Canine are beloved worldwide and sometimes a favourite topic for story and fable. This isn’t shocking, as canine are our most historical inter-species relationship. Nonetheless, as science advances, a lot of what we thought we knew about canine seems to not be true. New data, typically much more fascinating and thrilling than the beforehand believed mythologies, challenges us to replace our practices and our considering.
My husband and I cherished to observe the outdated tv present “MythBusters.” A staff of expertise, starting from Hollywood stunt guys to intelligent and creative scientists and engineers, would take a look at out a brand new fable every week making an attempt to show or disprove it. It typically concerned entertaining explosions, cool robotics or scorching chemistry.
It seems, the grooming occupation has some “myth-busting” of its personal to do. We’re in the midst of a major information revolution in grooming. For many of the final century, groomers have been working in silos—working alone, not speaking with one another and with no instructional necessities. Groomers used to work primarily from their very own houses and with no web. We had been extra remoted and even secretive, feeling aggressive and proprietary with our personal expertise and data. Delusion-based practices abounded in these days.
Nonetheless, as commerce reveals, competitions and, post-pandemic, extra on-line instructional alternatives grow to be obtainable, the information revolution in grooming started to succeed in extra folks. We’re evolving into a way more collegial, instructional and communicative trade. Throughout us, we’re seeing the myth-busting energy of recent data and the morphing of old skool considering in our trade. Product strains, instruments, gear, and our experience are getting higher and higher. And, our pet purchasers profit from this enlargement as effectively.
Whereas all this new data is more and more obtainable to extra groomers, our trade and the reception it has obtained stays uneven at greatest. As my grooming and instructing profession has spanned over 4 a long time, the explosion of recent data in our trade primarily based in science is actually thrilling to see. However with many fields (not simply grooming), there may be nonetheless a really current angle of, “I do know what I do know, and it really works—don’t hassle me with that new stuff.”
Transitions in data are usually not all the time straightforward or fast, and grooming experiences rising pains, as do many different professions. Some choose to cling to their acquainted practices and anecdotes, whereas others are excitedly lapping up any new data they will entry.
Let’s check out only a few attention-grabbing myths about canine and their grooming which were “busted” by latest advances in scientific data:
1. Delusion: The canine is descended from the wolf.
Busted: The canine has all the time been mentioned to be descended from the wolf. It’s even on pet food commercials, so it have to be true! Latest discoveries of historical canine DNA and our higher capability to discover the small print of present DNA have confirmed the canine is not descended from the wolf in any respect! The canine is a cousin of the wolf, each having descended from a standard ancestor.1
An analogous frequent misunderstanding of evolutionary science contains the old-fashioned notion that people developed from monkeys. We didn’t. Simply because the canine and the wolf got here from totally different strains of the Canidae household, people and different primates are cousins, descended from an extinct frequent ancestor.
As soon as the canine’s DNA was totally mapped and printed in 2003, a number of outdated tales concerning the canine had been myth-busted. The mapping of the canine genome confirmed that the wolf and the canine had a standard ancestor as but undiscovered in fossils and archeology, however clearly there within the DNA. Some scientists are calling it “the ancestor wolf” or “proto-dog.” They’re working to search out extra historical canine DNA to assist fill within the gaps.
Groups of scientists are nonetheless engaged on all this, debating single-origin or dual-origin theories. Canine evolutionary science has seen an explosion of discoveries in latest a long time, together with migration patterns and the invention of 5 distinct and globally distributed gene swimming pools. As early as 11,000 years in the past, there have been already 5 distinct canine lineages that gave rise to canines within the Close to East, Northern Europe, Siberia, New Guinea and the Americas.2
2. Delusion: People domesticated the canine.
Busted: Domesticated animals are species which are long-controlled by people and who dwell and work with us completely. They now not dwell within the wild, nor can they. All domesticated mammals (together with people) share bodily options which are comparable, and there may be some thrilling new science that explains why that occurs3—a extra concerned subject for one more day.
The story has lengthy been that the canine was the primary species domesticated by people. Due to the wonderful work in historical DNA, anthropology and archeology, we now know that the canine as a definite species is way older than as soon as thought (roughly 33,000 to 44,000 years outdated). What science has revealed is that our two species are co-evolved and, due to this fact, we share a relationship distinctive in all of the world.
However who domesticated whom? Which of our two species first tentatively approached the opposite, demonstrating the mutual advantage of a partnership? It could change your understanding of who we, as canine groomers, work with to be taught this!
What the evolutionary biologists now say, clearly indicated by the majority of the rising proof, is that the ancestor wolf or proto-dog approached us first. They got here to our camps to feed off our rubbish and we noticed the advantage of having them close to our camps. They stored away different predators and, over time, they helped us hunt extra efficiently. So, they get the evolutionary credit score. Canine are the primary domesticated mammals and canine domesticated us! Canine taught folks the advantages of inter-species friendliness. Canine might even be liable for the very survival of the human species at a number of factors in our historical past.4,5,6 I discover it deepens the enjoyment and appreciation in my grooming to know this concerning the canine on my desk.
3. Delusion: All canine coat sorts might be groomed the identical.
Busted: The identical shampoo; the identical shave down, irrespective of the breed or coat kind, has lengthy been a broadly accepted grooming trade observe. However fortunately, for the canine, that’s now altering with extra and higher details about coat genetics and dermatological science. The canine get the advantage of higher grooming as our trade innovators put out extra and higher merchandise, instruments, and strategies primarily based on this higher science.
After I started grooming within the early Nineteen Eighties, there have been few selections in grooming merchandise and instruments, and all the things received shaved. Shampoos and conditioners are actually researched, manufactured and marketed with many extra choices for coat kind, pores and skin points, breeds and desired grooming outcomes. Instruments and gear are amazingly higher with extra numerous selections for each the groomer’s fingers and the canine’s pores and skin and coat.
Better of all, our understanding of canine coat genetics has significantly improved. We now have entry to electron microscopy and superior dermatology. We all know concerning the anagen, catagen and telogen phases of hair development, and the variations between these cycles in major versus secondary hairs. This entry to raised data leads us to an improved understanding of essentially the most vital genetic distinction within the canine coat, which is what a few of us are calling “Fur vs. Hair,” or genetically pre-determined size (PDL) coat sorts (which aren’t to be clipped) vs. genetically undetermined size (UDL) coat sorts (which grown till minimize).
We additionally now know that on wire-coated breeds (additionally a Fur or PDL coat kind), the microscopic follicles are deeper and extra complicated and the hair shaft is bigger. This implies they received’t simply shed out naturally and have to be pulled or tugged on (hand-stripped) or carded. If they’re solely clipped, they will go away little bits of hair roots contained in the follicles, finally inflicting a few of the follicles to clog, grow to be irritated and even die.7
This record is under no circumstances unique of the myths that encompass canine and our occupation. There are numerous others to debate and take into account, and they’re all a part of our skilled development as groomers. Delusion-busting ought to be an on-going course of in any subject as new science helps us re-evaluate our old skool practices.
As we purchase extra data and science about what we do and collectively bust extra myths, we assist our expert commerce trade develop an increasing number of right into a revered occupation. And as we rise in our capability to teach ourselves, we assist elevate our standing as expert tradespeople to knowledgeable degree and do issues higher for these fantastic canine we serve.
Take pleasure in all of the thrilling new data on the market! ✂️
References:
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982215004327
- https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba9572
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4096361/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survival_of_the_Friendliest
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/130302-dog-domestic-evolution-science-wolf-wolves-human
- https://www.theatlantic.com/know-how/archive/2012/05/humanitys-best-friend-how-dogs-may-have-helped-humans-beat-the-neanderthals/257145/
- https://www.trendingbreeds.com/wire-haired-dogs/
Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins, MA, ICMG, PGC, CCE
Jennifer is the proprietor of Love Fur Canine in Glencoe, Illinois, and was named Greatest Groomer in Chicagoland by the Chicago Tribune in 2015. Jennifer is an award successful educator and has been a Grasp Groomer since 1985. Jennifer is a retired schoolteacher who has dabbled within the canine present world for forty years, the place she discovered to groom. Jennifer based the Illinois Skilled Pet Groomers Affiliation. She is the writer of the acclaimed “Groomers Information To The 15 Coat Sorts” seminars, and a poster and ebook of the identical title. Her academically wealthy webinars might be discovered by visiting her web site at www.groomersguide.com.
