric company or your credit card... well, you guessed it.
Anyhow, I'm in training to be a customer service call center employee. We are learning TONS of information, and we have review sessions every morning. To get us revved up, Kelly, our trainer, usually does the reviews in the form of some game or another. We've done Hollywood Squares (Do you agree or disagree with the answer Person X gave?) and we've done Jeopardy (I'd like Processing Codes for 500, please), and we've done Jenga.
The deal with the Jenga was pretty cool. She divided us all up into 2 teams, and the teams took turns answering questions. A correct answer got the team 2 points (1 if they had to use notes) and they had to pull one Jenga block. A wrong answer got the team no points, and they had to pull TWO blocks. Knocking over the Jenga would have been 5 points to the other team. My team won on points, and the Jenga tower outlasted the game! A few brave souls even pulled extra blocks out after the game was over. One woman kept saying how weird it was to play Jenga while sober. heh.
I had never played Jenga before, and was amazed at how adept everyone was at pulling those little blocks out! Thankfully, I only had to pull one block, but I did not knock down the tower. :-) I'm no longer a Jenga virgin.
First, let me make clear for my non-regular readers (Hi, Deidre!) that apprenticing with Valerie is *not* the paying job I was talking about. I don't get paid (yet! *grin*) for working with Valerie. I drive 3 hours one way to groom with her, pay for a motel room so I can spend the night, and don't get paid a thing. Yep, she's that good. :-) I'm bathing for her, and am now learning the finer points of HV drying and brushouts. I guess I'm doing OK on the bathing now, because she hasn't mentioned anything to me about dirty ears lately. Of course, we haven't had a cocker come in lately, either. At least not on my watch.
But I had to find a paying job, to keep myself afloat until I can start making money grooming. So I work as a temp at CheckFree Corp, the electronic money-movers. If you have ever joined a fitness club that debits your checking account every month, you were probably doing business with CheckFree. If your bank has online bill payment services, there's an excellent chance it's through CheckFree. If you get electronic bills from your electric company or your credit card... well, you guessed it.
Anyhow, I'm in training to be a customer service call center employee. We are learning TONS of information, and we have review sessions every morning. To get us revved up, Kelly, our trainer, usually does the reviews in the form of some game or another. We've done Hollywood Squares (Do you agree or disagree with the answer Person X gave?) and we've done Jeopardy (I'd like Processing Codes for 500, please), and we've done Jenga.
The deal with the Jenga was pretty cool. She divided us all up into 2 teams, and the teams took turns answering questions. A correct answer got the team 2 points (1 if they had to use notes) and they had to pull one Jenga block. A wrong answer got the team no points, and they had to pull TWO blocks. Knocking over the Jenga would have been 5 points to the other team. My team won on points, and the Jenga tower outlasted the game! A few brave souls even pulled extra blocks out after the game was over. One woman kept saying how weird it was to play Jenga while sober. heh.
I had never played Jenga before, and was amazed at how adept everyone was at pulling those little blocks out! Thankfully, I only had to pull one block, but I did not knock down the tower. :-) I'm no longer a Jenga virgin.
