Today a 5 year old black lab named Louis came to visit my grooming table. This was his first experience at being professionally groomed. Basically a bath and brush and nail trim procedure but a very big deal to Louis. He was nervous about the idea of getting into the tub so I used what I refer to as the Daisy technique. I put the leather chair up to the tub then encouraged him to get into that...not the least threatening a venture. Then I thump the inside bottom of the tub and tada he just hopped right in. He was still nervous but by no means distressed for the bath. He hopped out of the tub quite easily. It took a bit of encouragement to get him onto the grooming table...a towel on the table made that less scratchy sounding and less scary. Lots of hugging and good boy Louis and I was able to loop his hind end and effect a stand rather than a scrunch. I toweled and toweled until he felt more relaxed under my hands. Then...the velocity dryer...huh no problem...he stood quiet and just a little tense. I was able to blow him beautifully dry fluffing out and away a lot of undercoat. As soon as he started to show signs of tensing up too much I stopped the blowing process and moved on to a lot of rubber currying, combing and gentle massage. By the time I did all that he had lots of confidence in me and the nail trim went smoothly. We had a nice snuggle and visit time while we waited for his owner to return. All in all it was a very gratifying way to spent a couple of hours. Thanks Louis!