Animal Grooming Online Course

Do you love animal grooming?  This animal grooming online course will show you how in 10 easy lessons.

This practical animal grooming online course is delivered online and will give you the skills and knowledge you need gain competency in animal grooming. It is suitable for both enthusiasts and professionals. Recommended for those wanting to be professional animal groomers, or for people working in the pet care and pet shop industry, dog groomers, dog and cat owners and so on.While this course has a strong focus on dog grooming, it will also teach you how to groom a range of other animals in a range of lessons covering:

• equipment
• grooming techniques
• anatomical structures
• tasks
• coat types and more.

You will be guided by our experienced tutors with support for each lesson and feedback on all submitted work.  Try for yourself and see how easy it is for you to learn animal grooming.

Course Aims:

• Discuss the scope and nature of grooming animals, including the animals that are commonly groomed, the situations in which they are groomed, equipment that is used and the tasks carried out by a groomer.
• Describe external anatomical structures and physiological processes of animals which are relevant to grooming.
• Describe how to manage the coats of different types of animals.
• Discuss tasks used in grooming animals that are supplementary to grooming the coat.
• Describe a range of techniques used to control a variety of different types of animals during grooming.
• Compare grooming techniques used for different types of dogs.
• Describe a range of techniques used to groom a variety of different types of animals other than dogs.
• Determine protocols for safety of both animals and groomers, when grooming different types of animals
• Explain how to groom dogs, cats, horses and a variety of other animals for a show.
• Explain how to establish or improve a grooming business to be more successful.

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Scope and Nature of Grooming

• • Introduction to grooming behaviour
  • Why do humans groom animals?
  • What animals are groomed?
  • Generic grooming tasks
  • Common tools and equipment
  • Combs, brushes, rakes, blades and other equipment
  • Confidently handling animals Introduction
  • The industry and workplace opportunities
  • Workplace skills

2. Animal Biology

• • Skin – Epidermis & Dermis
  • Claws, Nails and Spurs
  • Hair
  • Horns
  • Hooves
  • Physiological control – Homeostasis
  • Thermoregulation

3. Caring for the Skin and Coat

• • Animal nutrition
  • General nutrition
  • Micronutrition
  • Water requirements
  • Common skin problems in dogs and cats
  • Ringworm – fungal infection
  • Flea and flea control
  • Ticks and tick control
  • Lice and control
  • Mites (mange) and control
  • Treating skins problems in dogs and cats
  • Common skin problems in equines
  • Caring for the coat – brushing, bathing, blowdrying, dematting, clipping, trimming
  • Removing burrs from fur
  • Caring for cats – combing, brushing and bathing

4. Specialised Grooming Tasks Risks of Working with Animals

• • Selecting a suitable grooming location
  • Understanding animal psychology and behaviour
  • The flight or fight response
  • Environmental Influence on behaviour in zoo animals
  • General considerations when handling animals
  • Pre-restraint techniques
  • Physical restraint
  • Medical restraint – sedation
  • Safely handling different animals when grooming: dogs, cats, cattle, poultry, rabbits, captive wildlife
  • Handling Horses: Safe and Respectful
  • Catching, releasing, leading, tying up and working around the horse
  • Indicators of pain, mild fear and extreme fear
  • Transporting horses

5. Handling Animals

• • Risks of working with animals
  • Selecting a suitable grooming location
  • Understanding animal psychology and behaviour
  • The flight or fight response
  • Environmental Influence on behaviour in zoo animals
  • General considerations when handling animals
  • Pre-restraint techniques
  • Physical restraint
  • Medical restraint – sedation
  • Safely handling different animals when grooming: dogs, cats, cattle, poultry, rabbits, captive wildlife
  • Handling Horses: Safe and Respectful
  • Catching, releasing, leading, tying up and working around the horse
  • Indicators of pain, mild fear and extreme fear
  • Transporting horses

6. Grooming Dogs

• • Communication in dogs
  • Use of scent
  • Barking & body language
  • Grooming different types of dogs
  • Long Coat types
  • short coat types
  • single coat types
  • Double coat types
  • Smooth coat types
  • Wire haired coat types
  • Woolly or wavy coat types
  • Corded coat types
  • Bald or hairless coat types
  • Brushing and bathing care
  • Clipping and styling
  • Grooming procedures that can go wrong
  • Cutting toenails too short
  • Cuts or nicks when clipping
  • Overheating
  • Water trapped in the ear canal

7. Grooming Exotic Animals

• • Grooming birds
  • Handling birds
  • Beaks
  • Feathers
  • Bathing birds
  • Grooming rabbits
  • Handling
  • moulting
  • Transporting
  • Grooming captive wildlife
  • Bathing small and large mammals
  • Handling large animals and exotics
  • Dangerous animals
  • Fear of humans
  • Issues with handling animals
  • Psychological effects of different handling techniques
  • Grooming areas

8. Safety in Grooming Workplace

• • Safety for people and staff – workplace health and safety
  • First aid
  • Legislation and duty of care
  • Safety of animal owners and visitors to the premises
  • Protective equipment
  • A groomer’s personal protection
  • Equipment and workplace safety
  • Storage and disposal of chemicals
  • Handling Tools and Machinery
  • Safety with tools and equipment
  • Safety audit
  • Example of an audit checklist
  • Safety for animals and people
  • Transportation
  • Safety of the animal at the salon
  • Electrical safety – at home and the groomers
  • Slip risk – wet surfaces
  • Cat and dog allergies

9. Preparing for Showing

• • What is animal showing?
  • Why do people show pets?
  • Showing dogs
  • Training your show puppy
  • Preparing for show – dogs
  • Days and evening before the show
  • The day of the show and in the ring
  • Showing – dress to impress
  • Showing poultry
  • Getting started – selecting your breed and buying your birds
  • Preparing birds for show
  • The day before the show
  • The day of the show
  • Showing cattle
  • Preparing cattle for show
  • In the show ring on the day

10. The Business of Grooming Planning a New Grooming Business

• • The business plan
  • Financial planning
  • Long term goals
  • Medium term goals
  • Annual financial plan
  • Financial records
  • Commonly used finance related terminology
  • Cash flow
  • Make the business a success – know your market
  • Insurance and risks – risk analysis and managing risk
  • Groomers insurance