Cage Drying

Anyone doing more than five dogs a day or anyone who grooms large dogs or cats NEEDS a cage drying bank.

It allows you to focus your time and energy on the jobs which need your attention while pets dry all the way or finish drying what is still wet after force drying.

There are a lot of tricks to drying dogs using cage dryers and I am going to try to help you realize that cage drying is not cheating, it is in fact an economical and easier way to dry dogs with less stress on both the groomer and the pet.

After bathing, remove as much water as possible using towels, chamois or Absorbers, whichever you prefer. Then, force dry the dog. SIMPLE right? If you concentrate on the skin of the dog when force drying it will help fluff out the coats and speed up the drying. Concentrate on legs and undersides. These take longer to dry on most dogs.

Brush out ears, tails and heads. The entire dog can be fluffed with a slicker while still damp if you like and when it dries in the cage dryer it will look like it was hand fluffed.

I use a system of nooses and swivel hooks in my cages to help the dogs dry faster as well. Because we don't let them lay down they get drier faster than you would believe! By attaching a swivel hook, like the ones on the end of a grooming noose, to the top of the wire cage and then using both a rear noose and a neck noose (or a combo no-sit noose if you prefer) you can actually reduce the time a cocker or other similarly coated dog takes to dry by more than half. Simply hook the nooses to the swivel and they cannot tangle themselves up or lay down preventing airflow from reaching underneath.

If you have wire racks this helps with circulation as well. I use old refrigerator racks placed on towels. I do not have them elevated, but the towels help absorb dripping water and if there is an "accident" it prevents a dog from needing rebathed. They make cages with with wire grates built in. I own several of those and use them for goldens and labs. Anything you can do to make the air flow around the entire dog will help speed up your drying time, making you more a more profitable groomer. And by reducing the actual man-hours involved in a task you save energy as well.

NEVER LEAVE DOGS Unattended even while in cages. Always keep them in your line of sight. As with all aspects of this job, be sure to maintain a close eye on the pets in your charge while they are drying. They are YOUR responsibility while they are in your shop and it is YOUR JOB to ensure they return home safely.

Open wire cages like this give you many options for drying. You can place fans on the top of the cage or hang them from the ends to give you six cage dryers using only 3 fans.

VariKennels are GREAT for traveling, but since they are enclosed they are not good choices for drying.