The All Breed Dog Grooming Guide - 4th Edition
As a groomer I am always learning, improving and trying new techniques, new breeds start stepping up to my table making my job quite interesting some times. One of the items I always have on hand for such situations is my grooming guide. To be honest I never like Sam Kohl s old book, in my opinion everything looked very old indeed, it was not fun at all to look at it. Well not anymore, Mr. Sam Kohl has been very busy in the past years updating his All Breed Dog Grooming Guide and let me tell you it is fantastic. This is not another book to get and put aside, this is a complete grooming course. The book is composed of two main sections: Section one describes the complete grooming cycle; from start to finish, section two has the complete instructions for grooming each 193 recognized AKC breeds. Section one dedicates time to ear care, eye care, the face, nails, pads, caring for the coat bathing process, finish the dog and more. It goes over common mistakes groomers make that put our health in jeopardy. You will find exercises and warm ups to start the day and there is a lot of emphasis on safety. Chapter two is dedicated to handling and control, in my opinion, one of the most important steps of the grooming process. I have been in situations with dogs that other salons hate and banned and because of my handling process, they are angels in my table. Do you know how to choose your table, equipment and tools available these days? I can go over every chapter in this book and how these pages are full of fantastic advice for new or seasoned groomers. One of my favorites parts on the book is the amount of photos in it when he is talking about a specific tool or technique there is a photo next to it to help you visualize it. The language is very easy to read and understand and all the instructions are easy to follow. You know how a conditioner freak I am well, they have a chart with the recommended conditioner based on the type of coat, I look at this book every night and every night I find something new or a better way to do it compared of how I am doing it now. When Mrs. Kohl emailed me and let me know she sent me the book, she asked me a question how many new things I learned from the book they did not teach me at school? I lost the count already. No matter what school you went, you would find new or different techniques for basic grooming. The attention to detail on this guide is amazing. I love doing the schnauzer, no matter how many I have done the eyebrows are never the same, I always go back again to even them over and over. On this guide I learn how to use the curve shear and to point it to a specific area of the nose to make them long or short and I only do one cut now, I just love the way my schnauzer brows look all the time now. Do you use one of those magnetic strips to hold your blades? You will find out why you need to stop doing that. Proper body positioning for scissoring or styling, there is a little guide to clip the nail and it tells you when to stop before the quick. I mean the list goes on and on. It is fantastic. Now the second part is the best. First it start with canine anatomy, a seasoned groomer may know all this but some times I was reading instructions for a specific groom and they where mentioning the stifle, the tuck-up, point of rump, point of shoulder and I have no idea what they where talking about. There is a complete chart in the book. All the breeds are on alphabetical order by the name. In my old book I had to know the breed group to find them, on this one I just need to know the name. I will tell you all the equipment you will need or is recommended for each breed. Then you will have step-by-step instructions with a small chart with numbers corresponding to the instructions.... [VISIT THEGROOMINGLAB.COM TO READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW] --Juan Santiago - The Grooming Lab.com - Independent Reviews for the Grooming Industry