There's no doubt in my mind that I will, time and time again, repeat the statement that dogs make fools of us all. Hopefully we as humans can learn from these experiences, just like I did today.
Enter little Benson, a seven-month-old Shih Tzu. Really, he was very good for his groom. Only screamed for his first two nails, tolerated the stand dryer with just a few howls, and had little problem with getting a rescue smoothie. However, when it came time to trim his mustache and beard, he wasn't having any of it.
A lot of his protesting fell to me, as I'm not used to grooming dogs that require face trimming. Instead of working Benson through the process, I went right for his precious hairs. Luckily, Tim showed me how to gain his trust by holding his head, then petting him with the shears, then taking a few snips, and finally finishing the round expression.
The real kicker of it all was that I already knew how to do that, but wasn't applying it to his face! I introduced him to the clipper on his feet that way, as I learned to do at Groom Expo. Plus, I've trained dogs to accept the nail trimmers (including my own Xavier) the same way. Perhaps I'm too much like a dog, in that I don't generalize! It never occurred to me that I could apply similar techniques to the rest of the groom!
I can be a noodge sometimes. It's a very humbling feeling to realize you've got nothing in the ways of handling, even after a couple of years of theoretical study. However, an important lesson was confirmed today: steady introduction goes one heck of a long way!
Dogs make fools of us, and it's up to us in turn to shut up, listen, and learn from what they are trying to say.
...there's another one of my favorite sayings, hehe!
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