Conferences Ep170

Episode 170. I want to talk about conferences. There are a bunch of conferences coming up and there are so many educational opportunities.

Groomers, you don't need to be a trainer to go to a training conference. Trainers, you don't need to be a groomer to go to a grooming conference. And certainly no matter what field we're in, we should be learning more.

So let's talk about conferences this week. This is the Creating Great Grooming Dog Show. I'm Chrissy Neumyer Smith.

I'm a master groomer behavior specialist, a certified behavior consultant, consultant for canines, a certified professional dog trainer, an instructor at Whole Pet Grooming Academy, and I own Happy Critters in Nashua, New Hampshire. This, my friends and colleagues, is the podcast where grooming and training meets.

When we talk about conferences, there are so, so many opportunities for us. I am getting ready right now. So as we're speaking right now, it's early September of 2022, and I'm getting ready for the Hershey Groom Expo.

That one's coming up. I'm going to be teaching understanding fear, Frustration and stress. And I'm going to be teaching a safety policy, having a safety policy.

So those are two classes I'm teaching. And then I'm going to attend so many classes. I love attending classes.

If you haven't been to a conference, whether that be a grooming conference or a training conference, part of what we get from going to these things is that we are exposed to other professionals in our industry or perhaps professionals in a different industry, because groomers and trainers need to talk more, but we're also exposed to new ideas. And I really, really like learning new stuff, even if it means that some of my older thoughts need to be replaced.

And I think that's really important. We don't always think about that. We're like, oh, great, I'll learn some new stuff. Like, we're always just enhancing. But what if.

What if we also have to think about is something I've been doing maybe ineffective or could be more effective if I did it differently, or maybe perhaps I've been causing problems that I didn't know I was causing, you know, to be able to replace information with other new information? And I think that that's really fun. Not everyone thinks it's fun, but I think it is.

So I want you to think about, if you go to a conference, what kind of topics are you interested in and step outside of your comfort zone.

Take a class that you think you know and what I mean by that is take a class that you think, oh, I already do that, because that's the one that you might really learn something from. Or even better, you could walk away feeling like, I really do know all of that. Woohoo. Awesome. I'm on the right track.

Nothing wrong with taking a class that for you feels like review. So I want you to think about, if I take classes, I'm going to take some of the new stuff, but I also need to expand my comfort zone.

I'm going to take some classes that I think I've already got, and then I'm going to take some classes that maybe just are feeling like they're not in my reach. So in the training world, when I say like, classes that really kind of aren't something, I think I'm going to use an awful lot of that.

That might be one of the sport classes, that might be scent work, or that might be competition healing, but I'm going to take them anyway because sometimes there's a portion of that, just a little piece of that that suddenly inspires you or makes things connect and you realize I could apply that to other things in other settings. So part of why conferences are great is, is because there's a variety of things going on.

Even if it's a conference like the Aggression and Dogs Conference coming up this fall. I believe that's the first weekend in October, and you might want to look that one up. The Aggression and Dogs Conference.

I will try to put links in the show notes, but that conference is definitely going to be about aggression. But I mean, I've been to that conference before and there's such a wide variety of topics within that topic.

So I think that especially if you're a groomer, you're thinking, oh, difficult Dogs is its own topic. But I want you to think back. How many different times have you been taught something like poodle trims? Right?

We didn't stop at one class, we didn't stop at one instructor, one guru of the, of the poodle classes. Right. We, we kind of want to learn more.

So even if a conference feels very, very specific, or if it's just about shelter work or if it's just about aggression or if it's competition healing, Right. Obedience and stuff, we should still try to tune in. We should still try to find as much information about that as possible.

Now, I have a wide variety of interests. I know, I know you guys probably guessed that if you've been listening for a while. You know, I have a wide variety of interests in the dog world.

But each of those start to overlap for me if I expose myself to them. And if I didn't, what would happen is, is that I would start becoming kind of dull. It would just be the same old stuff all the time.

And I find myself searching back through my previous work and thinking, oh, wow, I do things differently now. I do things differently. So groomers, like I said, the Aggression and Dogs conference is coming up.

Anytime that there's a dog training conference or something local to you, go for it. Yeah, hop in. Talk to somebody there.

I find that the more we network with locals who also have different fields that we should be overlapping, the more we network, the better all of our dogs are going to be. There are plenty of dogs for everyone. We shouldn't be worrying about if our service areas overlap or not.

We should just be learning from each other and getting to know each other, networking, creating projects together. That's one of the things I really like about conferences also.

So as an example, when I started this podcast, that opened the door to me speaking at conferences, which, wow, holy cow. So I'm meeting people who I like, idolize. I'm having a lot of fun. But some of those people, like, I've worked on projects with them now.

Holy cow, that's so neat. And because we're working on collaborative stuff, we're working on projects together.

You see how that can become really an interesting passion project. This is driven by getting to know other professionals and doing continuing ed.

Now, trainers often have continuing ed requirements for keeping certifications. Groomers, we really don't do that much yet. PGC does professional groomer credentialing. Does the professional grooming certification.

PGC has continuing ed requirements, but dog training, the certified professional dog trainer and certified behavior consultant for canines, I have to do continuing ed for now. That means that they have a wide variety of classes that have already been approved for continuing ed.

So if you wanted to know more about dog training and you are not a trainer, you can go to ccpdt.org the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers.org CCPDT I'll add the link in the show notes and you can look up what kind of classes are available. Look them up. You can look up by state if you want to go to something that's in person.

Lots of online opportunities for dog trainers, so you can look those up. Now, if you are a trainer who wants to know more about grooming, oh my God, we want you to know more about grooming. Please learn more about grooming.

If you're a trainer who Wants to know more about grooming. There are some really great conferences. Dog groomers have more in person conferences than I find with the dog training world. The APDT has one.

Each organization has like one. But groomers, groomers have them all over the country and maybe not enough, but there are many.

So find out where grooming competitions are happening and where grooming conferences are happening and get in there and find out you do not need to be a groomer.

So any trainers who are out there who are thinking that might be kind of fun, I can tell you that Groom Expo is coming up and that's in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The New England show is coming up and that is in Massachusetts and then ISCC in Dallas. I will be at all three of those.

If you are a trainer who wants a groomer to guide you through and help you meet people and learn stuff, I will happily do that. Reach out. I'm happy to do it. Those are just three things that are happening this fall.

There are so many educational opportunities and we as professionals, this is what keeps us learning and also can inspire us to do more or inspire us to specialize. We don't have to be everything for everybody. And we're going to talk about that in the next part.

If you are enjoying this podcast, please remember to subscribe and tell all of your friends so that we can get the message out. So let's talk a little bit about specializing now.

When we start learning more, that's when you start thinking, oh, wow, is that something I want to do more of? And sometimes you just want to do all the things. Okay, this is where I have problems. My own personal issue is that I can never pick just one thing.

Thus I have the grooming profession, that grooming career, and a training career that I've merged. But those two things, it's hard to keep two things going at the same time. I've merged them pretty well, but I never picked just one.

No matter how many times I was told, you really should pick one, I just couldn't do it. And then within each of those professions, there were so, so many things to pick. There's so many things that you could try to do more of.

But, but the hard part is, is that sometimes you have to, as you pick something new and you decide. Let's say you really want to do Asian fusion trims, right? They're gorgeous. Oh my God. Such a neat, neat flair for trimming. Right?

But that's going to change how many of the other things you can want to do how many other things you're able to have time for. So sometimes we have to kind of say, what am I willing to let go and do less of so that I can crease in more of on other levels.

Early in my training career, I tried some group classes. Teaching group classes, it really was not for me, and I'll tell you why.

Because at the end of class, there would always be somebody who came along who asked a question that either everyone in the class may have wanted to know also, and we missed an opportunity to discuss, or that was so very, very specific to their home environment that it wasn't really part of the class. And I still wanted to answer all those questions. So what I was doing was after class, it was almost like I was running another class.

And it really made me think, I really want to do the private lessons now. At the time, there were private lessons available, but the behavior consultant part wasn't really a huge thing yet.

You know, I'm kind of going way back.

If you're watching the video, I'm like, actually way back with my hand, but I'm going way back and talking about how, you know, yeah, of course we can help with your training issue with your dog's particular fears or anxieties or your dog's particular issues of who they bark at at your house, how your yard is set up, things like that that I really like. But I had to decrease something else to be able to find time to do that. So when we learn new stuff, it could take us in a whole new direction.

Now, one of the new directions, you know, could be that you're just really inspired to try more of something you're already really good at. Maybe somebody tells you, you know what? You could have your entire clientele coming in just for that. I stopped grooming cats long, long, long ago.

I tried a couple times as a housecall groomer, and I started my housecall business back in 2000. Tried grooming some cats as a house call groomer. And I did not. I didn't like doing it as house call.

I liked it in a shop, but I didn't like it as house call. It had more to do with me not being really good yet at setting some boundaries with my customers.

You know, like what you're allowed to do, what you're not allowed to do, how much privacy we might need, how much help I might need like that. I think that was probably why I didn't like grooming cats. But now I don't groom cats because, you know what? I can't be everything for Everyone.

And I think that sometimes we get overwhelmed when we go to classes or we get to a conference and we're like, oh, I want to add that. And I want to add that. And I want to add that too.

And you might feel overwhelmed, but it is okay to say, you know what, I am gonna stop booking some of these other things so I can book more of this stuff. This stuff that I really, really like to do. You know, it's okay to do that. And what I mean by that is to really think about what you like to do. Okay.

So when you go to a conference, you might decide that you really, really, really enjoy color, work on dogs. And if you're a trainer or a non groomer, you might not know how popular that is right now. But just. Even. Just adding some, like little bits of color.

Yeah, it's super fun. Super fun. Anyway, that might be something you really want to do. It's going to be a different clientele than some of the clientele you have already.

It's okay. You know, I hope. Let's throw it out here. I hope that many of you will want to learn more about the behavior stuff that is its own specialty.

And doing that means that you're going to have a lot more dogs who have issues. But behavior work means that you're also teaching them to be good. You're getting paid for all your time.

You're not going to lose money teaching dogs to be good for grooming. But that does leave you with less time for some other types of dogs. Maybe you don't groom cats anymore. Like, I don't. I don't groom cats anymore.

So be thinking about the things that you might be inspired to try more of and that these conferences are a great opportunity. And maybe it's something you just want to do in your own private life.

I know a lot of people don't know that dog grooming conferences have grooming competitions and wow. Oh my God. So cool. That's not my clientele. And I have border collies.

I'm not buying a poodle to do competitions with, but I'm in love with the idea of doing competitions. If you have never seen grooming competitions, dog grooming competitions, you're in for a treat. They are really, really cool.

So maybe it's something that it's just in your own personal life you want to do more of. To do grooming competitions and just compete in grooming. That's awesome.

Maybe it's something in your personal life and a dog training conference that you would want to do. More of. For instance, I compete with my dogs in two sports. We compete in flyball.

So if there's a flyball thing at a conference, I'm going to be like, yeah, awesome. I want to know more. Or impulse control or working with distractions.

Those are things super important in flyball and in other areas too, of course, but super important in flyball. Maybe there's something about competition healing. I compete in rally obedience with my guys.

So competition healing and really nice, flashy sits and downs.

I know sits and downs probably don't seem very flashy to you if you're not a trainer, but there's a way to do that with some pizzazz that my dogs and I lack. We are not really big on the bling, and this is pizazz. We're big on enthusiasm and having fun. But think about.

There are so many opportunities for us to go out and learn new stuff, and when we do that, we have to be able to replace information that maybe is outdated.

So not only might you decide, oh, I'm going to implement new things, I want to enjoy more of this type of customer or this type of interaction with dogs and less of that. You might also find that there's something that you have to change. I'm going to give you some examples. Here's an example.

I remember back in the day when we used to mix our shampoo, we would dilute our shampoo with tap water pretty regularly for the week. And that's a big no, no. Oh, my God. I remember when we found that out and we were all like, ah. Oh, my God. We could have been causing infection.

How can stuff grow in soap? And we went back and we're like, okay, we absolutely have to change this now. How is this going to affect our day that we mix shampoo for the day?

Like, how is this going to affect our day? How is this going to affect our policies? We absolutely have to change it now. And we made the change. But think about that.

Those are the kind of things you might learn about. There might be some procedure you've been doing that you're like, oh, my God, yikes. I don't want to do that anymore.

I had no idea that mold could be growing in my shampoo or that shampoo has had an expiration date. No idea. They're not printed on the bottle.

So as an example, that was one that I remember very, very clearly walking away from a conference like, oh, my God, head held low. I can't believe I've been doing this the whole time. I'm Going to give you another example.

I don't pluck ears anymore unless that dog is being cared for by a veterinarian and they're using that to help apply medication every day. Otherwise that's not my thing. And if the veterinarian really wants it, they can pluck ears. It's not rocket science.

I've been plucking ears since I was 14. It's not a big deal. They can do it if they really want it. But I remember hearing the discussion about perhaps that's not good for them.

And I listened to the evidence and I consulted my vet and I talked to my customers and I gave it a try. You might find that some of your long held beliefs get shaken at a conference and it's going to be okay.

Now that doesn't mean that every suggestion I hear is something I'm going to just like follow. Right? I hear the evidence, I talk it over with my vet or with other groomers. You know what I mean? Like, I hash it out.

But there have been plenty of times where I really changed the way I do business. And that's what's great about conferences, that's what's great about learning. And we have so, so many opportunities out there.

I know Mary Oquendo at Positive Ed has a huge amount of summits. I think it's like every month she does another summit on some other topic. I work for Whole Pet, Whole Pet Grooming Academy.

We have a wide variety of courses. These aren't just for beginners, these are for all sorts of levels in our industry.

So there are lots of examples of things that we can learn, places we can go to Internet classes. Now I will say, because there's going to be somebody out there going, you can't learn how to groom over the Internet. Yeah, it's a grooming school.

Like I work for a grooming school where they actually have tubs and dogs and tables with students at them. But Internet classes for people who want to continue learning more. And you absolutely can learn that way.

Maybe you as an individual have trouble with online classes, but that doesn't mean that online classes aren't a useful tool for the modern age, because they sure are. Ah, so many great classes everywhere you look. So when we talk about conferences, that's one way to get a wider variety, a lot of scope.

Sit down with people and meet people at lunch. If you're a people person, I'm a people person. If you're not a people person, I get it. But you can take as many classes as you want.

And it's such an interesting, immersive weekend.

That's part of what I like about a conference is it kind of takes over your whole weekend and you drop your guard and you listen to a bunch of classes and you watch some competitions. Maybe you're walking through the trade show and you're finding new stuff, new equipment that you've never seen before. I'm a tool junkie. I like tools.

I really like tools. So, you know, think about all of the advantages of going to a conference.

And like I said, groomers, you do not need to be a trainer to go to a training conference. Trainers, you do not need to be a groomer to go to a grooming conference.

And it is such an interesting thing to go to something that you're unfamiliar with. It's so cool. So, you know, for instance, for groomers, you might find that a lot of classes for shelter work really apply to dog grooming.

And I'll tell you why. Because a lot of these shelter work conferences and classes are based on we don't know much about that dog. And isn't that what we do in grooming?

We have an owner who's like, ah, well, you know, he's been groomed before. You know, I think he's fine. I don't know. We really don't know much about him.

Sometimes they're brand new dog, they're like, oh, we just got him from rescue. And so believe it or not, some of these courses that you might think wouldn't apply to you definitely can.

So like I said this week we're just talking about conferences and educational opportunities and that there's such a nice variety out there and, and I encourage you, please find out more about other fields.

Now I don't happen to know about conferences for vet techs, but I'm sure they're out there and you could probably ask around if that's something you wanted to know more about. There are so many dog sports, there's protection work, there's all sorts of great stuff out there. Just go and explore.

So that's the thoughts for this week.

If you want to know more about me or what I do or have questions, you can find me at creatinggreatgroomingdogs.com you can go to the Creating Great Grooming Dogs Facebook page, the Creating Great Grooming Dogs Facebook group. You can Also look at WholePetGrooming Academy, that's WholePetNH.com and find out about my courses. And I'm really happy to answer questions.

This is obviously my passion in life. Have a great week.