With over 50 plus years in the pet and animal care industry through retail distribution and professional distribution, manufacturing and dealing with practically every facet from standalone retail store chain outlets, independent groomers, animal trainers, kennels and catteries, day care facilities, veterinaries, and animal rescues; I’ve found over this time that there is a need to broaden our knowledge in order to; #1) Stay current on changes and challenges that affect the health and safety of our animal friends; #2) Create a forum that involves and encourages all our industry professionals to exchange information and pass on possible solutions; #3) Provide a true and balanced view of problem conditions within the animal care industry with our helpful tips on equipment or systems that may provide answers from the professional with day to day experience.
The deficiency is most glaring and significant in the area of health issues, safety concerns, and the overall environment issues that impact pets, employees, and customers involved in the animal care and grooming industry. The question is not so much what equipment and operating rules are needed, but why. These subjects need and must be addressed for healthy, sustained business growth and success.
Much of the knowledge new groomers, facility operators, or new business owners receive is by word of mouth with some other information coming by written accounts or articles that are at best uneven in the coverage of a specific topic. There is a lack of sources for expert knowledge available on the many facets of running or equipping a modern-day business that offers grooming services. Lack of universal groomer certification, uniform certified schooling, and a base curriculum compounded by low groomer attendance at occasional seminars with low turnout expands the knowledge gap for the overall grooming community.
If this blog is to make a difference, I believe we must tackle the category of health, safety, as well as participants’ comfort in the animal grooming working space which is most common to pet, employee and management success and well-being. Most segments in the pet industry mentioned have a grooming facility as the primary function of the business or as an added service to their overall business model. The grooming dynamic offers several steps or stages as a part of this service, chief among them is the bathing and drying of the client’s animal prior to performing further ordered treatments or service requirements. It is time to find the answers to why and how we can set up and better operate a grooming service facility more effectively and efficiently without information that is not guesswork, but based on educated input from industry professionals.
For this reason, our 1st article will focus on a piece of equipment, the dehumidifier units, that are seldom discussed and without a doubt little understood in the world of grooming. Fewer investments that can be made will have greater impact and contribute more to the long- and short-term success for a full-service grooming salon than adding an attached air purifier (which will be discussed in future blogs on the workplace health of personnel, clients, and pets). The addition will dramatically help in attracting and retaining qualified groomers, as well as clients, and pets. The dehumidifier addition is only half the solution to clean, drier air, but it is equally important in producing a healthier, safer, and more comfortable grooming environment overall.
This process of drying animals indoors creates and contributes to several challenges present in and unique to the groomer’s workspace environment that impacts health and comfort issues as well as the efficient, successful operation of any animal care facility. Primarily, the effectiveness of drying procedures requires appropriate equipment and technique suitable to the coat type as well as drying difficulty plus the required coat conditioning needed for follow-on grooming steps to satisfy breed standards and to also meet customers’ specific finish desires and approval. The activity of extended drying sessions only makes grooming debris from brushing, drying, clipping, and scissoring that much more impactful on a salon’s environmental issues, but also greatly reduces stress on groomer and pets.
A professional, high performance, high capacity dehumidifier will:
- Reduce drying times for bathed dogs and cats by up to 40%
- Reduce particulate matter (PM)* formation and the spread of seasonal infectious organisms
- Increase workspace comfort by reducing humidity levels caused by animal drying
- Lower air conditioning costs in summer
- Create a much better client and pet experience for both new and old customers
- Creates a workplace comfort zone with less stressful work conditions and environment that reduces employee turnover and makes attracting the best groomers a reality
*Particulate matter (PM) in itself is a major issue in the health of grooming personnel and future blogs will cover in detail this very important topic – Follow us for future subjects you may not want to miss.
Till Next Time,
-The Professor