Dan: 0:00

Aaron Williams is a dog groomer, but...

Aaron: 0:03

Honestly, I don't look like what people would think a dog groomer should look like. And they're kinda surprised that that's what I do, that I'm a dog hairdresser, basically.

Dan: 0:15

Now, why are they surprised?

Aaron: 0:17

Well, I guess historically groomers have been like older to middle-aged women. Like at my animal hospital where I work, I'm the only guy that works there.

Dan: 0:28

Mm.

Aaron: 0:28

And there's like 25 women.

Dan: 0:30

Oh, wow.

Aaron: 0:31

Yeah. I mean, I'm younger and tattooed and bearded and I look probably more like a tattoo artist than I would a dog groomer.

Dan: 0:38

Okay. And the way he looks shapes the grooming requests that he gets.

Aaron: 0:44

People see me and something clicks in their head and they said I should give my dog a mohawk. That guy looks like he could give my dog a mohawk. So I do that. I've got two little Havanese that are coming into me now that get mullets.

Dan: 0:58

Mullets?

Aaron: 0:59

Yeah. You know the eighties haircut?

Dan: 1:01

Yeah. Yeah. Of course.

Aaron: 1:02

Yeah. We're doing that. And then they get boots as well. Like bell bottom boots. And the rest of them is shaved and then they have a mullet on their head. So they're pretty funny looking little dudes. I turned one of the doctors that used to work with us had a very large standard poodle, a brown standard poodle and I cut him in to look like a buffalo. I was pretty proud of that. Yeah. He looked pretty cool.

Dan: 1:39

I'm Dan Heath, and this is What It's Like To Be. In every episode, we walk in the shoes of someone from a different profession. A veterinarian, a deli owner, a toy distributor. We wanna know what they do all day at work. Today, we will ask Aaron Williams what it's like to be a dog groomer. We'll talk about why the grooming table is the most important psychological tool he has, why poodles get those weird poofball haircuts, and what it's like to get bitten many, many times. Stay with us. So I'm embarrassed to say I have never had a dog groomed. So this is new to me. Can you just kind of walk me through what exactly is the process of grooming a dog?

Aaron: 2:31

So with me, the client drops off in the morning, and I get the dog, and and I look at my notes, and I see, if I've seen the dog before, I look at my notes like if the dog tried to bite or wiggled a lot the last time they were there. And then the next thing I do when I get the dog out is I put them in my tub and start cutting their nails. And usually that goes well, a lot of times I've got to put a muzzle on them to get that done. It's their least favorite thing about the whole grooming process.

Dan: 3:02

Oh, I was gonna ask you that. So it's the nails that are the biggest problem?

Aaron: 3:05

Yeah. And that's why I get it out of the way first.

Dan: 3:07

Okay.

Aaron: 3:08

I say, if we're gonna have any problems, let's go ahead and and address it at the get go so we know what we're dealing with after that.

Dan: 3:15

Yeah.

Aaron: 3:15

So I do the nails and then I bathe the dog... well, I clean the ears. A lot of dogs have hair in their ears that has to be pulled out. And so I pull that out and I clean the ears, see if there's any infection.

Dan: 3:27

Wait. You pull what out?

Aaron: 3:28

Pull the hair out of their ears.

Dan: 3:30

There's just like loose hair in there?

Aaron: 3:31

Yeah. Some dogs like poodles or Yorkies or dogs with like more hair-looking hair rather than fur have hair that grows in the ear canal.

Dan: 3:42

Okay.

Aaron: 3:42

And it holds moisture which leads to bacteria and fungus and can cause infection. So I go in there and I pull that hair out before I clean the ear to keep that infection down.

Dan: 3:54

Okay. So you do the ear stuff, then what?

Aaron: 3:56

Then I do the bath. It depends on what type of dog it is, how I do the bath. Like, it's a small dog, which is most of my dogs, I'll do the face first. I'll wet down their head and put the soap on and wash their face because it breaks down those tear stains and those eye boogers and stuff that's on their...

Dan: 4:15

Oh, yeah.

Aaron: 4:15

On their head. So I do the face first and I let that sit while I wash the rest of their body. Express their anal glands, you might have a question about that.

Dan: 4:25

Express their anal glands. I have never heard that collection of words used together.

Aaron: 4:33

Yeah. Dogs have... they have glands inside their butt.

Dan: 4:37

Okay.

Aaron: 4:38

Almost like how a skunk has the sprayer scent glands in under their tail.

Dan: 4:44

Yeah.

Aaron: 4:44

Dogs have that too, sort of. There are these little sacs inside their butt that have a certain smell that like contain pheromones and information about that specific dog.

Dan: 4:57

Oh, so is this the thing that they're like sniffing each other to...

Aaron: 4:59

Yes.

Dan: 5:00

Okay.

Aaron: 5:00

Yeah. That's why they sniff each other's butts. And smaller dogs and dogs that are are bred down to be less, I mean, that are less natural than say like a wolf or something like that. A lot of times they have problems with their anal glands and they don't clear out themselves. So we have to go and squeeze them for them.

Dan: 5:21

I... my mind is just spinning.

Aaron: 5:26

Like, if you see a dog scooting around on the floor or something like that, there's a good chance

Dan: 5:30

Oh, that thing where they like drag their butts across the... that's what they're doing.

Aaron: 5:34

It's a good possibility that that is something they're they're having a problem with.

Dan: 5:38

So what like what happens if the anal glands are not expressed?

Aaron: 5:43

If they're not expressed, most likely the dog will express them or blow them on their own. Like when you don't want them to, like when they're jumping on the couch or

Dan: 5:54

Oh.

Aaron: 5:55

With their butt in your face. So, yeah, I'm clearing that out so that doesn't happen. Because once you smell that smell, you never forget it, and you don't want that in your house.

Dan: 6:07

Okay. So it's just the kind of thing like this will eventually happen on its own, but it may happen in a way that you do not favor. And so it's better to like just do it proactively, that's the idea.

Aaron: 6:18

Right. And they can get impacted and cause problems. And if they're scratching at their butt, they can keep doing it, keep rubbing their butt, keep licking at their butt, and problems can arise because of that.

Dan: 6:30

I guess it's us tinkering with evolution. Right? I was gonna ask like, why would there be an animal that had thing where you had to have some larger beast come and like squeeze its anal glands? But it's because we're tinkering with them, right? Genetically?

Aaron: 6:42

Yeah. It's that. When we took a wolf or a wild dog, a natural animal, and we selectively bred it down to a Shih Tzu with a little smushed face. We compromised all of its internal processes and...

Dan: 6:59

Yeah.

Aaron: 7:00

Like its mouth is completely different and a lot of dogs have dental problems, they have to have teeth pulled, they have breathing problems because their whole respiratory system is shortened, you know, hip problems, any any of those things that are passed down from dogs, a lot of it is because we tinkered with a natural animal and turned it into this designer animal.

Dan: 7:23

Yeah. Wow. Man, this is already just paying off so much better than I even imagined. So, okay. So, we've done nails, we've done ears, we've done anal glands, and and you had the bath in there too, yeah?

Aaron: 7:34

Yeah. We did the bath. If they get their teeth brushed, that's usually when I do it. I'm a big fan of tooth brushing for sure. I used to be a vet assistant for a dental specialist, and oral health is really important. And so if they elect to have their teeth brushed, then I go ahead and do that. And then maybe a conditioner or a remoisturizer which is the same idea as a human conditioner makes the hair softer and shinier.

Dan: 8:00

Okay.

Aaron: 8:01

Helps with dry skin, helps with shedding. And then towel dry them and then I have a super high powered force dryer. It's like a blow dryer but it's like a a leaf blower basically. And it blows all that water off. That's why it's called a force dryer because it forces the water off the dog. So it's not like a blow dryer that we use. We do use those in grooming but mostly it's the force dryer.

Dan: 8:25

This is more like a wind tunnel or something.

Aaron: 8:27

Yeah.

Dan: 8:29

And and what how do dogs respond to that? That's gotta be a very alien thing.

Aaron: 8:33

Yeah, I mean...

Dan: 8:33

Although they do stick their heads out of the windows in the car, so maybe they dig it.

Aaron: 8:37

You'd think. But that's on their terms. But yeah, most of them don't mind it. It's the sound, it's really loud. The sound bothers some of them. Some of them, you may be able to find this on the internet is dogs that attack the air. They just freak out on it, and it's kind of funny to watch, but the dog is unfortunately in distress at that time.

Dan: 8:58

And how long does this whole process take? I mean, imagine it's probably a little different depending on size and breed, but what's the average?

Aaron: 9:05

Yeah. I mean, I'd say average is probably, start to finish with the bath is twenty minutes or so, maybe twenty minutes, half hour.

Dan: 9:13

Okay.

Aaron: 9:13

And then they have to dry. And then that part is over and then the grooming has to happen.

Dan: 9:18

Oh, so this was just all sort of preamble.

Aaron: 9:20

Yeah.

Dan: 9:21

And then the grooming, what happens with that part?

Aaron: 9:23

So once they're dry, you get them out on my table and I brush them out, make sure there's no mats or anything that I didn't catch in the bath.

Dan: 9:34

And what kind of brush are you using?

Aaron: 9:36

So there's a bunch of different types of brushes but what I use 99.9% of the time is called a slicker brush.

Dan: 9:43

Okay.

Aaron: 9:43

And you've probably seen it if you've seen a dog brush. It's got a bunch of short little pins on it.

Dan: 9:50

And after the brushing comes some attention to the paws, and especially all those hairs that grow between the paw pads and then get kinda smashed and tangled up with walking. Then he shaves the dog's belly, which tends to be a dirty zone for dogs. And at long last, it's on to the haircut using special pet grooming clippers.

Aaron: 10:11

It's basically like a beard trimmer that your barber would use or whatever, but they're a little more industrial. They do have guards that you can put on them to leave the hair different lengths, but mostly they have detachable blades that cut the hair at different lengths.

Dan: 10:27

And and is that the last step?

Aaron: 10:29

Well, you do that, and it depends on the breed of dog as far as what haircut you get. Like a cocker spaniel, if they want this, you can do a cocker cut. Right? So that's the face shaved, a third of the ear shaved, down the back shaved, and then they have that long skirt like you've seen in the dog show probably. Or your poodle cut, like the show poodle cut with the funny balls on their ankles and on their hips and the big poofs on their heads.

Dan: 11:02

So that's part of what you do on a regular basis. I always thought that was just like some weird dog show person thing, but that's like a regular request.

Aaron: 11:10

I mean, that's the standard cut. And it's not so regular because it's hard to maintain

Dan: 11:14

Mhmm.

Aaron: 11:16

Between grooms. So a lot of times, most of the dogs that you groom, you're just doing like one length all over and then a little bit longer on the face to leave some personality

Dan: 11:26

Mm.

Aaron: 11:26

Which is what's called a teddy bear cut or a puppy cut.

Dan: 11:29

Oh, I've heard that term teddy bear cut. So that's what it means is like longer on the face, shorter on the body?

Aaron: 11:34

Yeah. Basically.

Dan: 11:35

Okay.

Aaron: 11:36

Yeah. And it just depends on how long the owner wants to leave it. A lot of times the dog is so matted that you gotta shave them down short. But yeah, there are cool like pattern cuts to do like a Schnauzer cut with the cool eyebrows and the beard. I like that. That's one of my favorites.

Dan: 11:53

The pattern cuts like the Schnauzer cut he mentioned are rooted in how the dog was bred and what job it was bred for, even if the dogs aren't doing those jobs anymore.

Aaron: 12:04

It's totally functional. At least based in functionality. They're made for working dogs. Like, have you ever seen I know you've seen like that Caesar's dog. He's a Westie. He's on the Caesar's dog food.

Dan: 12:14

Yeah.

Aaron: 12:16

He's got that round head.

Dan: 12:18

Mhmm.

Aaron: 12:18

That round head looks super cute, but it's so he can stick his head in a hole and get him a rat. And then so his haircut fills the hole around his head so the rat doesn't think that it has a way to get out of that hole.

Dan: 12:33

Oh, that's fascinating.

Aaron: 12:34

Yeah. And that poodle cut that we were talking about earlier with the balls on it, poodles are actually hunting dogs. Poodle is German for puddle. And so poodles are like water hunting dogs, like for duck hunting. You don't think of a prissy little poodle as a hunting dog. But that funny haircut with the balls on the legs and on the butt and stuff, that's so the dog can get in the water and those balls of hair protect their joints and their vital organs like from the temperature and from and from injury. Without the rest of them getting all matted up and weighed down and nasty.

Dan: 13:14

So when you're done with a cut, do you ever get like a vibe from the dogs? Like, are they happy to be lighter and freer? Or do you ever sense that they're vaguely embarrassed or...

Aaron: 13:25

Both. But the lighter and freer for sure. Like I had a Newfoundland the other day that it was the first time I had seen him. And you know, Newfoundland is like a huge big hairy almost like a Saint Bernard looking dog.

Dan: 13:41

Okay. Yeah.

Aaron: 13:41

And he had some hip and knee problems and I would never shave that kind of dog unless it was absolutely like medically necessary. But this dog was coming into us... At our clinic We do physical rehabilitation. We have like the underwater treadmill and chiropractic acupuncture and that kind of stuff and so that dog was coming in for that and he needed to be cut down. Like there was no way around it. His hair was matted and he was gonna be spending time in the underwater treadmill and it was just gonna get worse. So I had to cut this dog down. I left him as long as I possibly could but ended up going to about a half an inch and he had never been cut. And I was kind of bummed about it because that's not the type of dog with a double-coat that you would cut down like that. And he kept coming in for his rehab, and the other day his owner said that he lifted his leg to go pee on something for the first time. That was something he'd never done before in his entire life. And I think a lot of it is because he could move in order to start getting better to build those muscles up, and I think the haircut and getting all that hair out of the way had a lot to do with it.

Dan: 14:55

Hey, folks. Dan here. So this is episode 62 of the show, and one of the fun things about having a bigger and bigger back catalog of episodes is that now we usually have multiple episodes within the same theme or domain. So if you're interested in other professions that also involve daily interaction with animals, we've got you covered. Dog trainer, cattle rancher, and veterinarian. And by the way, in that veterinarian episode, here's one of the questions I asked the vet. A friend of mine told me, I said I was talking to a veterinarian for the show, he had heard there are now artificial testicles.

Hindatu: 15:35

There are. They're called Neuticles.

Dan: 15:38

Come on.

Hindatu: 15:40

Neuticles.

Dan: 15:41

Neuticles.

Hindatu: 15:42

There are in fact. Yes. Yes.

Dan: 15:44

If you want to learn what the point of a Neutical is, check out that show. And for now, let's get back to the dog groomer. You must have picked up so much dog psychology over the years. Like, what what do you feel like you've learned about dogs?

Aaron: 16:05

That they need reassurance. I'm one of the ambassadors for these animals and they rely on us for everything and they need us to be there. They need us to be the rock and to be sure. A lot of the reason that you have behavior problems is because the dog is scared or stressed or something like that and they just need a human to assure them that they know what's going on. And I use that in a lot of my life. As long as you just are sure of what you're doing, then you're probably doing it right.

Dan: 16:43

Aaron says that most of the time, the dogs he serves are well behaved and not aggressive. But dog bites are a part of the job. He estimates he's been bitten over a 100 times. What's the worst bite you've gotten?

Aaron: 16:57

So it doesn't sound that bad when I say it, but it's this little rat terrier that the guy said bit. And the little rat terrier is like a little Chihuahua. He just needs a bath and his nails trimmed, right?

Dan: 17:11

Mhmm.

Aaron: 17:11

And this guy brought him in and he brought him in with a muzzle on that he brought from home. And so I was like, alright, cool. Let's do this. Let's get him done. It'll be super simple. Just have a seat and I'll bring him up when he's ready. The guy had that muzzle on but I wanted a little bit more safety, so I put my own muzzle on top of that muzzle to, just to make sure the dog couldn't get me because I I mean, all I can trust is myself. I can't trust somebody else's muzzle.

Dan: 17:36

Yeah.

Aaron: 17:37

And so I did it, I bathed the dog, got his nails done, got everything finished, and I was so proud of myself. I beat it. And I went to go give the dog back to the owner, he was sitting on my bench out front, and I was like, yeah, we did it. I got him done and I took my muzzle off. And unfortunately, when I put my muzzle on over that original muzzle, it pushed that original muzzle back.

Dan: 18:04

Oh.

Aaron: 18:04

So the dog could open his mouth just a little bit and all I was doing was handing him back to his owner and he grabbed the tip of my finger and basically ripped it off. It's the only time a dog has ever removed a part of my body. And he he ripped my fingernail off and he split my finger into three different parts and I had to get it all put back together. And I still don't have feeling in the tip of that finger.

Dan: 18:32

Man, how long did it take you to recover from that?

Aaron: 18:35

I don't even know. I had to work the next day.

Dan: 18:38

Wait. No way. You had to come back to work the day after that?

Aaron: 18:41

Yeah. I mean, that was when I owned my own business, so I mean, if you don't work, you don't get paid. But, yeah, I just wrap my finger up and hold it out of the way and keep on going. But the bites aren't even the thing, man. It's the back problems and stuff, and the leg problems that you get from bending over and constantly.

Dan: 18:59

Yeah. Because that's a lot of strange angles, right? Like just bending over to pick up a dog's foot and looking underneath.

Aaron: 19:05

Yeah. And holding it up. It's a 150 pound dog that you gotta hold it up while you groom under it. Those are probably the worst pain that takes you out worse than the bites.

Dan: 19:15

Are there dogs you've known almost their whole lives?

Aaron: 19:19

Yeah. And that's kinda one of the the gifts of working at the animal hospital is because I get to see it from start to finish. I get to see their first puppy visit with their first shots. And I get to see them hopefully once a month at least for their their entire lives.

Dan: 19:41

Oh? Once a month for their so that's like your stylist or your barber. I mean, you're really building relationship in a way.

Aaron: 19:48

Yeah. Yeah. It's deep. And I mean, you see them more often than their vet sees them. So

Dan: 19:53

Yeah.

Aaron: 19:54

As like I was saying as an ambassador, I need to listen to what's going on with the dog, and I see them once a month so I can catch behavior differences that have changed from month to month. I feel lumps and bumps that the owner wouldn't necessarily feel or notice that they were growing or things like that.

Dan: 20:18

Yeah. I mean, you probably know their body better than their owner just because, you know...

Aaron: 20:18

Definitely.

Dan: 20:24

You're having to get up close and yeah.

Aaron: 20:25

Definitely. And I'm always making notes and and mental notes about things like little bumps that that pop up and if they don't go away by the next time, let's talk about seeing the vet. Because the vet only sees them I mean, the vet sees them when they're getting their vaccines and stuff, but aside from that, they only see them when there's a problem.

Dan: 20:45

Yeah. Right.

Aaron: 20:45

And a lot of owners I mean, I'll have dogs that come in with raging ear infections that just smell terrible, and the owners just didn't even notice. They didn't know about it, and so I catch that. Parasites, I see a lot of parasites. I mean, I've got a flea tattooed on one arm and a tick tattooed on my other, I see a lot of parasites.

Dan: 21:05

Have you ever noticed kind of a serious potential health issue that would have been potentially fatal if you hadn't caught it?

Aaron: 21:12

Yeah. I see masses that the owner just wouldn't notice and didn't notice that we end up like they they don't feel right to me or they've grown more than just a regular like lipoma or something like that. And we get it checked out and it turns out to be cancer and then the dog is treated for it and we're good to go. And yeah, that happens a lot.

Dan: 21:39

What's the pay situation? Like, do you feel adequately paid?

Aaron: 21:45

Yeah. The pay is good. Typically, you make 50% commission.

Dan: 21:49

Oh, that's, that was something I wanted to ask about. It's like, how do you get paid? So it's like half of whatever the client is paying.

Aaron: 21:55

That should be how it is done. Yeah.

Dan: 21:57

Okay.

Aaron: 21:57

Half of what they pay, you get, and then you also get tips here and there.

Dan: 22:02

Oh, that's interesting. I don't think I realized that. So people will tip you.

Aaron: 22:06

Yes. And a note to all your listeners, tip your groomers.

Dan: 22:10

Yeah.

Aaron: 22:10

For real.

Dan: 22:10

Exactly.

Aaron: 22:11

Yeah. People tip. But it's kind of basically the same way that a hairdresser is paid, you make a commission and you make tips. What does grooming cost? So your average say you've got a schnauzer. A little dog, you know, 20 pounds-ish, needs a haircut, needs their nails, needs their ears done, all that stuff costs where I am $75 now.

Dan: 22:36

Okay.

Aaron: 22:37

And that's for all of it. I've got some that go up to$200, $220, just depending on how much work they are, how big they are.

Dan: 22:46

Okay. So it's priced based on the size of the dog and then I guess some of the extra services you might want.

Aaron: 22:54

Yeah. The size of the dog and then the amount of work that it actually is. Like a

Dan: 22:58

Okay.

Aaron: 22:59

A 150 pound great dane is gonna cost the same probably as a 20 pound Shih Tzu. Oh, really? Because there's no hair cutting.

Dan: 23:11

Okay.

Aaron: 23:11

You know, they got that real short coat and so there's not there's not a lot on the back end. It's all just the the beginning stuff like the haircut and the ears and the nails and stuff.

Dan: 23:21

Yeah.

Aaron: 23:21

Yeah. So it's not totally on size but I mean if you had a 150 Shih Tzu. Then. I'm laughing just thinking of that. Yeah. I just wanna see it. I might do it for free if you had that. But, yeah, that would be an expensive groom.

Dan: 23:38

So Aaron, we always end our episodes with a quick lightning round of questions. Here we go. What is a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know, and what does it mean?

Aaron: 23:51

I'm gonna go with Furnado. Can you guess what that might mean?

Dan: 23:55

Furnado. No.

Aaron: 23:58

So that would be when you get a Siberian Husky or a German shepherd that hasn't been into your shop in eight months since the last time they were in there and has been outside digging in the ground, getting pollen all over them. Getting twigs and stuff stuck in their coat and then they come in for a grooming and before you even bathe them or anything you turn on that force dryer that I was talking about and you experience a level five furnado in your shop that has hair blowing everywhere. Dust, dander, which is skin cells that come off the dog and get caught in the coat, pollen, sticks, leaves, everything blowing around you.

Dan: 24:46

Oh, man.

Aaron: 24:47

Some people wear safety goggles to do that because you got hair just shooting into your eyeballs and up your nose. You'll be pulling hair out of your underwear for the next two days. Like, it gets everywhere. It is an absolute natural disaster.

Dan: 25:04

I will never forget that as long as I live. What is the most insulting thing you could say about a dog groomer's work?

Aaron: 25:13

So I don't know about insulting, but one of the things that kind of gets under my skin sometimes is when people off the cuff just say, man my haircut doesn't even cost that much. And I I just have to... Obviously they don't know what they're talking about because it's not just a haircut and it doesn't take fifteen minutes and when you go into get your haircut you probably aren't trying to fall out of the chair and bite the hairdresser.

Dan: 25:40

Right. Right.

Aaron: 25:41

While you pee on the wall and stomp around in it and they're doing your nails and squeezing your butt for you. How about that? So yeah, it's a little more expensive than your flat top but and I I don't think that's necessarily offensive or whatever it was but yeah, that's that's one thing that people just don't seem to understand.

Dan: 26:03

So one of our lightning round questions is usually, what's a sound specific to your profession that you're likely to hear? We wanna switch that up a little bit and try something different. So I'm gonna play you a sound, and I want you to try to guess what it is and what's happening. Alright?

Aaron: 26:23

Okay. I know what that is.

Dan: 26:33

What is it?

Aaron: 26:37

Dan, would that be a pug getting his toenails cut?

Dan: 26:40

Oh. Nailed it.

Aaron: 26:43

Yeah.

Dan: 26:43

Nailed it.

Aaron: 26:45

I I was gonna go with English bulldog, but it was a little bit too high pitched to be an English bulldog.

Dan: 26:52

So the reason we played that is when we talked to the veterinarian, she mentioned that when pugs get their nails clipped, they sound like you're murdering them.

Aaron: 27:00

Yeah.

Dan: 27:00

And so we tracked down a clip of the actual sound, and I figured you would recognize it, and you you certainly did.

Aaron: 27:06

It's it's a very specific sound.

Dan: 27:09

What is a tool specific to your profession that you really like using?

Aaron: 27:14

I think more than anything else, it's my table. And it's crazy, but the table is such a psychological tool for the dog that it's indispensable. Like, once you take a dog off the ground and put it on the table, everything changes. Or in the tub, I have a raised tub. But putting him on that table, everything changes. I'll walk through treatment at the animal hospital and I'll see three veterinary technicians on the floor sweating, bending over in weird yoga positions trying to cut a dog's toenails. And they look up at me and go, how did you do this for a living? And I'll I'll just smile and walk on by. And then I can take that same exact dog and bring it back into my room and put it on the table and snip snap, the nails are done. I've got it done by myself in less than twenty seconds. No problem. The table takes them out of their element.

Dan: 28:16

Okay. Well, that's part of the answer to my, I was curious what your theory of that is. Like, what is the table doing?

Aaron: 28:22

I think a part of it is dogs tend to compartmentalize things. Like, lot of people say, my dog won't let me brush them. And my first question is, well, where are you trying to brush them? On your lap? In the living room when you're watching TV? That's lap time. That's not brushing time.

Dan: 28:37

Mhmm.

Aaron: 28:38

My dog won't let me mess with his toes. Where are you trying to do that? On the floor in the mudroom before we go outside where, you know, of course, that's where you cut dog toenails. No, that's floor time. But when you take a dog and you put it in the tub, a raised tub or on the table, it takes them off the ground out of their element and that's grooming time. Once they understand that that's what that's for, they're so much more compliant.

Dan: 29:09

What kind of personality or skill set do you think you need to be really good at this job?

Aaron: 29:15

Chill.

Dan: 29:16

Chill.

Aaron: 29:17

That's the whole set.

Dan: 29:19

I mean, makes sense, right? Because it's all about bedside manner with with creatures you can't speak to.

Aaron: 29:26

Yeah, that. And patience. Yeah. Because your patience is tested on an hourly basis. It's continuously tested. And if you let things bother you, you're just not going to be able to do it.

Dan: 29:37

Patience. Yeah. That really resonates with me. I would not have anticipated that, but now that you say it, I get it. Because you're just constantly dealing with like little frustrations or dogs aren't doing what you want, and if you lose your temper, you make it a 100 times worse for both of you.

Aaron: 29:53

Yeah.

Dan: 29:54

That's interesting.

Aaron: 29:55

Yeah. The moment you start letting things get to you, that's when everything starts slipping away and you can't do what you're doing. I've had to step in with other groomers and you know, I can see them getting red-faced, see them getting frustrated, see their muscles start to tense up and I'd have to step in and be like, look, let's put your dog up for a minute. Let's go get some air. Let's chill out. We'll come back to this. If you need to come back to it, we can. If you need me to finish it, that's fine. But what you're doing right now, that's not working.

Dan: 30:24

How do you think this work has changed the way you see the world?

Aaron: 30:29

Hmm. I think I just have a weird amount of patience with people and with the world. And I can't say that it's because of the work that I do, but like, I don't even know if the horn in my car works. I don't think I've ever honked it.

Dan: 30:50

That's a great line. It's like you just don't even have the instinct to honk at someone.

Aaron: 30:54

No. No. Like, if I see somebody driving dumb, I just say that's one way to do it and just move on. Things just don't bother me like they do other people and I guess that's a pretty cool way to live. I'm good with it.

Dan: 31:12

Aaron Williams is a dog groomer in Alabama. And by the way, he's got a great YouTube channel. We'll link to it in the show notes if you wanna see him in action grooming. This show is about the reciprocal relationship between people and the work they do. It's almost like a cast and a mold. You can learn things about the person by looking at their job and you can learn things about the job by looking at the person. So to be a little bit more tangible about this, I loved Aaron's point about how his patience was his super strength in this work. That reveals something about the work. You know, to groom animals is to be constantly dealing with little irritants, little struggles, not to mention the physical dangers. And his disposition is perfect for it. But notice the same disposition would be a disaster for something like the turnaround consultant work. Remember that one? In a matter of weeks, as a turnaround consultant, you've got to come in, fire people, shut down lines of business, slash cost, and try to keep people motivated to fight their way out of the hole. Patience is the enemy in that situation. Do we think enough about disposition as a critical part of finding the right work? It feels like something that gets a bit neglected. Like what can the kind of person you are tell you about the kind of work you should do? For Aaron anyway, it was a perfect fit. Starting with a nail trim and an ear cleaning, staying calm to soothe the nervous animal, noticing the lump that wasn't there last time, surviving bites and furnadoes, and watching a dog leave your table a little lighter and freer than it arrived. Folks, that's what it's like to be a dog groomer. A shout out to recent Spotify reviewers, Flavia, Jerrell, Mikayla, Michael, Kaori92, and Nadia. This episode was produced by Matt Purdy. I'm Dan Heath. See you next time.