Grooming Tips From a Poodle Owner: How I for from there to here.

This article is part 1 in a 4 part series on basic grooming care you can do at home for your dog.
You can read part 2 about brushing your dog HERE
You can read part 3 about ear care for your dog HERE
And you can read part 4 about nail trimming for your dog HERE

It’s late. Nearly midnight.

My house is quiet. I can hear the howling of the coyotes outside. They’re talking to each other, probably preparing themselves for the night hunt. It’s a sound with which I am long familiar. But I don’t know there will ever come a time when I am completely comfortable with the whines and shrieks of coyote conversations.

I am wide awake, loading one of my poodles into the stainless steel tub for her turn at bath night.

”Why did I wait so long to get her in the tub?” I think to myself.

Kluane is the last of my pack to get groomed this weekend. I should have started her process much earlier in the day. Instead though, we went hiking.

I don’t regret the choice to hike. Bath time was going to happen for Klu regardless of the time we got home. Weekly grooms are a requirement for all of my poodles. 

Kluane’s bath has finished. She now lay quietly on the grooming table. The heat dryer gently blowing on her topknot as she sleeps soundly on her grooming pillow. I have my Bose Noise Cancelling headphones in place and am swaying away to the deep and rich voice of Lewis Capaldi.

 Now the day bleeds
Into nightfall
And you're not here
To get me through it all
I let my guard down
And then you pulled the rug
I was getting kinda used to being someone you loved

I love his voice. I love his music. And he always seems the perfect choice for a late night grooming session. 

I don’t know… something about his style of heartbreak in his ballads just makes for great music late at night in a quiet cabin in the woods. 

Four standard poodles with four different hair styles.
This is my world. This is my truth.

It’s hard for me to remember a time when I didn’t do my own midnight grooming sessions. Heck, it’s hard for me to imagine a time when I relied on a grooming shop to do any work on my dogs.

Truthfully though, it wasn’t all that long ago that I didn’t know the difference between a 4 blade and a 40 blade. Ear powder meant nothing to me and the very thought that there were dryers made specifically for dogs was a completely foreign concept to my mind. 

An obsession with a coated dog breed like the poodle can change a person. Never ever did I imagine myself at the helm of a grooming space in my own house. And never did I think I would have four poodles, all with different hair textures, needs and styles.

“You do ALL that grooming yourself?”

Heh.

Beyond any doubt, the most common question I get about my brood of poodles is whether or not I’m responsible for their grooming needs. When I answer, yes, the look of sheer admiration is a small point of pride. I will admit.

All pomposity aside, it’s nice to hear the appreciation for the art in the voice of passersby.

Of course, I haven’t always groomed my own dogs.

I’ve used groomers for some of my other breeds (Gonzo; my cocker spaniel, Mordicai, my yorkshire terrier, Lucy; my mix-breed rescue). And when I very first got interested in dog shows, I sent my first poodle, Wallace, to a groomer.

It quickly became obvious to me that pet grooming and show dog grooming particularly that of a standard poodle were two entirely different beasts. And, while I will always appreciate the efforts put forth in those early attempts by groomers to do a standard poodle show trim… as it turns out, I’m quite detail oriented. And what I saw on my dog differed from what I knew I was seeing in my head.

I blame this personality trait on the simple truth that I own and operated a photography studio for two and a half decades. I saw a picture in my head and I would move hell and high water to make that picture come true in real life.

One day, I asked myself; ”Self, why are you paying someone to learn to show groom a standard poodle, when you could invest that same money and learn to show groom yourself?l”

I knew immediately that it would never be fair to ask anyone else to duplicate what I saw in my head… when I couldn’t produce it myself. 

When I ran my photography studio, I would never ask an employee to do something I myself wasn’t willing and able to do. How could I ask an employee to climb the edge of a cliff for a photo if I myself couldn’t do the same thing? 

Not fair in my book. Not fair at all.

And so, with this sort of “let me show you what I mean” mindset; thus began my foray into show grooming standard poodles!

2016 was the year of my massive leap into the world of grooming. March 2016 was the very first time I picked up a pair of scissors… EVER. And my first model was my very stoic, supremely patient, Wallace. Together we jumped into the world of pet grooming. It was only a few months later that I began doing show trims on Bryce.

So… yeah. Talk about jumping in with both feet!

When I first began I had YouTube videos, blog posts and pictures in magazines as my guides. It didn’t take more than about a month for me to realize there were a few basic truths all dog owners should understand when it comes to grooming either pet or show styles. 

The first truth I learned is to make sure my dog is content through the grooming process.

An unhappy dog makes for a miserable grooming experience. And fighting a battle of wills with an unhappy dog will produce only frustrated losers. 

Fear based demands, intimidation, rough treatment, or any sort of physical abuse of a dog has absolutely no place in my world of grooming. Never ever. This is one hill, I’ve learned, I am willing to die on. 

I knew that if I wanted a contented dog on the grooming table, I would have to train my poodles to be content. 

Because… 

and here’s the rub… 

there are some pretty fantastic groomers out there in the world. And there are some seriously untrained dogs that visit the groomer. 

A fantastic groomer won’t force a distressed dog to get his nails trimmed or have his ears cleaned. After all, it is not the responsibility of the groomer to cause stress or pain to any dog to get a job done.

I also have to make a point to mount a defense for dog owners.

Now that being said, as owners, the importance of proper desensitization training isn’t always impressed upon us when we first bring a puppy home. I’m raising my hand up high here, remembering well those first years with my own pet dogs. 

I had dogs for years and years before I really had a true and honest understanding of the magic that happened with my pet at the grooming shop. And don’t get me wrong, I was a great and responsible pet owner. My dogs were always at the groomer every 6 weeks like clockwork.

But now I understand that those days and weeks between grooming visits make for valuable moments to make sure my dog is completely comfortable with the seemingly small, but absolutely necessary, parts of a good groom. 

Practicing basic grooming skills for only a few minutes every day or every other day …

has gone such a long way in preparing my poodles for the hours they spend on the grooming table. Because of my own consistency in training, all four of my poodles have learned to expect the following on spa day:

• relaxation

• my promotion of a meditative state

• lots of petting and comfort touching

• and best of all, one-on-one time with me during the process.

In short, they each love their individual time on the grooming table. 

And for my part, I’ve learned how vital it is that I am patient with the process. When I have the opportunity to teach grooming concepts to my dogs as puppies, grooming them as adults becomes a breeze. But as I learned with my first dogs who visited other people for their grooming needs, some things needed to be re-taught by me before I could trust that my poodle was truly content and comfortable during a grooming process.

It is in this case that the famous saying could no be more true:

”Patience is a virtue”

I’ve reflected quite a bit on all that I’ve learned about grooming over the last three years. And I’m also cognoscente of all the things I wish I’d known about grooming with my previous dogs.

It is with these thoughts in mind, that’s I’ve written up a few blog posts to go with this grooming theme. These posts are nothing too fancy or complicated. Just an easy list of things we as owners can do to help create a contented and relaxed grooming environment for our dogs.

Whether you decide to visit a groomer or you do your grooming your self. These blog posts are designed to help!

If you have a long coated dog who requires extra care or your dog is short haired and really only needs the very basics of care… these blog posts will help!!

I’m excited to have everyone join me through out this week as I lay out three basic principles of a successful grooming training session. 

Our very first topic will be on the blog on Wednesday!

Coming up on Wednesday-
Grooming Practice Number One: Brushing my favorite grooming based pastime. Hey- I can’t be a lover of poodles and not enjoy brushing hair!