Friday, November 27, 2009

The Worst, the Best, and Everyone In Between!

First, apologies are once again in order - twenty plus dogs in the school per day can get crazy insane!

Anyway, between this week and last week, I've seen the full spectrum of temperaments. There were jumping dogs, sitting dogs, prefect dogs, and yes, even biting dogs! A tiny little Shih Tzu named Star gave me my first hard bite when I tried to do her nails, yet her temperament listing said there were no surprises! It really hurt--I still have the bruise--but more than anything, it scared the crap out of me.

Go figure that next day, Tim gave me a dog named Cooney (who I nicknamed "The Coon Bird" after my highschool vice-principal) a little dog with a nasty temperament. Every time you tried to pick him up, his teeth came out in full force. No Groomer's Helpers. No set of clippers. Just me, the Coon Bird, a pair of thinners, and his sharp little teeth. He only got me once, and he didn't even break the skin, unlike Star. We had a system going for a while: I held his beard gently in order to control his head (and his teeth), and gently lifted and supported his butt. Occasionally I'd get a warning growl, to which I slowly and deliberately held more of his beard, stood him up, and rocked him when the growling ceased. Of course, someone suggested that holding the beard would set him off more and proceeded to tap and shush him repeatedly. Now that set him off worse! Forget the beard holding after that, it was game over.

There's one of the few things I really dislike so far - I come from a different school of thought. I don't shush dogs, I don't torment dogs who are already moody about being pulled from their normal surroundings to get their hair wet, butt squeezed, paws prodded, and hair shaped differently from what they're used to. It's rather disturbing to see how deeply this "pop culture" handling runs in the grooming community.

Just like in any relationship, both sides must compromise for each other; that is what defines the relationship as a healthy one. Without a working compromise, the scales tip in favor of one side. In the case of human to dog, the scale rarely tips to the dog. I'm not saying that it should, but it should never tip to the human either. As a whole, we've somehow got it in our heads that we must always push ourselves onto the dog whenever things aren't going our way. In a playground setting we call this bullying.

We are already in control of our dogs. We provide them with shelter by paying our bills, go out to the store to buy their food, take them to the vet for medicines... and the list goes on. When they misbehave, they can be removed from the situation easily with a leash. On the table, they can be handled slowly until they relax, and gradually built up to have a tolerance for things that they, for what ever reason, find scary. Why do we feel the need to get so physical with our dogs? I guarantee that if I saw you standing around and I didn't like it, and I went up to you and started shoving you around, you'd probably get aggravated and push back at some point!

The dog is already removed from his environment. My job is to make him feel at ease as much as possible with these weird new surroundings, not to shush and shove him until he shuts down and grows to hate being on the table. Grooming must be enjoyable for both parties involved. This is where I love the bathing systems and completely adjustable force dryers and tables at the school. We can compensate for the dog, all while doing the job humanely.

Speaking of being humane, I learned how to handle both deaf and blind dogs. Deaf dogs are a little easier, because they can still see the edge of the table as well as where you are standing. I just wish I could tell them how good they look! Blind dogs are very special. I talked almost nonstop to my little blind Poodle, Butler. He actually followed the noise of my clippers at one point - noisier clippers really aren't so bad after all, haha! There's a deeper bond to be formed with a blind dog, as they are completely reliant on you in order to be safe on the table. I had a hard time giving the little guy back to his owners; I could tell that they loved their dog deeply, but I knew that was probably going to be the only time I ever got to work with him. Wherever I end up, I want to work with a blind little Poodle!

New this week was Schnauzer faces and body work. One day I had three dogs, the last of which was an actual Schnauzer. The first two were Yorkie mixes, and the cut really suited them well! I need to convince my aunt to let me give her Yorkie, Wheezer, a Schnauzer face!

As for the best? I'm home for the holidays, with my best friend in the world! Xavier was very excited to see me, but didn't throw all 57 pounds of himself at me - Mom doped him with turkey, haha! His winter coat is forcing his old summer coat out of the follicles, so he looks similar to when I first brought him home! He's getting groomed tomorrow, as well as a shelter dog, and my uncle's Golden will probably be getting groomed today... don't tell anyone, but I might be a workaholic, haha!

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