mom24doggies

I'm sure most of you are aware that I am a dog groomer...as such, I work with a lot of dogs of varying temperaments, which of course means that they don't all behave well. Now, I consider myself to be a fairly patient person. Most of the time, I don't get frustrated with them. However, when I come home and have to groom my own dogs, it's like I've used up all my patience on everyone else's dogs. :P I don't have a problem with Trev, he's very good for grooming. But Dusty, my Lhasa, is a little different. He's not horrible, but he does little things that are very irritating, such as shuffling his feet, twitching when I scissor him, leaning away from me, etc. etc. etc. It drives.me.batty. I seriously almost had a meltdown on him today. Thankfully, I managed to keep my head, step away, and beat my grooming box instead of the dog. Of course, it still affected him. As we all know, dogs sense your emotions. I felt really bad afterwards, but I just seriously felt like I couldn't help being frustrated with him!! He didn't used to be that way either, used to be an absolute gem to groom. My mom has allowed some of my younger sibs to bathe/blow dry him, and so he gets away with being bad, which I think is what has caused his deterioration in behavior. Anywho, so what do y'all do when you feel like I did? How do I keep from "using up" all my patience? I really do hate feeling frustrated with my dogs, because I know they are trying to be good and don't mean to frustrate me. Help!

__________________

"Love is the emotion that a woman feels always for a poodle dog and sometimes for a man." ~George Jean Nathan

Rowan

I would stop the grooming session if I were in your shoes. The hair will be there tomorrow. I feel it's better to wait than stress out and stress the pooch out. I have zero patience, but thankfully my MPOOS have never pushed me to the edge. If they did, I would call it a day and try again tomorrow when I'm calm.

It might also help to go back to square on with him and emphasize the things he does right. Build him back up to the wonderful groom he used to be!

Granted, I'm not a professional groomer, but humans do stress me out at work.

Gracie's Mum

I think, as groomers, we expect our dogs to act better since they are groomers' dogs and chances are good that they get groomed far more often.

When my dogs act up during grooming, it can drive me crazy. However, that same behavior in a client's dog, I just work around and it doesn't phase me too much. Now I just act indifferent and if they want to act a fool cause I'm their mom, so be it!

mom24doggies

Thanks for the replies. I think you are right Rowan, I should probably start at step one again with his grooming. That way I won't get frustrated in the first place. Very true Gracie's Mum...I'm overjoyed when a dog behaves like Dusty at work...I just work around the twitching and shifting and leaning. But I expect more out of my personal dogs I guess. Anyway, thanks again, both of you were helpful.

__________________

"Love is the emotion that a woman feels always for a poodle dog and sometimes for a man." ~George Jean Nathan

Fluffyspoos

Other standards are better for their feet than mine.. they do this twitching thing, then scoot back so slowly that before I know it they're on the other side of the table. I play this 'Kat always wins' game, and I'll hold their body to mine and lay them on their sides on the table and make them stay laying down, that way they can't brace their bodies against the floor to pull. Their feet gets done, and they seem to relax more when they're laying down.

What really, REALLY makes me frustrated is when Vegas doesn't eat. It's a horrible downward spiral. He doesn't eat, I get frustrated, he senses that I'm frustrated, and gets nervous, thus making meal time feel scary. I have to leave and have my boyfriend coax him to eat.

When Vegas does eat, I praise and cheer, distracting him, he stops, freezes, then I get frustrated again when he doesn't' start up again. I still haven't found a solution to this. I don't know if Vegas is picky, or if I've made meal time traumatic for him by being upset when he doesn't eat.

__________________

FunkyPuppy

not gonna lie, I've paid my coworkers to groom Zorro, my parent's silky on numerous occasions. he's in a very simple #7 schnauzer pattern with a long skirt and a westie head. he's such a BUTT. He will whip around and bite if you lift his precious tail nubbin to clip, US dances, he hates having his nails and feet messed with, and Omg, the FIGHT to hold his face and lift it to clip his neck! the moment you go to hold his chin he lifts his front legs and pushes at your hand. he'll also whip his head around unexpectedly while scissored the right side of his head. I have very little patience for his games and would rather he be someone elses headache!

__________________

FunkyPuppy: My Haphazard Journey from Traditional to Creative Pet Stylist
"My dear fellow, who will let you?"
"That's not the point. The point is, who will stop me?" - The Fountainhead

Rowan

Oh, Kat...I have the very same problem with Pippin. The other two dig right in, but he just stands there backing away from the bowl and looking over his shoulder. Then he'll take a test bite and look over his shoulder. Then he'll just stand there. He won't eat until Merlin makes a beeline for his bowl, and then it's this very slow, methodical picking. He's already a very lean dog (vet calls him the Lance Armstrong of poodles), so he can't afford to lose weight.

I rotate proteins and he can easily pick around the vegetable/fruit mix so I don't know what is up with him. And his teeth are fine (perfect health). He's done this for years.

Carley's Mom

I too have a picky eater, my male shih tuz. I just give him his food ,if he don't eat it, I take it away until the next meal time. He has gone all day without eating, but never two. There is no stress involved with me or him. It is his choice to make. I have never heard of a dog starving it's self to death when food is given...

Fluffyspoos

Vegas will go days with eating just a couple bits of kibble u_u I've caved, I'm adding anything it takes to get him eating again. He's really too skinny, you can feel the spaces on his chest between his chest and shoulder bones.

We even bought him Wendy's hamburgers last night, he only ate the patties.. I offered the bread to Vienna and her eyes went 'OMG OMG OMG OMG' and she ate it in a couple bites... I'm thinking she's done this before. No wonder she was such a porker when I got her.

__________________

Countryboy

Hard to explain this, but IMO negative human emotions may not all be a bad thing for dogs. My guys rarely 'misbehave' at home. But I trained them to leave food on the coffee table alone . . . by 'growling' and glaring at them from across the room. They caught that 'negative emotion' . . and learned from it.

Tonka is a little balky on the grooming table. But quite calm for me in the bath and blow dry. I know . . that's pretty easy and not a really good yardstick but.....

When I finally get around to clipping him myself I'm gonna try the same method. A growl and a glare if he tries to twist away.

I guess what I'm tryin' to say is that we can't beat ourselves up for having negative emotions in a frustrating situation. The challenge would be to turn those negatives into a learning experience for Dusty.

__________________