by Chris Anthony
’ve always been that “why” kid. I wanted to know how everything worked, why it worked or why something was so. And it’s led me to be glad I live in an age where Google is at my fingertips, and I use it daily. It can be annoying not to be satisfied with “because I said so,” but it has served me well in my grooming career.
This is why we study dog and cat anatomy and behavior—to understand why dogs do things. But you don’t have to. I’ve watched plenty of nail trims where the dog struggles because its leg is being pulled in a direction that it doesn’t naturally move. It takes time and effort to study, and sometimes learning new things is hard. But you don’t have to.
So why do we do it? Why do we continue our education with classes, trade shows, watching competitions and even reading this magazine? After all, we don’t have to.
You don’t have to do the hard things that make you a better groomer. You don’t have to do the things that take extra effort to be a better person than you were yesterday. We’ve all known people—not just groomers—who have never taken classes or continuing education in their profession after initial training was completed. We learn little tidbits from our coworkers, and that counts, right? Besides, we don’t have to.
In response to what I thought was a polite “Oh, you don’t have to do that,” a client once told me, “I don’t have to do nothing but die,” and I was shook. But she was right. It made me completely re-examine my life. Then I flipped it. I realized that I don’t have to do things, I get to.
We’ve all heard the saying, “If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.” And while it’s not totally wrong, I’m calling shenanigans anyway. Because you can love grooming with all your soul, but cleaning up after a husky de-shed is work. Work you love, even work you get to do, can still be work.
On the days when our passion feels like work (and we wonder if our local fast-food joint is hiring) is when we look for our favorite pups on the schedule and take those extra few minutes for a snuggle. Because while we really don’t “play with puppies all day,” there are those good days where we do. (OK, not all day, but sometimes just enough to get us through the day.)
These are the days when we need to flip that script, take a breath and realize that we get to work with pets, even the spicy ones. We get to put those handling skills to work and realize that the dog doing its pancake impression and snapping is having a pretty cruddy day, too. We get to view every challenge as an opportunity.
In my life before grooming, I had a manager who would present every customer escalation to us in a slightly different manner. She’d get off the phone and wave her notes in the air, saying, “Who wants an opportunity?” We knew that there was a challenge involved, but also that we’d learn and grow from every one of them. When we change our perspective on grooming and see those challenging days and pets as opportunities to develop our skills, they become a little better.
So why do we do the hard things if we don’t have to? Because it will improve our lives, both on and off the grooming table. Because when we learn that new information or practice that new skill, we slowly become better versions of ourselves than we were yesterday. Because behind all the stress, self-doubt and excuses, we tell ourselves, “I knew you could do it.”
So, go forth and do the hard things that will make your life better—because you get to!