Emotional Wellbeing In Pet Grooming

[00:00:00]

episode 204 . We're talking about why humane handling must be a priority for groomers, for owners. For veterinarians, we have to make humane handling a priority. And that gets tricky if we haven't yet defined what humane handling is. So that's what we're talking about this week.

You're listening to the Creating Great Grooming Dog Show. I'm Chrissy Neumyer Smith. I'm a Master Groomer Behavior Specialist, Master Canine Stylist, Certified Behavior Consultant for Canines, Certified Professional Dog Trainer, Certified Professional Groomer, Fear Free Certified Professional in grooming and training, and an educator and Dean of Academics at The Whole Pet Grooming Academy. And this is the show where we talk about teaching pets to be good for grooming and other types of care.

So humane handling has to be a priority, and I'm really saddened by the kind of stuff that I'm seeing right now. There are a lot of groomers posting videos where they're kinda laughing at dogs or having difficulty with being groomed. And, um, yeah, honestly, it, it kind of breaks my heart. It makes me really sad and I wanna point out that.

There needs to be a shift in our industry. There really does. There needs to be a shift where we start prioritizing if the animal is scared or not, if the animal is having a pleasant experience. Now, sometimes people will say, well, he had a positive experience, but I wanna refine that more because sometimes what they're thinking is, um, we got through the grooming, and the grooming was perfect, and he realized that he wasn't injured and that I never got mad at him.

So therefore, it was a positive experience. But let's backtrack a moment. Let's think about that more. Because if that dog was struggling, panting, crying out, sprayed their anal glands, was barking a lot, vocalizing, , if that dog had an unpleasant experience, that was not a positive experience. The positive experience isn't about, "Oh, he realized that nobody hurt him."

Uh, it's more than that. All right. There are lots of things that we're afraid of that haven't hurt us. For instance, people who are afraid of spiders. How many people have been injured by the spider? People who are afraid of needles. I know a couple of adults who are terrified of needles and they would love to get over that fear of needles.

They don't even know where it came from. But it doesn't mean that that fear isn't very, very real. And we can't just go, look, we drew blood. Everything's fine. And expect them to walk away going, oh, okay, that's going to be great. Now yet with our pets, we forget that they also can have fears that maybe aren't based in the idea that they're going to be injured.

It's really, really common for a dog to be afraid of some of the weird "stuff and things" that we do. We have equipment that makes weird noises. We touch them all over. We hold their attention longer than anybody else in their world. I mean, most owners don't do any sort of endurance run of an hour or two hours yet we do.

So the things that they're responding to, that they're having difficulty with, because the dog isn't being difficult, the dog is having difficulty, and the things that they're having difficulty with are things that we need to minimize. We need to help that pet have a more pleasant experience. So first, let's reshape it.

Instead of saying he had a positive experience, let's start thinking... Did this pet have a pleasant experience? Did I prioritize trying to make this experience pleasant? You know, maybe this pet isn't ready for a pleasant experience, but that also means that I'm not gonna do every grooming thing today.

I know somebody out there just bristled. Let it go. Let it go. Perfect. Trims are for pets who are well prepared for our services. We are not emergency medicine. This is a hair salon. We are hairdressers, we're pet stylists, and we need to prioritize if this pet is having a hard time. I don't know when that became such a controversial topic, but I'm, I'm gonna throw it out here, that without knowing what our humane standards are and defining them, it really leaves it loosey goosey thinking.

But I'm a kind person and I would never hurt a dog. But I know that you're a kind person. You work with dogs, you love dogs, and I get that you're a kind person and you're doing this thinking, he's so mad that I have to get all of these mats off. And what if I don't clean his ears? And what if he gets an ear infection 'cause I didn't do everything today.

Or what if this owner doesn't bring him in again? But if we are scaring the pants off him, well, not that dogs wear pants, silly pants. But if we are scaring the dickens out of this dog to get those things done, that does not meet the humane standards. Humane handling is about helping them feel comfortable with it.

It doesn't mean that you're abusive. All right. And I think when we say humane or not, people are like, is she saying I'm abusive? It doesn't mean that you're abusive, but what it does mean is that we can do better. We should be striving to do better. That should be our goal. When I see a dog who is having difficulty, I need to prioritize that dog's emotional wellbeing.

Someone out there just hard eye rolled. , I can almost see it. Emotional wellbeing. This is a process. Grooming is a process that these pets are gonna have to go through for their entire life, and we have the opportunity to teach them to be comfortable with it. And that's A big important part of our job, and maybe we as the groomer aren't doing the teaching, but we can certainly not be, , making it worse.

Don't pay a professional to make your problem worse, right? I don't know who needs to hear that today, but don't pay a professional to make your problem worse. If your problem is that your dog won't let you touch his eyes and you bring him to a groomer who traumatizes him about eye touching, but gets it done.

They haven't helped you. That's not helping. And somebody out there, I'm sure just blew their lid because so often that's what we've been taught to do as groomers. We'll get it done, we'll get it done and see it's possible. And he learned that we didn't hurt him, and he learned that, , we aren't gonna put up with him doing naughty things.

All right. That's some really outdated methodology, the idea that, you know, we're, we're not gonna put up with it. We're not going to let him get away with it. He's not getting away with anything. We're asking these dogs to do things that are really weird, weird stuff and things. And we are pushing their boundaries in every single way and any other context.

If a little kid wanted to go over and do something to a dog and the dog growled, we'd be like, Hey, leave him alone. You're tormenting him, you're teasing him. He's gonna hurt you. He's gonna get upset. But with groomers, we're like, la, la, la. We're gonna keep doing it. And I want you to stop and pause and consider, wait, I need to make this pet's.

Health and safety and emotional wellbeing, a priority and, I say this, I've really considered this. I've thought about this for a while. The dog training world broke into two large groups long ago, and in some ways it has been really detrimental. I try to follow both sides, even though I definitely am more of the positive reinforcement science-based dog trainer side.

, But I try to, stay involved with both sides, hear what's going on, on both sides. In some ways, it hasn't been good In other ways it has because if an owner wants to know, is this person going to be in line with the kind of training I'm doing and prioritize my dog's feelings, I.  I know my dog's feelings.

It's so wishy-washy. It's not. If I want someone to prioritize how my dog feels in this moment and think about why my dog is doing it, not just suppressing the things that are happening, I wanna know who to go to. So I propose to you grooming industry. I think it's time for us to diverge into two groups.

And it makes me sad because I think every groomer out there loves dogs. We shouldn't have to diverge into two groups. We shouldn't have to split up. Every groomer out there loves dogs. But the kind of things I'm seeing and the groomers defending it, you know, dogs flailing around and, and getting hurt, and then an owner's complaining like, Hey, why did you hurt my dog?

And groomers jumping in saying, you don't know what that dog was probably like for that groomer. How can you say that? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I know that comes off really callous, and if you know me and you've been listening to the show, you know, I'm not usually like that, but we can observe that that pet was being handled really roughly.

They're posting the videos, thinking it's funny, thinking it's totally legit, and it's totally fine. Dogs hanging upside down. These animals are gonna get injured. This is not modern handling, and there is no excuse. I would love for every groomer out there to say, I want to learn more, but frankly, it's not what we're seeing.

So I propose the modern dog groomer who prioritizes the health and emotional wellbeing of pets and the rest who don't. I don't know what they wanna call themselves. The traditionalists not up to us to name them, but the people who hard eye roll and emotional wellbeing. Yeah. They can, they can go off and do whatever it is they're doing.

If you look at a dog who is really struggling and biting at the dryer and you're like, ha, sometimes dogs are like this.

When did you lose your passion? When did you become so jaded? When did you stop saying, Hey, I wanna teach this dog to like it because I love dogs and I don't wanna have to be in conflict with dogs all day. Which by the way, you don't have to be. Sometimes I think groomers don't know that there are other solutions available.

If you don't know that you can teach a dog to be good for grooming, you might think, oh man. Something happened to this dog. And that's really common too. I do see groomers who are like, I don't know who did something to this dog. And, and I'm watching the video going, it's you right now. Right now. Why?

Why does he need that fourth nail trimmed right now? If he's going to totally lose his mind? It's not a priority. You can do three nails on one foot and stop. In fact, in dog grooming, which is not a medical emergency, right, we're not veterinary medicine. There are only two times that we absolutely have to finish and followthrough.

Two that I can think of, and I've really put a lot of thought into this, there are two times that we absolutely have to follow through. The first time that we absolutely have to follow through is if this dog is covered in shampoo. Yeah, because we know that is going to cause all sorts of skin problems.

If we leave that on, we have to rinse that off. However, if we pre-wet that dog and realize that this dog cannot handle the sprayer, we can choose to not put shampoo on that dog. And I know somebody else just went, wait, what? But isn't that what we're being paid to do? We are being paid to work with pets.

And we are being paid for putting pretty trims on pets that can handle it. We need to stop normalizing that we can do whatever we need to do on pets who are clearly struggling with the process. They're struggling with the process. If a dog is afraid of the sprayer or attacking the sprayer, yeah, we have to work on that before he can get a bath.

And from a dog training point of view, 'cause I'm a dog trainer also, that makes so much sense that we look at groomers and go, why wouldn't you just stop? Just, just, just stop. It's not a priority. But once they have soap on them, we do need to rinse the soap off. A conditioner. I kind of don't care if we rinse, conditioner off.

Yeah, they're gonna be a mess, but it's not really gonna hurt their skin. Soap will, shampoo will. The other time that we actually have to follow through in dog grooming is if an animal is injured and we need to do first aid. Injured. Injured doesn't mean he has a mat behind his ear. Injured means a cut, or you know, some other like.

Bleeding injury, like there are times where first aid we actually have to follow through despite what the animal feels about it. The rest of it we have to pay attention to. If this pet can handle it. We are gonna be grooming these pets for 15 years. I just don't even imagine] why you wouldn't want them to learn to be good for it and know that there are ways to do it.

One of the things I keep hearing, and again, this is a little bit of my rant on some of the stuff I've been seeing and why I took a break from this for a while because, oh my God, it just hurts my soul, right? Another one I keep seeing is, I've been doing it this way for a long time and I want you to consider why you feel that way.

I started working with animals professionally 40 years ago. I got my first job with dogs 39 years ago. I used to not count that first year, and then I realized, well, wait a minute. That first year was an animal science program on a working farm. At a public school, a vocational high school, Essex Agricultural and Technical Institute in Hawthorne, Mass, in case you're wondering.

I had more formal animal science education under my belt that first week than I see in most of the grooming industry. [00:14:00] Take that in. Think about that. I used to not count that first year, and now I do. So 40 years of doing this, I don't do anything the same way. My thirst for knowledge just keeps building and building.

Now, that doesn't mean that I'm gonna jump onto every new trend, but it does mean I'm gonna consider that trend. I'm gonna look into it like, hmm, what does that mean? How would that work? What's the science behind it? Can I think of a pet that would benefit from this tool and another pet who maybe might find that tool really scary?

I'm going to engage in all these things and when I hear groomers say, I've been doing this for a long time, we've always done it this way. I don't see a problem, it worries me, and it makes me feel like perhaps that groomer has hit their burnout point. I've been there. I've hit burnout, you know?

When you stop caring about what, wait a minute. Is there a way to teach 'em to be good for it? Hold on. Whoop boop boop. Back up the truck. Uh, I am interested when you no longer are [00:15:00] interested, that's burnout. Where is your passion? Where's your fire? , Don't you wanna jump in , wait a minute, I can serve my customers better.

I could have a whole bunch of dogs that are either really good for grooming or set up with realistic expectations and are learning to be good for grooming that we all feel like really happy. The dog has a pleasant experience. We get what we can get done. Our owners are happy. We're still making money.

Don't lose money on behavior cases. That's never been my message. , You should be charging for your behavior cases, but when did you lose your passion? When I hear people saying, I've always done it this way, and I've never, , had a problem, I'm like, but if it's a kinder way of doing it and someone's trying to give you some information about how to do it in a kinder way, how the things that we used to do, forcing dogs through grooming is the very problem that we're seeing.

It makes the problem worse. There are very few "always and nevers" in this world. That one's almost [00:16:00] always going to make it worse. , It does not desensitize them. It's a process called flooding where we actually just keep going no matter what they're doing, we just keep going and it leads to either sensitization, they become more sensitive.

Habituation, they decide, eh, all right. You know. I guess this is my life now, or learned helplessness, which often looks like a really good dog who's just standing there still and thinking, I can't escape anyway. Who wants to groom like that? So I feel like the people who don't wanna change. Are burned out.

I want them to join in the fun. Come on, join us. Join us. I don't wanna be one of the girls who calls you out when you are doing these crazy videos, I mean, I kind of wanna call you out, but that's not me. If you've listened to the show or you've met me at one of the trade shows, you know, that's not me.

I don't wanna call people out. But where is your passion? Think about it. Join us. You know, come in, ask the questions, spark your knowledge. What if you only try it with one dog? And what if it helps that one dog? But I think that we need to divide, I think owners are looking for groomers who aren't gonna undo all of the training they're doing. I think owners are looking for groomers who are going to treat their pet gently.

I mean, there are gonna be a few owners out there who don't care. But we've talked about safety, behavior problems, or safety problems. Sometimes they have no idea that their dog could be injured. You mean having five people hold him down while he is muzzled to do his nails could injure him? Yeah. Yeah, I could, oh, I have no idea.

They don't know, they're following what we say as experts and sometimes they're getting really bad advice or outdated advice. Outdated and misguided advice. And I do say that as someone who has been in this industry for a very long time, if you're not rolling with the changes, I just don't think you're in the modern grooming group.

I don't know if, we can convince you to join us or not, which makes me sad. I don't wanna divide, but if you hard eye roll at the idea of teaching dogs to be good for grooming and not prioritizing haircuts. I just don't know, how else to convince you. And it makes me sad. So come on, just join us.

Just join in the fun, stop making dogs scream. Stop thinking it's funny. Oh, Huskies, you know what they're like with the dryer like that. That's not funny. It's not funny. That's a dog who is having a big issue. Let's just step back and think about prioritizing humane handling.

Defining humane handling and it goes beyond well. If he has mats in his armpits, , it's gonna cause a problem for him., We really need to prioritize the emotional wellbeing of these pets so that they can be handled for the rest of their lives. So if you've been listening to the show, you know that I kind of took a break from it. I know I get overwhelmed so many projects going, I want you to know that the show is back and I'm going to try my best to get them out. I've kind of changed the format. I'm not gonna bother with YouTube videos.

It's just so much work. And if you know all the projects I have going on, you know that I just don't have time. I don't have time, but I wanna bring these back.

As I talk about all of these issues, I'm also trying to be part of the solution. Now, first of all, I have a podcast that has a tremendous amount of information out there that's free.

But also at the whole pet grooming Academy, I teach the Master Groomer Behavior Specialist program, which is eight months of just the behavior part of grooming for groomers. If that's too much for you, and I understand why it would be like, I don't wanna specialize in this. I also have a couple of shorter ones that one is groom Smart, where we just take some of those basic concepts and how do we apply them into our grooming. And that [00:20:00] one is a workshop style, like couple of hours worth of content that you have access to for a month. And that's groom smart. That's through the whole pet grooming Academy.