Sunday, September 5, 2010

Audiences

One of the biggest differences between in-home and traditional salon grooming is the potential for your work to have an audience. Most traditional salons gently refuse the owner who wishes to stay during the groom. This is for many reasons, including distraction, litigation and time constraints. Corporate groomers are well aware of the challenges of an audience during the grooming process. They don’t call those salons “fishbowls” for nothing. (Please folks, do not let your kids bang on the glass. And don’t you do it either. Seriously, it’s not appropriate anywhere.) Often the behaviour of a pet is influenced by the presence of the owner, much like kids at kindergarten who kick up a holy fuss while Mom is there and happily run and eat sand in the sandbox the moment her foot crosses the threshold to leave. A refusal to allow the owner to stay can seem suspiciously secretive, but it is not intended to be so. When I owned my salon I often told people that they were welcome to watch me groom any dog but their own.

Working in homes is quite different. While I do ask for a little space if the dog becomes distracted, one of key advantages to having the groomer come to the home is the opportunity to observe. Often owners have told me how much difficulty they have bathing or brushing or even medicating their pets, and express disbelief when I tell them how well-behaved I find Fluffy. They finally get to see how the magic happens. Although so far most people have insisted they don’t need to stay, not one has been able to resist peeking at least once.

In households with children I have suddenly found myself both workman and entertainment. Fascinated by the process, the kids unleash their questions, hardly pausing for the answers and interjecting their own tales and commentary. After listening to my explanation of the bath I was giving her dog, one adorable poppet kept popping her head around the corner to tell me about her My Little Pony who also suffered terribly with seasonal allergies and not only required a medicated bath with a measuring cup, but also a mysterious purple lotion. After watching me dry the dog with my high-velocity dryer, she opted to allow Pony to air dry.

Since often it is children who most desperately wanted to explore the grooming salon, in-home grooming has proven to be ideal. Magic is proven instead to be practise, patience, confidence and elbow grease. And I have had someone to keep me company and prevent me from singing off-key disco to the dog. But more about that another time.
Artwork trademarked by Christopher Cowley, Windchill Studios

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