It's spring, and I have my mind on grooming again. A girl that used to work for me went to a regular grooming school and then came here to the kennel to set up shop. Prior to that, the only dog grooming tips I'd ever gotten where from the local sheep shearer! (you can imagine how helpful that was, lol) I picked up a lot of neat tricks from her experiences in school, but there are so many other things I would like to learn. Most of what I have learned I've just had to figure out for myself. I am getting better with practice on things like Poodle top knots, and some hand scisoring. And I can do a pretty decent Schnauzer cut.

Things I would like to learn are hand stripping, and more about different types of coat conditioners to use on the different types of hair coats. I'm curious to find a good conditioner for wire haired breeds, something to make them nice and shiny, but not soft. I found a human product I like called Sur Groom, it does a nice job and smells great but it is tricky to apply and not make the dog greasy looking. Wonder how a product like Sho Sheen (a horse product) would work on dogs? I used to use it on colts I was getting ready to sell for my former land lord, it sure made them pretty!

It would just be great to chat with someone about grooming stuff.

Yea my Mom, Cousin, and Aunt have a buisness in dog grooming. It is called Pampered Pups. They get so about five dogs a day. Some are small and some are really big they get all kinds and dogs and even some cats.

Neat! Sounds like a real family business. Are you involved with it also? Have they had the shop very long?

I would sure hate to have to groom cats though. Well, I just wouldn't, I'm allergic to them. They make my eyes swell shut if I touch them. On a sad note, I found our last barn cat dead tonight. It was one of the few cats I really did like, he was a pretty bright orange, long haired cat. He just didn't know he was a cat, he lived in the barn with the goats and Komondor's.