The American Kennel Club recognizes that grooming is important to the overall health, comfort and well-being of pets. Setting the standard in grooming safety to ensure these needs are met for all pets in salon, The AKC is proud to offer the Safety in Salons Certification Program to groomers and salons.
As reputable and quality pet care professionals, groomers should consider the safety and welfare of the pets entrusted to their care. The Safety in Salon course will review best practices focusing on pet care, health, and safety. Topics covered include accident avoidance, disease awareness, and sanitation.
This course builds off the AKC Safety in the Salon curriculum and it is required as a prerequisite before taking this class. This follow up course will cover more advanced topics in sanitation, emergency preparation, and salon best practices.
Join cat expert Dana Chavez-Rey in this four-hour, interactive certificate course where you will learn how to safely handle a cat, including identifying aggression, how to safely and effectively evaluate a feline, safely remove a feline from a carrier, and gently restrain a feline. A frameable certificate will be issued upon completion of this course.
Let’s face it, do we ever really know everything there is about running a business? There is always room for input, and this all-day, four-session summit will help answer some of the questions you may have about your business. From opening the doors and finding clients to hiring employees, recordkeeping, payroll and pricing, it is a daunting task just to keep your head above water and make a profit. And just when you think things are running smoothly, somebody throws a wrench into the works and things start going wrong. These four, one-hour classes are structured to educate and assist everyone, from the start-up to the seasoned grooming professional.
Teri will take you on a tour from the floor to the ceiling and from wall to wall in the construction of a new, state-of-the-art, grooming salon that maximizes space and profits. Highlights will include the fine art of setting up a big salon in a small space by using time and labor-saving equipment, effective storage by applying the art of utilizing vertical square footage. High visibility grooming and client comfort will be addressed as well as some hidden aspects of salon ownership such as seeking the right location, dealing with leases and landlords, as well as making retail work for you.
Who are you? What makes you and your business different from the others? What do you want to say to your customer? How do you get the word out? Attracting new customers is great, but don’t take the ones you already have for granted. Good customer service skills are a must, and Teri will take you through the steps to help assure that your clients will not forget you. From naming your business and defining your image to mission statements, business cards, brochures, advertising and internet, doing it right the first (or second) time will come easier after sitting through this seminar.
Hiring and firing employees is never easy, and governmental regulations require a business owner to do a lot more to keep things on the straight and narrow with the labor boards and your employees. Teri will go through a good amount of the fine detail on the paperwork that is necessary in your business to keep you in compliance and avoid problems down the road.
Teri will share her business savvy and expertise on running a lucrative salon. What do I need to consider before setting my prices? How do I raise my prices? What are my margins? Am I making a profit? Why are my employees making more than me? These, and a lot more questions, will be answered to help keep your salon productive and profitable.
Olga will discuss how to save time during washing, brushing, dematting, and styling dogs. She will also discuss planning the right schedule and using proper tools to help make the grooming process easier. You will enjoy Olga’s unique direct style and her “New Jersey accent” (as she puts it) honed from her homeland in Russia. You will appreciate her hard work ethic and her winning style as one of the top competitors in the world.
Drop coats can be a challenging groom to tackle. Join Jonathan in this session dedicated to mastering drop-coat breeds as well as mixed breeds with similar hair. Jonathan will cover the use of thinning shears for layering and using snap-on combs to achieve a cute and manageable look that even the most discerning client will love! Jonathan will also share his technique for achieving a beautifully layered round head and face.
Puppies are often a whole other world when it comes to the easiest way to acclimate them to the grooming process. This class will equip you with the best knowledge and techniques to handle puppies with confidence!
Doodles; love them or loathe them, they are only growing in popularity. But decoding exactly what their owners want (much less actually delighting them) can be challenging. In this class, Chris will discuss breaking the news of the dreaded “shave-down” gently, realistic coat maintenance, and, with the help of a living unicorn (a tangle-free doodle in long coat), learn some quick & easy chunker tricks to add some style to the traditional doodle trim.
Join Barkleigh’s 2018 Creative Groomer of the Year, Milena Kon, to learn how to create a design on a short-haired dog. In this interactive class, Milena will teach and demonstrate, step by step, how to come up with a design, transfer it to the dog, and finish with pet-safe dyes. Learn the difference between the dyes and tools available that can make your life easier, and make your salon the talk of the town. Bring in your creative clientele by offering this quick and easy service, and see your overall revenue increase. Who says you need a fluffy dog for creative grooming!?! It won’t be you!
In this class, Pooch Perfect finalist Alyssa Kasiba will show you several quick and easy salon creative styles. She will use different products and techniques that can be done in a salon or mobile setting, and will tell you about the products, where to find them, how long they last on the coat, and how to market them to your clients. Watch live and video demonstrations step-by-step and see the creativity come to life.
Want to do something extraordinary and out of this world for your clients? Want to try something excitingly new and colorful, and out of the box? Milena will help you gain confidence and mastery over the airbrush, a complex tool with numerous ways of use. Learn the importance of choosing the right equipment for each design and an understanding on how to create simple or broad lines, to adding a single perfect rose or airbrush an entire bouquet of flowers. Let your imagination go wild, and let’s Airbrush!
In this seminar, Alyssa will show you the art of abstract—from designing to layout to execution. Learn how to add lines and swirls into your beautiful grooms to spice up your daily pet trims. You’ll also learn the basics from coat carving to the competition ring, and even some added bonuses on how to get on the abstract runway stage, just like Hershey’s biggest runway stage of gorgeous pups!
In this informative seminar, Jayne Gallagher, star of ABC Network’s Pooch Perfect, encourages you to step outside the box of breed profiles and into the world of Hybrid Freestyle. Take the boring mixed-breed haircuts and elevate them into whimsical styles that are fun and client friendly. Hybrid Freestyle grooming blurs the lines of Asian Freestyle, breed profile, and Salon Freestyle. Jayne will stretch your imagination and teach you how to have fun with it!
The grooming industry has many self-employed professionals as many of us branch out on our own and open a salon or mobile business. But many also work at salons with little or no benefits or as a 10-99 contracted laborer. In this class, you will not learn whether you should work for 1099 or W-2, but you will learn some ways to make sure that you're financially secure in the future. Will you be able to retire? What if you're injured and can't work? If you're a business owner, do you have money put up for emergency situation? Angela is not a CPA nor a financial advisor, but she can share with you what she has learned over the years and how she’s made sure that she will be financially secure in the future.
As a pet care professional, you want to be equipped with the skills to handle medical emergencies that arise while a pet is in your care. Whether a pet becomes ill, injured, or needs help in a disaster, this course will teach you how to respond.
In this two hour course, you will learn how to stock a first aid kit, perform CPR, respond to breathing and heart emergencies (including choking), and disaster procedures, with some of these exercises being demonstrated on a live dog. This unique course is customized for pet care professionals and you will learn how to respond to emergencies specific to your industry. Upon completion of this course, you will receive a frameable certificate stating that you are certified in Pet Professional First Aid & CPR.