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Marc LaFleur and Melissa Verplank enjoying the 2013 Bissell Blocktail Party             Photo by Michael Buck – Wood TV8

For those of us that work in the pet care industry, my guess is a lot of you are just like me. You’re a softy. When you see an animal in need, you just want to reach out and help. Dogs. Cats. Horses. Birds. Wild animals. Heck, I think my husband has lost track of how many times he stopped to assist a turtle crossing the road! Bet you’ve done it too.

Today there are so many animals in need. Did you know that according to The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), half of the dog’s that end up in shelters are destroyed? It’s even worse for cats. Well over 50% are destroyed. There just are not enough homes for these animals.

This was the eighth year for the Bissell Blocktail Party. It’s a local event hosted by The Bissell Pet Foundation and Cathy Bissell (of the vacuum cleaner fame). It is a fund-raising event for local animal welfare organizations in West Michigan.

The Blocktail Party is the biggest fundraising event of the year for this organization. Participants enjoy music, ‘yappetizers,’ a silent auction, and mingling with fellow animal lovers and their four-legged friends. Last year the event raised $173,000 to help homeless pets in West Michigan.
My Whiskers Resort  & Pet Spa team has always been very active with this fundraiser. This year, Whiskers was a “Best in Show Sponsor.” Plus, many of our Whiskers team members were volunteers at the party, helping make the evening go off without a hitch.

And the best part – this year Marc and I were actually in town so we could attend the event! What a blast. We got to attend with all three of our ‘white dogs.’ The girls even got to sport their festive collars — something that doesn’t happen very often when they are patrolling the property on our farm.

The event was held on the grounds of Mangiamo, a wonderful Italian restaurant situated in the historic district of East Grand Rapids. At one time it was a lumber baron’s home. Then it went on to become a monastery. And later it went on to become a restaurant. A little known fact; before my husband became involved with the pet industry — he was a sous chef. He spent four years working in their kitchen!

When we got there, dogs and their owners were coming from every angle. They must’ve had close to 1000 guests at the party! I was amazed at the volume of silent auction items up for bids. Pets and people were mingling. Food and drink was plentiful. It was shocking that almost all the four legged guests were extremely cordial and exceptionally well-behaved.

The variety of dogs attending the event was immense. You could immediately tell dogs that came from rescue organizations. They got to sport a bright orange bandanna. It was remarkable how many orange bandannas were floating through the crowd – pure-bred and mixed breeds alike.

Cathy Bissell and her team have definitely had a very positive impact on pets in the West Michigan area. Even if your community does not host such an elaborate event as the Bissell Blocktail Party, there’s still lots you can do in your local area.

• First and foremost, as a pet professional, you are at the forefront of educating owners about the importance of staying and neutering.When a client adds a pet to their family, encourage adoption/rescue – giving a homeless pet a second chance.
• Donate your skills to make pets up for adoption more appealing with a fresh grooming.
• Make your business a donation drop site for items they need; food, towels, blankets, litter, cleaning supplies, etc.
• Designate a certain percentage of your sales or a particular service to be donated to one of your local rescue organizations. (flea baths, nail trims, simple upsell items.
• Become a foster home for pets in need.
• Volunteer at animal welfare organizations within your community
• Encourage microchipping for your clients so if a pet is lost, it has a higher chance of finding its way home.
• The majority of pet welfare organizations operate strictly through generous donation — donate money. (Donating the price of 1 grooming dog a week or 1 dog a month could go a long way in helping these organizations)

It was an honor to be a part of this event. It was a perfect night – the rain even held off for most of the evening. I hope the foundation was able to raise even more money than last year!

I’m proud of our Whiskers Resort team. Every time I turned around at the Blocktail Party, we ran into them… (It was extremely hard to miss Megan who has embraced creative styling.  At the end of her leash were brilliant orange and pink dogs! )  Many of our team members were wearing the official volunteer tee-shirts supplied by the Bissell Pet Foundation. Way to go gang!

Happy Trimming,
Melissa

P.S. Check out the clip below. Marc and I are interviewed at the party with the ‘white dogs.’

Before the grooming process got started.

This is what I saw before I even BEGAN the grooming process on this little dog. I clearly saw the end results.

I feel fortunate because I have been asked to judge the Rags to Riches Grooming Competition hosted by PetGroomer.com and sponsored by Double K. Industries.  This is an international online grooming competition in which photos are submitted of dramatic pet grooming makeovers.  I have judged this competition many times in the past and always look forward to this assignment.  It always amazes me what a skilled pet stylist can do with a dirty, overgrown, and extremely matted dog.

You know the scenario – the client walks in with a dog that is in such foul shape, you hardly know which end is the front or the rear of the dog.  The dog is filthy.  Its coat is extremely overgrown.  It’s packed with dead undercoat and/or mats and tangles.  Or worse yet, the coat is in dreadlocks.  The simple solution is to just shave it off.  We can all envision a clean – but naked pet.  Sometimes that’s the best option.

However, the dogs that really capture my eye are not the shave-offs.  An experienced pet stylist with imagination can see the end result before they even put their hands on the dog.

• They see the potential.
• They see a clean dog.
• A dog that is totally mat free.
• A dog that has style.
• That has pizzazz.

They can see the end result of a beautifully groomed pet before they even begin.

Begin with the end in mind.

I can almost guarantee that every past winner of the Rags to Riches Grooming Contest uses this technique.  But if you are experienced, I bet you do this in your salon every day too.

The Rags to Riches Grooming Competition takes this to the extreme, but this technique can work with anything.  Personally, I’ve used this technique with great success in many areas of my life, growing my businesses and my grooming career.

I first started using this principle when I read Dr. Covey’s book, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People over 20 years ago.  Since then, there has been a wealth of material written about how to use this principle with great success.

When it comes to grooming and I see a dog come through the door, I instantly see the potential – the end result.  Most of the time, I can’t even remember what the dog looked like before I started unless I have a photo to remind me!

When it came to contest grooming, I would study dogs I wanted mine to look like – the end result.  I would take photos of top winning dogs.  I read books on structure and movement so I could clearly visualize the underlying structure of a well put together pet.  I would take photos of my dogs either wet or very short so I could clearly see THEIR structure.  Then I would draw the trim I wanted to execute on top of their photo.  This clearly allowed me to see the end before I even stepped foot into the contest ring or started scissoring.

If you have never studied this technique of goal setting and personal self-improvement, I highly suggest you spend some time learning it.  It’s highly effective and very fun! And the best part – you can apply it to ANY aspect of your life.

Happy Trimming,

Melissa

WHAT THE JUDGES WILL LOOK FOR WHEN JUDGING:

• Most dramatic improvement in the dog’s appearance from the “BEFORE” to the “AFTER” photos.
• Best groomed dog.
• Degree of difficulty and skill required to perform the groom.
• Quality of the photograph of the groomed dog.

I’m so fortunate to live in a place I consider paradise. It’s a combination of woods, fields, orchards, and swamp. Here in West Michigan, we enjoy four seasons. (Okay, winter can drag on a bit too long some years) We’ve been on this large acreage for years.

In my down time, I love to take my dogs for runs, cut new trails, power walk, cross-country ski, snow shoe and horseback ride. I’ve been all over this property in the past 12 years. I know every inch — or so I thought…

A few weeks ago, I was out walking our property. It was one of those rare, gorgeous days in March. The sun was out and the temperatures were extremely mild. Nothing was green yet, but you knew it was coming.

I was Nordic power walking for exercise. I was approaching my one-hour mark but I was not ready to quit. I just crossed a stream and came to a fork in the trail. I was standing at my husband’s deer blind. Normally I hang a left and follow the trail through a field and ultimately back into the orchards towards the house.

But today was so pretty, I thought I’d test out a new path. My husband keeps a large swath brush-hogged for hunting next to one of the horse pastures. It looked like a perfect good-sized loop to explore.

I knew at the end of this open area, over in the corner, there is an old junk area. Almost every old farm has one of these on their land somewhere. We’re no exception.

As I approached the junk area, I looked through the underbrush. I thought to myself, “boy, there’s some big stuff back there — things I’ve never seen.” I needed to investigate. As I ducked under branches and wove my way back into the junkyard, I was surprised at how large the area actually was. There was A LOT of stuff back there!

The years have been slowly swallowing this area with underbrush. For most of the year, this area is so thick you couldn’t begin to see beyond 8 feet. However, on this day, the green foliage was not out yet. I had a clear view once I got back in there.

Wow. Here was this old Chevy truck. I’d never seen it before! How does something this large stay hidden from view? I have no idea what year this truck is. However, I swore I learned how to drive a stick-shift on an old farm truck just like this when I was in high school out west! I wonder what kind of stories this old truck could tell.

I’d been by this area 100s of times. This was the first time I’d ever noticed a virtual graveyard of large farm equipment and vehicles buried back behind the junk area. They’ve always been there — I just never noticed them before. The timing was just right today.

As I departed the area,  in awe of what I just found, I thought; our careers are like that too. Information is presented to us all the time. But what do we picked up on? What do we notice? What do we put into use? It’s all in the timing.
Careers change. Life changes. Information that is available to you all the time will only register in your mind when the timing is right. Can you use this information to improve your life or your career? Will it enhance your job somehow?

When I first started attending grooming seminars and reading books, I was like a dry sponge. I soaked up so much information so fast. It was fun. It was exciting. But then it kind of leveled off. I wasn’t gathering nearly the amount of information I was early in my career.

As I gathered experience, I become more selective about what I retained. When I was first learning to groom, there are priorities I needed to focus on first. How to do you get a pet clean? How do you blow out the coat perfectly?  How do you remove mats and shedding coat? How do you get a smooth clipper cut? I wasn’t ready to learn about breed profile trimming. I wasn’t ready to learn about balance and symmetry. I wasn’t ready to learn about the finer details of grooming. Running a business. Managing staff. Mastering marketing. But as I understood each new skill, I was ready to learn more. I was climbing that imaginary staircase, one step at a time.

I’ve been developing my career for over 35 years.  Just like with finding that old truck, it was all in the timing. As my career has unfolded, I learn new things all the time.  Most of the time, it’s nothing new or revolutionary. But it is to me. It’s fresh and new — to me. The timing was just right for me to apply this new tidbit of information.

Your career and personal development will be like that too. Never stop learning. Always be ready to gather new knowledge when the timing is right. You never know what you might discover.