With 30 years of professional grooming experience, I love teaching people how to groom their own dogs through articles, YouTube videos and private sessions, both in-person and virtual.
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Starting is Half the Battle! - The Schnauzer Grooming Club Newsletter
Why do we think learning something new is hard? Because, usually unconsciously, we quickly start assessing risks. With grooming, some of those are obvious, like immediate harm caused by accidents. These are pretty easy to get instruction around, though, so then what’s really stopping us?
I believe it’s change, specifically changes to and within ourselves. Change creates uncertainty, especially when it comes to positive outcomes, because it’s really hard to imagine outcomes we’ve never seen before, especially not in detail. They are often abstract and, almost always, they actually lead to more change, so more uncertainty. When we make changes in how, why, or when we do things it’s much harder to imagine unknown gains than to imagine ways things can go wrong.
Celty's professional puppy eyes.
It’s so easy to imagine negative outcomes and consequences that we do a ton of it without even realizing that we do. That’s because we’ve been observing and playing out repeating patterns our whole lives. Maybe we got criticized for mistakes growing up, or were told we needed to “try harder,” or we only got approval when we succeeded. All of these and more create strong patterns to avoid “failure.” If we never learned how to source our “being ok” from within, separate from the responses and reactions of others, it can be very easy for the consequences of trying something new to hijack our thinking and beliefs before we’re even aware of it.
Learning new things requires the following:
* Resources (Time, Money)
* Practice
* Refinement
* INEVITABLE FAILURE
That last one, that’s the one our subconscious is really focused on, and the others become excuses to avoid that one. Inevitable failure (otherwise known as a mistake) threatens our unconscious mind if we haven’t realized that our perceptions of what mistakes mean are created by patterns of past experience. The words we’ve heard from others become the words we tell ourselves, like “I’m so stupid,” “I can’t do anything right,” “nothing works out for me,” “I should get it by now,” etc. Most of us have internalized patterns and beliefs that we lose validation, connection and even relationships if we make mistakes and we turn them into proof that we’re ”not enough.” No wonder we want to skip the learning part and jump straight to already knowing how! Unfortunately, we also know that’s impossible and so we find reasons to just not start, not try. These “known” risks can just feel too high.
A puppy from one of our previous litters.
We need a new metric for achieving while we are learning, so we can begin to visualize previously unknown positive outcomes and bring them into reality. When it comes to grooming, here are some steps you can take:
* Make a list of benefits — build deeper relationships and bonds of trust with my dog, personally manage my dog’s special needs, monitor my dog’s health and physical condition, socialize my puppy or rescue, save money, control my schedule, etc.
* Set attainable goals that are within your control. Mastery doesn’t occur all at once so set task-based goals, not too many at a time, that are within your control. For example, scissoring around the feet, getting your dog used to having its face held and the sound of the clippers are great when you’re just starting out. Later, clippering the face, pads and “privates” and starting to trim the furnishings like legs, eyebrows and beard. Don’t be afraid to ask a professional to do what you aren’t ready for while you are building your skills to take over on new aspects of grooming.
* Get support and join a community of other learners. It makes a world of difference to share your efforts and experiences with others that are going through the same process. “Experts” in the area you’re exploring usually don’t remember the very first things they needed to learn so very often people at your own level, even other beginners, can be great teachers because they are only a step or two ahead of you, instead of a hundred. By the same token, as you share what you have learned with others, you realize you do have knowledge and you can contribute to the success of someone else and that’s a great feeling.
* Observe/Acknowledge but don’t judge your finished product, and what you wish you’d done differently. Let your skills build on each other like rungs on a ladder and watch yourself climb to competence at the natural, easy rate that’s right for YOU, not what you imagine it “should” be or might be for others. They say “comparison is the thief of joy” and I can tell you after decades of learning that there is always someone else who you wish you were as skilled as so release the comparison habit early. You might just find, as I have, that some of those people feel the same way about you.
Finally, know that while every outcome affects the future, you get to choose how. Every result is an opportunity to create new goals OR to punish yourself and you get to decide which it is. It’s not always easy to choose giving ourselves a chance, or giving ourselves the benefit of the doubt, but even baby steps in that direction can make it easier to imagine the new benefits, not just the possible consequences, of learning something new.
Who we are and how we perceive ourselves changes when we learn something new — in small but sometimes significant ways, we become a new person because learning requires change. Changes in mindset, skillsets, habits and routines, build a new you. You add a new identity into the mix of things that you are, in this case “groomer of my dog,” and based on how you view yourself (or are influenced by how others view you) this new part of yourself can be exciting or scary. All of this keeps many people stuck and paralyzed so if you are not one of them, and you are learning new things then congratulate yourself. You don’t have to take everything on all at once and you are not alone!
Leslie is a career dog professional of 30 years: groomer, trainer, and former veterinary nurse. These days she’s teaching grooming, competitive planning and mindset coaching to Schnauzer lovers everywhere, who want to do more with their dogs but aren’t sure how to start or to move to the next level. If you’d like to know how Leslie can help you, either virtually or in-person, one-on-one or through a seminar or class, she invites you to reach out to her at StrawHatStandards@gmail.com to start a conversation.
Member Q & A:
I get this or a similar question pretty often —
For the fine tooth deshedding rake, do I need to “dull” that too?
Answer: The short answer is yes, dulling is important for all bladed tools you use to strip coat, but the more important answer is that you want the one with the wider spaced teeth, not the fine-tooth one. So many blades cause a lot more coat cutting/breakage, even when you dull it.
Tips for “dulling” your stripping tools include digging in the sand/dirt (honestly!), and keeping it in the dishwasher for several weeks. Note: I have heard some off-brands rust, so I recommend the true Andis deshedding tool, not look-alikes.
Old And New:
Many years ago, I wrote this article on grooming our senior dogs for my Town’s Magazine, Warrenton Lifestyle. It’s not specific to Schnauzers but it’s fully applicable! Click here to view the full article on our website.
Karma had her first litter of puppies this month!
On the other end of the spectrum are the puppies! If you’d like to get Straw Hat Standards “Pupdates,” please opt-in to the Straw Hat Standards Newsletter here:
Access to ALL PAST and FUTURE Programs/Classes run in the group (including the upcoming Puppy Grooming Program)
Private Instruction (in-person or virtual)
I’m excited to help you create YOUR ideal hand-stripping or pet grooming curriculum, to learn what YOU need for YOUR DOG, YOUR GOALS, on YOUR SCHEDULE and YOUR BUDGET. Let’s get on a free 30 minute consultation call to figure out what’s right for you — just send me an email at StrawHatStandards@gmail.com to schedule.
Thank you for being a part of my continuing Schnauzer Grooming Journey. I love sharing my 30+ years of professional and personal love of Schnauzers and Grooming with you. If you’d like to directly support what I do, please consider dropping a little something in my Tip Jar here: https://strawhatstandards.ck.page/products/schnauzer-grooming-tip-jar
With 30 years of professional grooming experience, I love teaching people how to groom their own dogs through articles, YouTube videos and private sessions, both in-person and virtual.
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