A leading company focused on virtual transformation.
My clientele is very exclusive. These dog house owners are the kind of people who don’t comb: they bring someone home to have a rash. Many of them do not know the basics of preparing their pets, because until the pandemic, I prepared their dogs every week.
During the closure of New York City, I was unable to make home visits, so I did FaceTime virtual training to help the owners and keep them calm. After about six weeks of confinement, I went back to home visits because I had no human contact, so I felt safe.
Before COVID-19, I was at my doorstep in Chelsea early in the morning to take the exercise or the Crosstown bus with my 32 pound tool backpack. I give myself more time because my clients are busy with other people and have a schedule to respect. If I start late, it affects everyone and the whole day.
He was grooming six dogs a week. Now, with the pandemic, it’s more than eight to ten a week.
It takes about two hours to prepare a small dog and only paint with dogs weighing up to 20 pounds. As a general rule, I only arrange dogs that can stand at a counter, even though many of my clients have built their own dog spa with all the professional appliances of a high-end beauty salon. They even bought their own grooming machinery for piles of dollars to keep them handy.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, dogs have been dirtier than ever. Many of them spend more time outdoors than they always do and are much less cared for.
Sometimes for me it’s like this movie “Groundhog Day,” yet it’s the “Let’s Get The Puppy Ready” exhibition over and over again, all day long.
My summer season early, as many of my clients left town to the Hamptons, basically East Hampton, Bridgehampton and some in Watermill.
We now have security protocols for home visits when you pass by. When I park on the driveway, my clients leave the dogs in the guest house, so that I can go in and paint without us being in close contact.
Covering your face during grooming has not been an unusual practice, as it protects the lungs of hair and products that fly when using a lawnmower or dryer. Prolonged exposure to small waste can cause permanent lung problems. I now wear a mask throughout the grooming process.
The most complicated rule of social estrangement that I have to practice is not to feel the temptation to kiss the dogs on the nose, but some additional rubbings on the abdomen are enough.
Normally, when I spend a visit home, I give my clients 10 minutes to communicate, even when it comes to the most important celebrities, the existing problems, you know, diets, politics, everything. A small detail lost in communication can cause a nervous breakdown in the owner of an animal; yes, some of them are really that dramatic!
Because of this, I insist all owners, celebrities or not, take time to communicate with me directly. After we get a routine, I’m okay flying solo, but most of my clients look forward to our weekly hot topics chat. After those 10 minutes of chit-chat, they have to leave so I can work.
I am very selective; I’ll have to love the dog and the owner. All my business is done by word of mouth and everyone has to go through some interviews. I’m definitely a diva. I have rejected the dogs and I have rejected the owners in the past: some dogs are too territorial and, as I paint in their space, it is not intelligent for me.
Sometimes the owners are parents of helicopters, and they don’t paint either. Sometimes I’m a smart person to them.
I give the dog a smart bath, followed by a massage. I then wrap them in a towel so they rest for 15 minutes, allowing nutrients to penetrate the skin and close the hair follicles. I take pictures and check my emails while they take a nap, then I try them.
They don’t need to look old because they think it’s a mirror image of themselves, so I do henna remedies on dogs’ faces to get rid of gray hair and sculpt their hair so they don’t look like they look on the couch. TV and eat sweet with Mom all day.
Most of the time I have to do what the consumer asks me to do, but if you have a pug and you show me an image of a poodle, well, I can’t do it. It would be like a woman who takes a picture of Jennifer Aniston at the hairdresser’s and says, make me look like that.
Most dogs take two hours, so it is $600 consistent with the dog consistent with the visit.
I studied stand-up comedy and am rated A.V.P. Tutor. Gay and lesbian violence hotline so I can prepare your dog, make you laugh and pay attention to you, that’s why I’m so dear.
My own dog, Titus, a Pomeranian died in May. She lived a fabulous life and left 9,000 followers on Instagram before she deleted her account. We have worked in combination for thirteen years and have used matching color cabinets for all our television appearances.
I see them every single week and we finish the time together and laugh, but at the end of the day I can give them back to their parents and move home.