House Training a Puppy - Common Mistakes

Another great informative video from the guys at Urban Dog Training.

Cat Grooming School - Day 10

Final day of Cat Grooming School. Today was a more relaxing affair. The morning was spent with Danelle teaching us more of the business side of cat grooming. It was very interesting and I can't wait to get back and put things into practice.
One thing she has talked a lot about during the whole course is there is a misunderstanding that cats groom themselves. Educating people that cats actually don't groom themselves, they lick themselves and rearrange the dirt and hair throughout their coats is going to be one of the most important things. I'll be honest, I used to be one of those people who thought cats didn't need grooming and that they groom themselves. I have been enlightened and I have seen the amazing result first hand!

After a FANTASTIC lunch prepared by Dana, some real good southern cooking, we did some final shopping for supplies and then it was time to say goodbye and take some photos. The photo above is most of the participants of the course with Danelle and her daughter Olivia who was one of the instructors. Olivia has been grooming cats since she was about 8 and there is no cat she can't handle! She is also pretty keen to come out to Australia and she just might become a part of the Nose 2 Tail Pet Care team, but she only grooms cats!

It is official and I have the above certificate to prove it. I am Australia's first Certified Feline Master Groomer. If you look at the numbers on the certificate it says 1.1.64 These numbers mean I am number 1 in Queensland, number 1 in Australia and number 66 in the world. There are a lot of people in the world, so I am pretty happy to be the 66th CFMG!

Now I am preparing for my LONG trip home but I'm actually looking forward to this time. It will allow me to start planning all that needs to be done in preparation for offering cat grooming in a few weeks!

Cat Grooming School - Day 9

Well that was one full on day. We had 2 exams first up feline health & anatomy and business management. I was pretty happy to get 90% on both exams!! I was also very happy to have them out of the way.
After checking through the books to see the answers for the questions I was sure I got wrong, it was upstairs for some serious kitten cuddling. There were some really cute kittens from the Humane Society and I was very tempted to smuggle this little one back home with me.

What a cutie he was.

A hand full of the cutest little kitten!

Then it was time to move onto the serious stuff. I had a comb cut, lion cut variation and a face trim to pass to get my certification. I also had one grumpy HUGE Birman to do 2 of the 3 on!

Before - he is staring at the cat on the other table - pretty sure he was keen to get over there and tell them who was boss!

After a nail clip and sanitary clip (and a nice big scratch to my hand!!) it was time to get this grumpy boy into the bath. Once in the bath he was pretty well behaved, which is quite common for the grumpy ones. The water seems to calm them down.

He settled down in the dryer after a while and just sat back and enjoyed the attention. I was able to remove some matting on his back and around his back legs. Had to be quick though as he wasn't the most helpful of cats!

After the bath and blow dry! He turned out to be such a pretty boy with a lovely coat. I really didn't want to cut his coat, but I needed to so I could pass my course. :(

After the comb cut (leaves the coat about 1.5cms long) This is the same length we do for our dog clips which is the next step up from our summer clip. I like this length.

An action shot of me getting out of his range quick smart! This cat had me on edge as it was my final cat and I needed to get things right to pass.

Don't think he was overly happy with this look, so I quickly moved on to the lion clip variation. The lion clip variation is the same as a lion clip but we can do some variation. I had big plans with this, but because of the temperament of this boy I had to be boring and just leave the tail longer than normal.

Lion clip variation - the tail is left longer, normally it is shaved down.

At the end of the day all practicals and written exams are passed and I am now Australia's first Certified Feline Master Groomer! WOW. It feels good to have passed everything and I am happy with how I went.

Tomorrow we head back to class and learn more about the business side of things. I can't wait. Who'd have thought that we would be offering cat grooming at Nose 2 Tail Pet Care. I certainly wouldn't have thought it 6 months ago. Looking forward to meeting all our new cat clients and meeting the cats from our existing clients!

Cat Grooming School - Day 8

Day 8 is over and what a day! I started out with a brown mackerel tabby in pretty bad condition. He had knots and matts all through his body and he was just a little grumpy. His face was really dirty and needed a good clean too.

Can you see the knots sticking out of the coat?

Before the groom

Having a good scrub to get all that dirt and grease off. Also helps to remove all the dandruff that is built up under the knots.

After a bit of a dry in the cage dryer it was into the catty shack vac for a blow dry and matt removal. This took ages as the hair was knotted all over including the legs.

Knots in the coat before and after the blow dry and de matting. If an angry cat comes in for grooming, they hate the feeling of clippers so unless severely pelted they would have the knots removed while being blow dried.

Finished product - coat is so much better and the face is clean and trimmed!

Second cat was a black and white cat who was so very very compliant and was pretty easy to groom. The coat was the usual greasy coat and she was also shedding quite a lot.

During the lion clip.

Pre bath clip off - then it's time for the bath!

Kitty burrito. While they are wrapped up (this soaks up the water from the bath) we clean their ears and eyes. Some of the stuff we clean out is really gross!! This one was pretty good though.

Finished lion clip - and passed the lion clip practical exam with this one - phew!

The third cat of the day has horribly greasy coat which was full of dandruff. Funnily enough, this boys name was Snowball :). He was in need of a very good bath and blow dry. There were also little knots all through the coat that needed to come out!

Having a good scrub!

Snowball liked his bath so much that he nearly fell asleep!! Apparently cats don't like water or being bathed!! lol

Into the blow dryer to get rid of all that excess hair and dandruff!

The finished product. Even though you can't see it in this picture, I passed my sanitary, half belly and full belly practicals on Snowball :).

omorrow we have our health and anatomy exam and the presentation on our chosen disease. After that we have time to finish off the last of our practical exams... only a few more to go :). Can't believe it is nearly the end of the course!

Cat Grooming School - Day 7

So day 7 of cat grooming. Today was a bit different as we had the opportunity to watch Danelle, Olivia and Liz groom some cats first up and show us how they work in a salon environment. It was pretty amazing to see them work as as well oiled machine.
They did 8 long hair and 1 short hair in 2 and a half hours - was really full on for a while. A few of the cats were a little nasty, but it was good to watch how they handled them.

Drying in the Catty Shack Vac - a great way to trap all that flying hair! I must say cat hair is worse than dog hair when it is flying around as it is so fine and gets into everything!

Danelle is showing one of the correct techniques for holding a cat while grooming. I must tell you I have learnt a LOT about the differences between grooming cats and dogs. It is certainly something that needs to be done quicker with cats. Cats can also tolerate a lot more when it comes to positions!

It has taken a while for me to get used to it and realise that they aren't the same as dogs and you can do things differently. It is also great learning about cat grooming from a cat breeder. Danelle knows a lot of tricks and things that you wouldn't know unless you were in the know with showing cats!

This boy was HUGE and he was also not very happy. Liz had to keep a hold on him to keep her safe and him! It was good to watch how Liz managed this big nasty boy without anyone helping to hold him. The Air Muzzle came into play a few times and I will certainly be using it when the time comes!! A great invention!

We had a talk from Danelle's brother in law who does web design on how we can get the best out of our websites. This was good timing as we are looking at doing a whole new overhaul on the Nose 2 Tail Pet Care website!

After lunch I had my turn with a gorgeous brown mackerel tabby who was exceptionally good to groom. He was a little boy with a bit of dandruff and the usual greasy coat, which you can see in the first photo. He got a bath and a blow dry and a belly shave.

It was a bit of a frustrating day today and I am hoping to really get a grasp on my lines over the next few days.

Tomorrow is a full day of grooming, so I am looking forward to getting back into it and perfecting everything. We also have our practical exams... fingers crossed :)

Top 20 Reasons Confinement Training with Puppies Works

This video has been made by Urban Dog Training. It talks about the benefits of crate training your puppy from a young age and why it works. These are great ideas and we highly recommend crate training.

Any time a dog comes into our salons for grooming there is a very high chance that they will be in a crate for some of the time they are in. Get them used to it from a young age so that they don't find it stressful.

Never fear, if your pup is a bit older - it is never too late to crate train and Urban Dog Training have a wealth of resourses on their website if you are after more information.

Urban Dog Training run our Puppy Pre School from our Oxley store on Tuesday nights. If you have a new puppy, be sure that you book them in for Brisbanes BEST puppy pre school!

What are your thoughts on crate training?

Cat Grooming School - Day 6

Day 6 started out with an exam first up on breeds and colours. After a fair bit of study I was pretty confident going into the exam and was happy with my result of 91%. We also got our results from our temperament and handling exam last week and I was very happy to get 100% on that one (was a bit surprised but happy!)
After the exam it was straight into grooming.

This is C2 and she had horrible eyes. After the bath and blow dry she came up shimmering white and everyone was happy to touch her again. I will say she is the BEST cat I have ever groomed - however she is Danelle's demo cat and she baths her every week, so I expected her to be pretty easy. C2 knew that she was pretty again as she went around and tried to get onto everyone's laps for a cuddle.

I also had Diddle to groom and he is a Manx cross. Very happy compliant happy boy. I gave him a bath and blow dry, a de-shed treatment to remove his loose hair and then it was time for another lion cut. He was a little touchy around his stumpy tail, but most of the time he behaved himself.

The third cat I did was Tiger who I was told had scratched up Liz (one of the schools groomers) on his last trip in. He has a yucky coat full of grease and fleas so his coat came up lovely after his bath and blow dry. I also gave him a de-shed treatment and got lots of excess hair out of his coat which I am sure his owners are going to appreciate!

I was happy to get quite a few of my practical exams out of the way. Tomorrow I will probably go for a lion cut exam and probably a face trim. Wish me luck!

I am quite enjoying the aspects of cat grooming and it is a nice change to grooming dogs. I can't wait to offer the service to our customers on my return!

Cat Grooming School - Day 5

Today was the last day of week one. Was a bit surreal to be half way through the course so far, but that didn't last long as there were cats to groom! I had 2 cats to groom today before our temperament and handling exam.

First cat as a big, FAT heavy red tabby named Monkey and he certainly was in need of a groom. As you can see from the photos below his coat was horrible and greasy and full of dandruff. Monkey was a shy cat and pretty easy to maneuver around the table. I put "soft paws" on his back paws (front paws had been de clawed - which is VERY common and I am having trouble with that one!!) Soft paws are a great idea - little caps are glued over the nail and they protect people and their furniture from being shredded! Definitely have a lot of customers who will be interested in this one once I get back home. You can also get them for dogs - a great solution for all those people with hard wood floors that the dogs scratch up!

After a practice sanitary clip, 1/2 belly and full belly shave it was into the bath to scrub all that dead hair dandruff out of his coat. The bath was fine - the dryer was where things got interesting. Monkey wasn't a bit fan and he let me know about it!! My first cat bite - not as bad as I thought it would be. Stung a bit, bit it's all good!

Look how good Monkey looks after his bath and blow dry - amazing difference!
My first cat bite :)

Another Lion cut - starting to get the hang of this!

My next cat was "Annie Rexic" a pretty little calico Japanese Bobtail mix (no tail!!). Very little skinny thing. From one extreme to the other today. She was a little wary of the groom and was very twisty.
Because of the lack of tail, at the owners request I needed to create a bunny tail out of the around the backside - was a little tricky but got there in the end.

Another Lion Clip under the belt!

Bunny Tail :)
After the grooms we had our exam and will find out the results on Monday. I think I did ok - well I hope so! This weekend will be filled with sightseeing through Greenville Sth Carolina and studying for our breed and colour exam next week.