Behavior Cases Shouldn’t Be Frustrating Ep200

[00:00:00] Episode 200 of the Creating Great Grooming Dogs podcast. Can you believe it? 200 episodes This week we are talking about how behavior cases should not be frustrating. I know somebody out there just said what? Of course they are. If you are frustrated working on behavior cases, working with dogs and pets who have difficulty with grooming, we are gonna troubleshoot that this week.

[00:00:24] There are some things that we can do.

[00:00:27] This is the Creating Great Grooming Dog Show. I'm Chrissy Nemeyer Smith. I'm a master groomer behavior specialist, a certified professional dog trainer, a certified behavior consultant for canines, a certified professional groomer, a fear free, certified professional, and educator at the whole pet grooming academy.

[00:00:42] And the owner of Happy Critters in Nashua, New Hampshire. And this, my friends and colleagues, is the show where we talk about teaching dogs to be good for grooming and for other types of care. So let's talk about behavior cases. And if you are a groomer and you are working on behavior problems, working with dogs who have difficulty with grooming and you're getting frustrated, there are two big, broad categories.

[00:01:07] We're gonna drop those into. One category is safety, frustration happens because you are stressed out for a reason. Is it because you feel unsafe? Is it because you know that this dog is set up in a situation that's unsafe? Okay. Safety is gonna be a big one. And then the other one is, are you trying to meet unrealistic expectations?

[00:01:30] And that's a customer service angle. So there are two big main categories that we're gonna get into when we start talking about why are you frustrated? Working behavior cases, and I'm gonna throw in here because my dog trainer background, I, I think if you ask trainers like, are you frustrated by working with dogs that have barking problems?

[00:01:53] We'd be like, um, no. That's the problem we're working on, we're working on this issue. We're not trying to get a job done despite the issue. This is the job is to work on the issue. So if we're getting frustrated, it probably means that something has gone out of our control. Something's gone. Amok, amok, amok, amok.

[00:02:16] So something is not right, something , has gone wrong. And I want you to think of those two categories. Is something unsafe? Are there unrealistic expectations? So let's jump into safety, because safety is a big one. ? If we are frustrated, is it because we know that this dog is doing stuff that's unsafe, unsafe for them, and unsafe for us?

[00:02:42] And that happens a lot. That is why. And so, so often I talk about how, , the reason why dogs find grooming, difficult is that they find it unpleasant, uncomfortable, and or scary. ? If this dog finds it unpleasant, uncomfortable, and or scary, they're going to behave like a frightened animal. So if we think, well, this dog is behaving like a frightened animal and we know that's not safe.

[00:03:12] . Is this dog likely to do something unsafe? Is this dog gonna kick your clippers? Is this dog gonna kick your shears? Try to bite your shears? Is this dog gonna try to leap off of the table? We have the grooming loop for a reason. We buckle them in for safety. Most of our dogs understand leashes and when they're buckled in, I've, I've started calling it buckling in 'cause I'm tired of the, the hate toward grooming loops.

[00:03:36] They're just on leash on the table so that they know, oops, I'm tired. I can't jump. . But if we're worried that that dog wants to go launching itself off, we know it's unsafe, we're going to start getting frustrated, we're going to start getting stressed because we know, oh my God, I have to keep this dog safe while I'm trying to get , this grooming done.

[00:03:55] Now, are you able to keep that dog safe? How much extra work is that causing you to try to keep this dog from jumping off the table or from grabbing tools or whatever it is they're trying to do? Are we able to keep this dog safe and safety guys, when we take a dog into our care, we are now responsible for that dog's safety while in our care.

[00:04:22] That can be really stressful. I want you to ask yourself this. If a dog is injured because of a behavior problem, like that dog that just turned around and tried to bite you and tried to bite the scissors , and cut himself biting the scissors, are you going to be able to provide first aid for a mouth wound on a dog who has been aggressive toward the scissors and toward you for the last five minutes?

[00:04:45] Probably not. Probably not. . When we're talking safety, I think whether you realize it or not, although I think my listeners realize it, but if this might be the first time you're , tuning into the show, , I think whether you realize it or not, something in your head is saying,

[00:05:00] this isn't safe. That there are so many things that could go wrong. . We have to set up for safety. But that is the training mindset, right? Dog trainers, we don't just go, okay, well let's bring him to the park where all the little kids are and we'll just work on it there. Even though he is terrified and aggressive with kids, we know better.

[00:05:19] We're like, no, we're gonna set things up to be safe. You might be getting frustrated because you realize this situation is terribly unsafe. Now, we also have to worry about safety of the groomer ourselves personally, if I get hurt, you know, like I don't wanna get hurt at work and getting hurt.

[00:05:39] I think owners tend to think about, , safety in terms of, I don't think my dog would bite you, but trying to grab a dog and hold them on the table so that they don't jump off is gonna hurt us. We have a lot of shoulder injuries, back injuries, just trying to catch dogs before they fall off the end of the table, or jump off or try to turn away from us,

[00:06:00] if those kind of things are happening. You haven't been able to effectively set up for safety, . And it is stressing you out. It's about being more prepared, to set up, to make this safe. ? There are lots of ways for us to get hurt. Scratches and bruises and twisted joints and muscle soreness.

[00:06:20] , and I want you to also recognize that some of these dogs that are coming in for grooming have no business being dropped off at a grooming shop. , as a dog trainer, I think dog trainers are, more likely to know the kind of aggression issues that are out there. But those owners might be like, oh yeah, , he loses his mind if he sees a stranger at like 50 feet away. But they think nothing of, I'm gonna go to the haircut store and drop him off for a haircut. We need to make sure that they know that that is not safe. That is not okay. Dangerous dogs do not belong in there unless they are actively working through in a very, very safe way.

[00:06:59] So ask yourself, is this dog a danger to me? And if you really are worried, , here's something that you might find quite liberating. You might really like this idea. Not all dog trainers work with aggressive dogs. Why should all groomers have to work with aggressive dogs? And I've had so many people go, what?

[00:07:18] What? Yeah. Not all dog trainers work with aggression cases. Plenty of dog trainers are like, ah, you know what? This is just an obedience one class. I'm sorry, he's, he really doesn't belong in here. I can refer you to somebody else. But this isn't where we work on dogs who are unsafe. You're in the wrong class.

[00:07:37] I don't do that as groomers. We do not have to, I of course, encourage all of you to learn about behavior because behavior's awesome and learning how to teach these dogs to feel safe. The three C's, calm, comfortable, and cooperative. But if you think that this dog is really likely to hurt you. Something just , makes you think like, oh, I have a weird sense about this one.

[00:08:01] Trust your gut. Okay? You do not need to groom every dog that comes to you, there are a lot of dogs who are unsafe. So safety is one of the reasons why we as groomers get frustrated and our owners have no idea about safety. We'll talk about that more later when we talk about a safety policy. But they don't know that their dog is unsafe.

[00:08:20] They're like, oh, you can put a muzzle on 'em. Maybe add some more people. We have to spell it out like, yeah, that does not render your dog safe. , dogs have died that way. Just panicking. Even though they had a muzzle on, they can get a muzzle off and easily bite someone. , so muzzles do not render a dog safe. Dogs can still be quite dangerous. Dogs can hurt themselves. And here's something else to think about when we're talking about safety. Is this pet likely to hurt other pets or people? , and that might not be something that happens in your particular situation, but what if it's a dog that can easily pull its owner to go attack another dog in the parking lot, or another person in the parking lot or in your waiting room?

[00:09:09] there are some dangerous dogs out there, and it's okay to refer them to somebody else. There are lots of different things that we can do to help our owners understand. I want to help you with your problem, but I might need to do that by referring you to somebody else. ? Safety.

[00:09:26] Safety. Safety, safety. Now, another reason why you might get really frustrated working behavior cases, it kind of goes along with safety. The dog who is. Having a behavior problem, having difficulty with grooming, behaving aggressively or behaving fearfully, or doing any sort of behaviors that are not necessarily calm, comfortable, and cooperative.

[00:09:48] ? When they are responding like a frightened animal, that's when our equipment can get destroyed too. Okay. Dogs kicking equipment, destroying stuff by accident or just trying to like jump off the table and bending a grooming arm or breaking a clip off of a tub, whatever it is. Yeah. We get frustrated.

[00:10:08] Our equipment is really expensive. plenty of groomers have been injured by dogs kicking shears, kicking shears off of tables, kicking shears into them. The couple of times that I have cut myself with my shears is because a dog wiggled and I was just trying so hard to not cut them., Behavior problems are when dogs get hurt, people get hurt, equipment gets broken, and customers get upset. ? So we have a lot riding on it, and we know that, and that can be really frustrating if we feel like we need to do perfect trims on a dog who is not capable of perfect trims.

[00:10:46] I want you to know if a dog gets injured, if you get injured, if equipment gets broken, or if a a customer just really gets upset, we lose money. There's no money in that, so it's okay to pump the brake and say, um, I don't think we're gonna be doing this particular. Grooming that you want today.

[00:11:08] And we'll talk more about that in the next part. Are you an experienced groomer who wants to take your career to the next level? Sign up for my class. You can stay here and enjoy the free stuff. But also the Master Groomer Behavior Specialist is for experienced groomers.

[00:11:24] There are four eight week classes. We have modules reading and presentations, followed by Live Zoom calls. So if you are interested in taking your career to that next level, the whole Pet Grooming Academy is a licensed postsecondary trade school offering real diplomas for real professionals. And that's where I teach my class.

[00:11:43] So please check it out, wholepetnh.Com. So if we set up for safety. We're also setting up for customer expectations. Customer expectations is a huge part of why we get frustrated. Oh my God. I told them that he would look like this and they showed me the picture, and I can't get him to match because he just won't hold still.

[00:12:03] It's a huge source of frustration for us as groomers, but let's pump the brake a minute here and go, wait a minute. This dog is having difficulty. We need to get our customer expectations in line and we need to offer them some things that can be achieved today. It's not perfection or nothing,

[00:12:24] it's not like, oh, I turn you away. It's how can I help you with the dog? What we are seeing today, this pet. How can I help this pet learn to be good for grooming for a lifetime of grooming? 15 years, 15 years of grooming? How can we offer maybe modified grooming sessions, maybe collaborate with their vet or with a trainer, and become part of a team approach to teaching this pet to be comfortable with grooming?

[00:12:52] But customer expectations and setting up for safety are a huge part. And starting in with a safety policy, ? A safety policy spells it out for owners. If there's a behavior problem, we are going to slow down and work on the behavior problem, and we're gonna charge you for the time that we spend because it's different than the average groom,

[00:13:17] your dog may not be completed. Your dog may not be perfect. You are not going to the haircut store or the nail trim store. These are not objects that we can sell. They're not something that's on a shelf. These are services that we offer and your pet isn't well prepared for our services. Talking to owners about it in terms of safety instead of behavior problems, and I'm gonna go into that just a little bit more here.

[00:13:47] I think a lot of the time groomers are like, well, there was a behavior charge. Or He's really not good for it. Instead, I really want you to focus in on this isn't safe and I am your professional and I need to keep your pet safe. Safety is the way to get owner compliance. This is the way for them to understand it.

[00:14:09] 'cause otherwise they think, yeah, he's a lot more work, but I have to pay for it, you know, and they will never work on it. Can I say that again? If they just think it's a purchase, oh, he's not good. They charge me more. They charge me more. 'cause you're not really good about your feet. Sparky. Sparky looks up at them all adoring and they're like, but we love you Sparky.

[00:14:29] So we'll pay the $20 more. They don't understand that there is a goal here and that working with their pet is something that they should still be doing and that we are still doing. . Don't just charge 'em a behavior fee. They will just bring in more money and it will make you really frustrated.

[00:14:49] He's had this problem all along, why isn't he getting any better? And we'll be like, I don't know. Are you working with 'em at home? So they'll all look at you like, what? No, we pay $20 more every time. Like groomers are just lazy. Can I just tell you, if you're not a groomer, groomers are not lazy. But sometimes we're not real good at explaining that we're trying to keep your pet safe.

[00:15:14] We have some goals to try to help this pet learn to be good for grooming, learn to be good for grooming, and that's an owner responsibility. So when we talk about safety, we can use words like, your dog isn't well prepared for our services today. What can we try today? What is most important to you?

[00:15:37] Let's hash it out and figure out , what we think we can complete and stick to your standards. ? Groomers, right now, I want you to say this in your head. I have standards that I am going to stick to. No. I am not going to do things that I think are not in your dog's best interest or unsafe. We already talked about safety.

[00:15:59] No, no. I'm not gonna do unsafe stuff. Owner responsibilities include things like not letting your dog hurt people. And everyone, let's just take a moment and think about the fact that groomers and vets and vet techs and like we're all people, you can't just bring him to the professional. Like, oh yes, I know he bites.

[00:16:19] That's why we bring him to you. Like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's an owner responsibility to be working with their pet. This might be something that we continue to work with. This might be something that we send you to somebody else to work with. , but this has to be something you continue to work with because dear customers I want you to know grooming is a luxury service.

[00:16:46] Having your dog groomed by a professional is a luxury service. I know. Everyone's like, no, it's necessary. It keeps him healthy. You could groom your own dog. Yep. You are likely to hurt him while you do it. You're likely to get hurt by him while you do it, but we wanna prevent that, but also while maintaining our safety standards and our humane standards to help your pet learn to be good for it in the future.

[00:17:13] And if an owner does not want to be part of that, tell them no. Use the same no that you use. If they're like, well, you say he's matted at, but I brushed him yesterday and I know he's fine. So I want him long and fluffy and I also need him done in half an hour. Every groomer out there is gonna say, that isn't possible.

[00:17:37] No. Let me show you that he is matted, and the owner's like, Nope, nope, nope. He's not like, we'll show you. We'll get in there. Or we'll just tell you no. You need to treat it the same way. I cannot get perfectly groomed dogs done over behavior problems. No, no. Because we know it's unsafe. We know it's unsafe.

[00:18:00] We are the professional. And if their dog gets hurt, they're gonna come back and say, you're the professional and you should have known better. And guys, I'm gonna agree with them. I'm gonna agree with them. As a professional, we should know better. Accidents are going to happen, but we should be setting up for safety every time.

[00:18:18] And that can include telling an owner, no, no. , these are the things I'm offering you a full trim done beautifully to. Perfection is not one of them today. I would like to work toward that for the future. 15 years is a long time. So a 15 year lifespan, I am not gonna fight with your dog every four to eight weeks for 15 years.

[00:18:43] That's ridiculous. It's absurd, so what can we offer our customers that decrease our stress, that decrease our anxiety, that make grooming behavior problems less frustrating? How can we make these things easier So if we've already talked to our owners about our safety policy, all right, now they're like, Ooh, we've already talked to them about safety, that we don't want their dog to get hurt.

[00:19:06] We can then talk about what do we think your dog is gonna be like and set up some timeframe with goals. If a dog can't handle what would normally be a groom for them, let's say, let's say it's a dog who normally in a perfect world would take an hour and a half and this dog can't handle that.

[00:19:26] Why would we go any longer than that yet? I keep seeing groomers like, and it took me like three hours and by the end he was really, really bad. And, and what we're actually doing is setting that dog up to fail, setting that dog up for the worst possible situation ever. And now you're also an hour and a half behind on every other dog you were gonna do that day.

[00:19:49] It's not like you had an extra hour and a half hanging around, you know? So if we know that a dog can't handle the normal amount of grooming like that hour and a half, book 'em less time. We're not doing perfect trims on dogs with behavior problems. We do a hell no on that hard pass. We are not doing that,

[00:20:07] we don't do perfect trims on dogs with behavior problems. So if we tell them, let's talk about what are most important today. Most of our owners are gonna say, , nails around his eyes, can you get around his backside to help us keep him clean? And then figure out, okay, what if we book a half an hour or an hour and then we can lower our frustration because we are setting this up to be safe and we've set a timer.

[00:20:38] I'm not working with your dog longer than that amount of time. I know your dog can't handle the regular amount of time your dog can't handle an hour and a half. Let's try an hour, and he is not gonna be finished, but I'm gonna work on 'em for an hour and I'm gonna try to get , those main goals done if I can, to the best of my ability working toward the three Cs.

[00:21:00] Calm, comfortable, and cooperative, , these are some of the ways that we can modify some sessions, still get some things done while making progress. We need to be making progress, we need to be thinking about the future groomings for a 15 year lifespan or longer. Now, we also can say if we're doing smaller timeframes,

[00:21:22] if I can see your dog for, , maybe it's only nails that they're worried about, that might be a separate appointment. Let's just do nails as a separate appointment because the nail trim problem takes us a while and he can't handle a long endurance run, so let's set up nail trimming as its own appointment.

[00:21:41] Maybe it's drying that your dog has difficulty with. Maybe we're gonna set up , let's do a bath. And do some brushing and stuff, but we're gonna send him home damp. He's not gonna be fully dry, we're not gonna try the dryer at all. Let him air dry. And tomorrow he comes in for trimming and book it.

[00:21:59] By the time, tell them like, I'm right. I'm gonna book you an hour and I'm gonna book you an hour tomorrow. And that's still two hours of grooming time. But now you can do the job that you think this dog really needs and not be frustrated. Don't be frustrated if you are frustrated. Working behavior cases.

[00:22:21] Like I said, it probably comes down to safety or unrealistic expectations. So let's get in line with the idea that this dog needs some training. This dog isn't well prepared for our services. Here's what we can offer you today. And if they don't want that, we can also say no. We are not gonna let people run us over and put us in unsafe situations.

[00:22:47] That's how we keep behavior cases from frustrating us, I love working behavior cases, but I always set it up to be really safe and I set it up with owner expectations and my owners are happy with anything I can complete. How cool is that? So these are some of the key things to help make this more pleasant for you and for the dog, and still make money.

[00:23:10] So if you enjoy the show, please remember to share it with a friend, share it with another groomer, share it with another pet pro, share it with an owner, but share it creating great grooming dogs.com. Thanks. Have a great week.