Hair, hair, everywhere

There's a reason why people pay me to bathe dogs.  I'm not talking about haircuts, just baths.  Yes, I trim their nails and clean out their ears, and they smell amazing, when I'm done,  but de-shedding is the big attraction.   Many people are shocked at how many Labradors, Pugs, German Shepherds, and any variety of short-haired breeds I groom in a week.    They pay me to do something they could totally do themselves, right?    I get it, and you are correct.  They could do it themselves.  Here are some photos that may show why they don't.

1st of all, my secret weapon!  I love this thing.  No really, I love it.   I will post details about this baby sometime soon.

The victim.  120 pounds of handsome German Shepherd boy.  How'd you like to wrestle him into your tub at home? 

Here he is after I used the high-velocity blow dryer on him.  Yes, that is hair sticking to the wall of the bathtub.

This is the tub after he exited.  Yes, it took me some time to clean that up.  I sure wouldn't want that in my tub at home.  YUCK.

He then headed off to a drying cage for a while.  Here is what he looked like when I got him back out to finish him.

Even after all that coat came out in the tub, check out all the loose hair hanging on.  Time for me to start brushing..and brushing, and brushing, and more blowdrying.

Here are the tools I used today.  Yes..our dryer is old and we used duct tape to fix the hose..it still works great!  For some reason my Furminator didn't make it into this photo.  I will have to post about that wonderful product soon as well.

Here is the hair I removed from him after the bath.  I'm thinking the client's vacuum cleaner thanks me today.

And, the finished product, such a beautiful boy.

He actually wasn't blowing his undercoat as well as I would've liked, they probably could've waited another 3 weeks or so, as the weather around here seems to be affecting the shedding cycle on some of these dogs. 
These dogs are pretty labor intensive, but it's a very satisfying finished product.