Learn 2 Groom Archives - Page 4 of 4 - Paragon School of Pet Grooming

What Are Your Doors of Opportunity?

I was one of those difficult kids for my parents. I had no focus. My grades in school were dismal. I was rebellious. I hung out with the ‘wrong crowd.’ Sound familiar? Maybe that was you. Or maybe you know someone like that right now.

I was so difficult for my mom and step-dad; a school counselor contacted my father. She told him she felt I was a suicide risk. I should be removed from my current living situation if at all possible. Luckily, it was possible. I was sent off to private boarding school.

I’m sure the small private school in Colorado saved my life. Much of their early education was founded around the principles of Outward Bound, both inside and outside the classroom. My love of animals and the outdoors gave me the focus I needed to turn my life around.

I got my start in the pet industry when I was 16 years old. My first job was scooping poop at a local kennel. I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do ‘when I grew up.’ All I knew was I loved pets. For me, working at the kennel was exceptionally gratifying. I did that for three years while going to school.

Then one day the groomer got fired. I went from shoveling poop to grooming dogs overnight. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. But I had tools. I had a book. I had a ready-made clientele. And I had a boss that was willing to let me learn. My first day as a ‘professional groomer,’ I had 6 dogs to groom. That was 1980.

Fast forward to 2014. Thirty-four years later. The pet industry opened huge doors of opportunity for me. My education was not in the classroom. It was on the job. I was no longer rebellious. I was focused. I was able to turn my passion into a career. And I took it seriously. I may not have earned many A’s in school (I don’t think I ever saw one of those come across a report card!) but I didn’t let that stop me from achieving A’s in real life.

In the early years, I had no idea what I would set out to accomplish – but if I was going to do this – I was going to be the best dog groomer I could possibly be.

It has been a non-stop learning opportunity as I climbed the stairway of knowledge – and business. The pet industry is limitless with what you can achieve for yourself – and for others that may join you on your journey.

Over the years I’ve started many pet related businesses including: a fleet of mobile grooming vans, a grooming shop, a grooming school, a publishing company, a luxury pet report, and an internet based library of educational streaming videos. I’ve had the chance to travel the world with the pet grooming industry, first as a top rated pet stylist then as an award winning speaker. I’ve been able to share my quest of knowledge by creating top rated curriculums and by writing books. I’ve watched a couple of my companies hit the million dollar mark in annual sales. I’ve seen some of them grow at tremendous rates. I’ve been amazed at the staying power of others. We’ve weathered challenging times that would destroy most businesses – but we’ve faced the struggles and persevered.

As you look ahead to 2014, what do you plan on doing with your career? Are you happy with where you are? Are you making the type of money you are comfortable with? Are you satisfied with the quality of your work? Do you have a steady stream of regular clients? Are you booked in weeks in advanced or even a year out with repeat clients? Do you enjoy going to work each day?

Here are two quotes I love.

The first one is from Hall of Fame football coach Vince Lombardi. He said, “If you’ll not settle for anything less than your best, you will be amazed at what you can accomplish in your lives.”

The second one is from Diana Ross. She stated, “You can’t just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream; you’ve got to get out there and make it happen for yourself.”

The pet service business is an amazing field to be in. You – alone – are responsible for your destiny. Only YOU can change your career path. If you are not thrilled with where you currently are in life – change it! Only you hold the key.

Once I got through my difficult phase in life – I found a fabulous career path. One filled with challenges and rewards. With each step, new doors of opportunity appeared. If I chose to work hard – very hard at mastering each task, I had more doors open. It’s been an amazing journey that I wouldn’t trade for a million years.

What are you going to do to change your career path and make it the most rewarding year yet? 2014 holds many promises if you choose to open the doors. Your rewarding journey can start simply by taking the steps towards a new opportunity.

Happy Trimming!

~Melissa

New Year’s Resolutions Can Be Dreams with Deadlines

A recent study divided people who made New Year’s resolutions into two groups.

1. Those who made New Year’s resolutions and wrote it down.
2. Those who made a New Year’s resolution but neglected to write it down.

You know what? The results were amazing. For the group that did not write down their New Year’s resolution, only 4% of them kept their resolution. However, for the people that wrote down the resolution, a whopping 44% of them had kept their New Year’s resolution.

“You can’t hit a target you can’t see” says motivational speaker Brian Tracy. And he is so right. A dream is a wish. Most people don’t write down their wishes – Thus, most wishes don’t come true.

Another one of his famous quotes is, “Goals in writing are dreams with deadlines.”

So have you made your New Year’s resolutions yet? Have you put pen to paper or your fingers to keyboard? If you’ll just take a few minutes and get your dreams down on paper, your odds for success are going to increase tenfold.

So what are your goals — what are your dreams — what are your aspirations? If you really want to make them happen, put together a plan.

Do you want to go for doing six dogs a day to eight? Have you divided your day so you know how long you have to spend on each pet and still get the job accomplished? Maybe your plan includes dividing the types of dogs you take each day in order to accomplish your goal. This division might come from the size of dogs you take. Or it might be the degree of difficulty. Obviously it’s going to be easier to wash a Beagle than it is to do a full scissor job on a poodle.

Do you want to become a certified master groomer or enter the competition ring? What type of knowledge do you need to gain before you’re successful at that endeavor? Do you need to learn the foundation of dog grooming first? The foundation would be anatomy, structure and movement. Next will come mastering technical skills like; bathing, brushing, dematting, drying, clipping, scissoring, hand- stripping. Once your foundation work is down, now it’s time to take a breed. Pick one breed — and one breed only. Focus on that single breed. Read the books. Watch videos put out by top professionals on the breed. Study with professional breeders and handlers. Go to conformation dog shows. Attend workshops and seminars. Once you master one breed, you’ll find it much easier to learn additional breeds.

Do you want to own your own business? What will it take to make that happen? Outline the steps it’s going to take for you to gain the experience necessary to open your own salon or to go mobile. Once you have the experience, then it’s time to create a full-fledged business plan. A well thought out business plan will be your roadmap to starting your own business successfully.

Whatever your goal, the important part is to get it down on paper. The style that you get it down will be all your own. Some people do better doing outlines. Other people do better with simple lists. Others find mind maps work extremely well. Whatever your style, write it down. The more detailed you are about the necessary steps required, the more likely you will succeed.

Then, post it where you’re going to see it. Set a timeline to it and then energetically take action to complete each detailed step. The steps can be small — and sometimes smaller steps are good. It gives you a sense of accomplishment each time you get to move up the staircase of success.

2014 is just around the corner. What do you want to accomplish? Make those New Year’s resolutions. No matter what your goals, remember that just by simply writing them down are more likely to happen.

Happy Trimming!

~Melissa

Corrective Grooming

Photo: Award winning pet stylist and Learn2GroomDogs.com Training Partner, Irina “Pina” Pinkusevich, is a true master of corrective grooming tactics as she turns a Poodle into a Bedlington Terrier.

Corrective grooming is an art. It’s the art of accentuating the positive aspects of the pet while minimizing their faults. In order to be effective at corrective grooming, it’s important to understand canine anatomy, structure and movement plus correct breed profiles. Having an eye for balance, style and proportion is also critical.

Not all dogs or trims are candidates for corrective grooming. You must have an owner who is willing to leave some coat on a dog in order to hide its defects or accentuate the positive aspects of the pet. If a client opts for a short, low maintenance trim — you’ll not be able to apply corrective grooming tactics. However, if the client is willing to let you leave the pet in a slightly longer trim, there is much that you can do to accentuate the physique of a dog.

Corrective grooming is all about the illusion of creating a dog of perfect proportion and body structure to fit the correct breed profile of that dog. Once the stylist understands how to read and interpret a breed standard, they have a blueprint of what the pet should look like – if it was perfect. Many breed standards will actually outline the correct size, length, and proportions of the pet’s individual body parts in relationship to each other.

Once you can interpret the breed standard it’s just a matter of connecting the dots. Stealthy trimming can accentuate the key points of the pet while detracting from their faults. A talented professional pet stylist is actually an artist – a sculptor of fur.

Understanding how to do this will change the classification between a “groomer” and a “stylist”. A groomer only cleans the pet. They remove the coat with no focus on styling the fur. A pet stylist, on the other hand, is well versed in breed profile trimming. They have outstanding technical skills clipping and scissoring. They have a solid understanding correct structure and movement. When trimming the pet, they adjust the amount of fur left on the dog to highlight their best features while minimizing their weak points.

Many professionals are happy with just being a competent groomer. However, what really creates a salon that is in high demand? Have at least one talented pet stylist in your grooming department. An experienced, and correctly trained, pet stylist can easily go on to upper levels of the grooming world. Many are Certified Master Stylists under the voluntary certification testing organizations in the United States. Others go on to be successful in the AKC confirmation ring or the pet grooming contest arena. Some high achievers can be found in all areas; certified stylists, exhibit dogs on the conformation world plus show off their styling skills in the competitive grooming ring.

Here is a list of the typical areas we can influence with every day pets. Armed with a solid understanding of the canine species, a talented pet stylist can hide common defects while emphasizing the best features of the animal. The more you know about proper canine anatomy, structure and movement and breed profiles, the easier it will be to apply corrective grooming applications. It is also critical you have excellent technical techniques along with an eye for balance, style, and proportion.

Outline
• square or rectangular body shape
• topline
• undercarriage
• tail set
• neck length
• head

Bone & Body Structure
• front and rear legs
• front and rear assembly
• feet
• skull shape
• jaw length
• ears set
• tail set
• eyes
• neck

Coat
• texture
• color
• density

Happy Grooming!

~Melissa