rooming dogs (and/or cats) all day is an easy job,” said no one ever. Despite the fact that I’ve been showing up to do just that for over 40 years, it doesn’t mean that there aren’t days when I seriously question my life choices. Luckily, though, there are some things you can do that will pay long-term dividends by making your work go more smoothly. Here are four of them that have benefited me:

When a pet owner has a requested grooming style for their pet that is a whole lot of work, there are ways to tweak the haircut a wee bit over time that make the trim easier to do without sacrificing the overall look.

Here is an example: Ming was a well-bred Shih Tzu that came to me when the owner moved here from another state. Ming had long, flowing locks, which the previous groomer had hand-scissored so that her body coat was about an inch and a half all over. That fur blended into legs that were tight at the top but got longer from there. She had a tied-up topknot and a long beard. It was a beautifully done groom, but replicating it took me about twice as long as it would for me to groom a similar dog.

The owner wanted Ming to look precisely the way her very talented groomer had previously done her, and I complied…at first. But once I got to know both the dog and her human better, I gradually changed the groom, still keeping the original idea but making it easier to get there.

I used a vacuum system and a long guard comb to achieve a one-and-a-half-inch body length instead of scissoring it, making that part of the groom go faster while still maintaining the same look. And since Ming was fed soft food, her exceedingly long beard was always a janitorial problem. I asked if I could shorten it just a bit, and her owner agreed. And I thinned it out some, too, which made her look more balanced. It also made grooming her face go much more quickly because I wasn’t battling as much long, tangled, food-filled fur. Her owner loved the changes, so I got bolder and shortened the face up even more.

Here is an example: Ollie is a Tibetan Terrier adopted as an older dog by people who had never owned a dog with groomable fur. When they first got him and brought him to me, he was horribly matted, and we had to clip him close all over. They hated it. We had a long discussion about home coat maintenance, which tools to buy and how to use them, and the frequency of grooming visits. We grew his coat out to be about three inches long, and all was well…until he came back in matted again.

Ollie is not really a fan of being brushed, and seeing his name on my schedule was enough to make me wish I had chosen a different career. His owners were trying to keep his coat brushed and combed at home, but he was still a massive project every time he came in. Then one day, my daughter tried a tool on his coat that I never would have reached for. It was a de-shedding type of tool; one with sharp, curved teeth. It pulled out a tremendous amount of the troublesome undercoat that caused Ollie to be matted each visit.

Since we started doing this, Ollie is happier to come in for grooming, I am happier to see his name in the book and his owner has no idea what is different, but says he doesn’t hate to be brushed as much anymore. He now has minimal tangles between grooms and still looks terrific with his three inches of fluff.

One of the biggest challenges pet groomers face is working on dogs who have gone too long between appointments. By training your customers to get on a reasonable schedule for their individual pet, pre-booking can make an incredible difference.

There are various techniques to achieve this. Some groomers simply hand their customers a card listing their next appointment when they pick up their pet. Others say at pickup, “To ensure we can get Mr. Flufferpants in when you’d like, let’s set up his next appointment now.” At our salon, we preschedule customers for the entire year, so we go into each January knowing our calendar is full.

Pre-booking is a game-changer that makes regular maintenance grooming much easier.

Grooming pets all day will never be easy, but there are ways to streamline your work and make it more pleasant for both you and the animals you care for.