EP1-Decoding Pet Communication & Emotional Wellbeing with Cassondra Smith

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Have you ever wondered what your pet is really thinking behind those adorable eyes? What if grooming your pet was more than a task, but a sacred exchange of trust and care? 

In this week’s episode, Aimee sits down with Cassondra Smith, CEO of Club Pawsh and host of The Unlimited Groomer podcast. Cassondra shares her inspiring journey from music industry professional to animal wellness educator, speaker, and grooming expert. 

Whether you’re a pet parent, an animal professional, or simply someone who believes in care-centered living, this conversation will expand your heart and perspective.

In this episode, you’ll hear:

- Cassondra’s journey from cubicles to canines, and finding her true calling

- How grooming is about more than looks, it’s about trust, healing & communication

- The concept of Fear Free grooming and why it’s changing the industry

- Why understanding animal behavior matters more than ever

- How somatic awareness applies to animals and what they teach us about energy

- The emotional impact of trauma (for pets and humans) and how to rebuild the connection

And so much more!

Cassondra Renee FFCP-G, AMCP, founder and CEO of Club Pawsh, is described as the only All-Luxury & Fear Free Certified Mobile Groomer in Buffalo, New York. She is a seasoned groomer with over 10 years of experience in in-home, mobile, and salon settings. 

Cassondra has also held corporate roles overseeing hundreds of groomers, where she developed a passion for coaching and advising others in the industry to achieve success financially and personally. Her background includes personal development, a collegiate background in psychology, and a Bachelor's of Science in Music Business Management.

Cassondra's expertise and empowerment coaching have been featured in various media outlets, including Reader's Digest, television news, and animal sanctuary organizations. She also educates on platforms and podcasts within the grooming industry. Alongside her podcast, "The Unlimited Groomer," she offers business coaching tailored to pet industry professionals and is available for speaking engagements. 

Additionally, she runs Pawscious Memories, which creates handmade pet keepsakes incorporating hair and cremains. Outside of her professional life, Cassondra has five pets, is involved in WINC (an organization supporting women in business), practices yoga and meditation, and enjoys dancing, reading, roller skating, and traveling.

Connect with Cassondra:

Socials: @clubpawsh, @unlimitedgroomer 

Website: ⁠clubpawsh.com⁠

Website: clubpawsh.com

Business number: +1(845) 6-CAT-DOG 

Connect with Aimee:

Instagram: @aimeetakaya 

Facebook: Aimee Takaya 

Learn more about Aimee Takaya, Hanna Somatic Education, and The Radiance Program at⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠www.freeyoursoma.com⁠⁠⁠.⁠⁠

LISTEN WHILE READING!

A: Hey there, listener. Do you consider yourself a dog person or a cat person or maybe an animal person in general? Have you considered the way in which your connection to animals can increase your emotional intelligence and sensitivity to not only other animals but other people in the world? 

I have Cassandra Smith, founder and CEO of Club Posh, a speaker, coach, and host of the podcast, The Unlimited Groomer, and we are going to explore today the way that your connection to other living beings and other somas is growing with the collective as we step into a new view of the living creatures on this planet. Stay tuned. 

A: Every day, there is a forgetting, and every moment there is the possibility of remembering. Remembering who you truly are, awakening to your body, to the inner world, to the experience of being alive. Here is where you find the beauty, the joy, and here is where you free your soma. I'm your host, Aimee Takaya. I'm here to help you move from pain to power, from tension to expansion, and ultimately from fear to love. 

A: Hi Cassandra, how are you today? 

C: Hi, I'm wonderful. How about yourself? 

A: Good, good. I'm excited for this conversation. You had me on your podcast somewhat recently, and I really enjoy the conversation. I think that what you're up to is really interesting because you started your career, I guess you could say like public career as a coach and as a speaker, and you've transitioned now to a really full-time dedication to supporting groomers, helping groomers and people who work with animals gain skills and confidence in what they're doing and then also just being someone who's really gifted at working with animals in general. 

C: Thank you. 

A: Can you say a little bit about that transition, that shift for you? 

C: Sure, sure. So funny enough, I grew up in a small town, and animals were always a thing. So I don't look it, but I'm two generations outside of the legally recognized Native American ethnicity. So I very much embrace, even though I'm white as white, I very much embrace the Mohawk side of my family. And so with that comes a lot of natural love and admiration and working with nature. And growing up in that small town, every single time an animal, like a dog, got loose or ran away, they always came to my grandparents' house, and I grew up living next door to them. 

So we were constantly having dogs and like repeat customers of dogs, just they would run away, get loose, and they would always come. So we always had our own dogs and cats. And so I always grew up with animals, but I grew up with the mentality of like, you have to be successful, you have to go out and get a real job, like you can do anything you want, but let's also be practical. And so I initially went for psychology and then got caught up in the music industry, actually have a bachelor's in music business management, moved to the West Coast. 

Long story short, a little dog was picked up and put in my car at one in the morning in Hollywood. And he just changed my life. And I pivoted towards, you know, I was just stuck in an a cubicle and I got my dream job and I was like, I'm so unfulfilled, I need to see results. I never thought of myself as a creative person, but I was like, I need something. And so fast forward, I ended up inventing something, which is on the back burner still, but that made me move to Las Vegas to get all the things together, believe it or not, Vegas is cheaper to afford to live in than LA. And so that's why I was there. 

And I ended up getting an animal massage, continuing education program from the University of Las Vegas, ended up on my doorstep. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, I could get paid to pet animals for a living and like a justifiable career, like, sign me up. And so to get my foot in the door, I started as a bather. And then fell in love with that. I was like, this is the thing. Life happened when on my personal journey, got into coaching, because I was like, Oh my gosh, I fell in love with myself. 

Everyone else needs to know what this is like. Started doing that, got too successful too quickly, I burned myself out, I wasn't in connection with the right people, and my energy was just zapped, got back into grooming. And it's been history from there. 

The reason I coach is because eight years into my grooming career, I found continuing education, and there was just giant gap. And I'm like, Wait a second, these are my people. This is what's missing. They're missing. There's so much. I mean, imposter syndrome is everywhere, but there's so much of that in the grooming world, because it's an unregulated industry. 

Most people like myself learned as an apprentice. And that's it. So they learned how to make dogs look cute and clean, but they didn't learn, you know, safety, they didn't learn emotions, they didn't learn anything like that. And on top of that, they go into business, they have no business knowledge, they have no business savvy, they have no idea what they're doing. 

I'm constantly, even now, I'm constantly seeing things in Facebook groups of like, How often do you sanitize your tools? I'm like, This is a question. Why is this a question? Yeah. Like, you know, and so, or like, What do I charge? I don't know. And I'm like, Okay, let's fix this. 

So never having been, you know, a stranger to being in the public eye grew up acting, singing, dancing, name it. I'm like, Okay, let me step up. Let me help. And so I do that with my the unlimited groomer with coaching and speaking. And I've spoken at the world's largest industry events, which are really exciting. And then with my company club Posh, once I found continuing education, I'm a lifelong learner, and I was hooked. 

And I was like, There's so much more to be done. And what's funny is I come from a family of doctors and nurses. And so when I decided to go completely laughed and go into the music industry, or even psychology, they're like, Okay. 

And so now I'm kind of like bringing it back to my family's holistic wellness roots. And I'm pursuing a pathway in what's called pet esthetician, where I'm bridging that gap between veterinary and groomer. The gap is actually bridged by pet dermatologists, but there's like, five of them anywhere ever. And so it allows me without having put in another eight years of study, it allows me to bridge that gap. 

And I'm topically treating skin conditions, I'm helping dogs get off of medicines like apiculi and stuff, because we're looking at it from a scientific perspective. And I will say, last year, I completed a mini vet school at a local university. And I was a guest at how generalized and absent so much veterinary knowledge is it's so much a guessing game. 

And which I get and there's a reason for that, just because like you were saying earlier, how far we've come to recognize pets, as the companions they are, and not the animals or the creatures or the things. And so there's a gap in the education, because the need has not historically been there. And so when you're looking at these astronomical vet bills, because now people are saying, I want to find out I want blood work, I want to find out like how am I going to treat this? 

This is my fur baby. Vets are going, we don't really have that knowledge. And it's a lot of educated guesses. But we can figure it out, I guess, although it's going to cost you blah, blah, blah, and clients are going, I can't afford that. So there's a giant, giant need there. And so to be able to bring my combined knowledge, I've had conversations with so many vets, and I'm explaining them on the scientific level. 

And of course, they look me like, Oh, you're a groomer, we're just got automatically going to write you off, whatever. And then I start talking to them about the science of the hair and skin. And they're like, you have my attention. Oh, well, I said, that makes a lot of sense. And in like five minutes, I can change their life. And so that's a really important thing for me, because there are fur babies. So anyway, that's my whole round of backers, where I am now. 

A: No, that's incredible. I love this story. And also that it's like, you're sort of modeling this idea that I think a lot of people who have been in the coaching world, you know, there's sort of different schools of thought, like pick your niche. And then there's also like, no, you can be everything that you are, and everything that you want to be under the umbrella of whatever it is you want to do. And I think that you're like showing us that that's possible. 

Like, yes, you have a niche, you've picked groomer, but you're bringing in all of the skills from your previous experiences, right, including like the emotional intelligence piece, which I think, you know, maybe you can say something on this. What I notice in the way that people are starting to really respect and honor their animals, like, you know, not every person, but I would say the collective consciousness about animal welfare, especially in regards to domesticated animals and our pets has increased. 

Like you said, people are starting to have higher standards for their pets' well-being and health and not just like, oh, guess the seven year old dog is sick, and we got to put her down like, no, they're like, no, this animal should be able to live another 10 or 15 years, you know what I mean, depending on the breed and the size and all of that. So, you know, what do you think about the way that our connection and you can speak from experience on this too? Like what is the connection that we have to these domesticated animals that brings out some of our better human qualities? 

C: Oh my gosh, so much. So, if we go back to our human roots, the first domesticated pets were dogs and cats, and they were wild, but there was a symbiotic relationship, right? The cats came around because when we colonized and there were all of a sudden there were stores of food instead of being nomadic. And so that brought rodents. And so cats came along to eat that. So, we're like, okay, you serve a purpose. 

Cool, thanks. And then we got familiarized and then became more and more domesticated. Same thing with dogs. And we realized, oh, we can train these so we can have this conversation going on. And one of my biggest, biggest, biggest things outside of the pets is just my two-fold platform is Fear Free. So, I am on the Speaker's Bureau for the Fear Free Pets Organization. And that is my number one passion because they are sentient beings. 

We recognized this centuries ago, millennia ago, back in ancient times. There's a wonderful book actually by a local Buffalo author, oh, Beneath the Sand. I found it in the airport and I started reading it. 

I'm like, oh my gosh, this is women's repuff, this is awesome. But it's about like back in like Greco-Roman times and it's about the Gladiator arenas with the animals. And it's basically talking about if we look back historically, how did Roman empires have bears and tigers and all these gigantic things that could kill you in an instant with primitive, they didn't have guns, they didn't have tasers, like how did they get them? And it's understanding them at a behavioral and emotional level. 

What triggers them? Understanding that they're animals and they operate differently. However, we can communicate and we can just like, you know, when you're dealing with people, you know, like, oh, this person is a little more sensitive about this. 

So, I may be steer the conversation this way. Same exact thing with animals and we recognize that with wild beasts. But we've come so far, which is great that we've humanized our fur babies, but we tend to forget sometimes that they're still animals and they don't cognitively, while we're personifying, we're assigning human characteristics and traits to what they're saying and thinking. Often they're probably actually stressed, but you think they're being cute. 

And so there is a bit of a miscommunication in this gap. But what is wonderful about that, and even in my lifetime, so I'm going to be 40 in a couple months, and I look back to my golden retriever. Golden retriever, America's family dog grew up with him. Samson spent literally his entire life outside. I grew up outside of Buffalo. And back then, before all this climate change, it was regularly deeply in the negatives in the winter. And this golden retriever spent his entire life outside in a dog, like I haven't even seen a dog house in like 20 years. 

Like I don't even know if they make them anymore. But he had a dog house, he had his line outside. And I remember pleading with my mom, but this was normal. Like, yeah, it was. Like now I'm in jail. 

But like, the back then this was normal. And I remember pleading with my mom in snowstorms, like, please, let's bring Sam inside. And like, I remember twice, she allowed him to come inside the back porch. And the back porch wasn't even insulated, but it was like, better than the blankets out in the doghouse. 

That would be a crime these days. And so I'm so proud of how far we've come. And there's so much more to go. 

And it's just like in everything in life, the pendulum swings, right? Like, we recognized how to communicate with them then, respecting the boundaries. And now we've swung over here, where we're communicating to them to the point that they have strollers, and they get manicures with nail polish and all this fun stuff, which I love to do as well. And that was needed to get them to where they need because also we have to remember all of the breeds of dogs and cats out, not so much cats, but dogs specifically, we created them. 

We said, okay, you've become a companion. I want a lap dog. I want a hunting dog. I want a protector. I want all these different things. 

I want to work dog because I don't want to use a donkey. So like, hey, newfoundland's. And so we have created these. And I think sometimes we forget that with designer breeds, like all the doodles, the dogs that were created, Dosh hounds, you know, all these things were created with a specific purpose in mind. 

Cutes was a side effect. And we've created them. We owe it to them to care for them the way that they require. And if anyone's ever had a dog, which I know your audience, whether they have or have not, you're a feeling audience, you get it. Like, there's that unspoken bond that when a cat just sits on your lap, when the cat chooses you, you're the winner. You know, like there's that feeling. And if you really tune into it, you don't get that with other humans. 

Maybe you're soulmate, but it's different. And so it's learning to respect that just like where you learn how to respect other humans that you don't operate, you're a human. Biologically, you're similar to me. But you operate on a different level. How do I work with you? We have to learn how to work with them. And so that's a that's a huge platform where I'm always like, okay, let's actually understand them from a biology standpoint. So we can understand them from an emotional standpoint. And then we can give them their best needs. And we can still personify along the way. 

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Join me, Amy Takaya and discover what my clients are raving about at youcanfreeyorsoma.com. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think you said it well when you say that, you know, we may think they're being cute, but they're actually stressed, right? There's a big similarity between human beings and animals in the sense of we all experience stress and we all have innate survival patterns that are part of our body's intelligence that's helping us navigate the like ever changing, shifting world, right? 

And animals have that in a very distinct way that is similar to humans, but also unique and different. And so, you know, as people are starting to understand, like our human nervous system fight, flight and fawn, we can see that animals do these same things and that, you know, the cute puppy dog eyes and all the behaviors that we might again associate with just like cuteness or friendliness can be fawning. 

It can be a way that they're attempting to get their needs met for their survival. You know, if I become important to you, if you care about me, you know, I'm going to make sure that I'm fed. I'm going to make sure that, like I'm safe from other, you know, dangerous animals, especially like small dogs, you know what I mean, can have a lot of that going on where their survival literally depends on our, you know, our human kindness and our perceptivity, like our willingness to perceive them, you know, in their communication, which as you said, I mean, it's nonverbal, it's more of a somatic communication. 

I like what you said about, can we create a connection where they are free from fear and at ease more. And then when we do that, when we create that container of safety, and instead of treating them like an object, treat them with sensitivity, right, it makes it a lot easier to work with them. You've worked with some very difficult animals at different times, right? 

Can you say a little bit like maybe for listeners who have had, you know, experiences with animals that made them afraid or hesitant because like, oh, I got bit by a dog once, right. And then you're kind of coming back into that relationship of like it becoming something that both of you feel safe about again, right? Like as animals go through that animals get abused, people get bitten by dogs. You know, what can you say about like rebuilding that trust? 

C: Yes. So that's a, it's a good one, just like in relationships. Okay. So you get burned in a speaking of here's one of my littles coming up. She's always, here's my little lapdog. So if somebody breaks your trust, cheat on you, they lie to you, you know, whatever it is, not every human's going to do that. But we all have our own healing time, right? And so some people heal faster than others. 

Some people have a larger open hearts and some people are understandably, you know, closed off to keep themselves safe. Well, animals are the same thing. So not just as every human is not the same, not every animal is the same. And I mentioned this to clients, if they get like a new rescue, we have no idea what they've gone through. 

We have no idea what their triggers are. And just as you would try to come like if you decide to open your heart to a new relationship, you come in with an open heart, right? You have your hopes and you have your expectations and you certainly have your reservations, but you want to come as neutral as possible. So if any of you meditate or have breathwork practices, that will absolutely all help when you're working with animals. 

More so than humans, they are much more energetic beings, because that is how they've learned to express themselves in the world. Like you said, with survival and everything, everything down to the widening of their eyes or how tight their lips are, you know, if they're panting and its situational awareness. 

So one of the beautiful things that one of the other speakers in Fear Free talked about, it was a bite prevention. And he was talking about having met somebody on a street with their dog. And the person was like, oh, you can pet my dog. 

And he's like, I'm okay, thank you. And they're like, what, you don't want to pet my dog? And he was reading the dog's language. So while the owner felt my dog's friendly, everybody loves my dog, he's looking at the dog's body language, watching the ears go back, watching the mouth go back, fidgeting a little bit, that dog's uncomfortable. Now we don't have to understand why we just want to read the cues. So one of the biggest things in Fear Free is FAS, Fear Anxiety Stress. And it's reading the levels. 

So it goes on on a scale from zero to five. And you can actually become a Fear Free certified pet parent. Like it's not just for pet professionals. If you just want to understand your fur baby or understand other fur babies in general, this is huge, because it helps you to read, you don't have to go and get a degree in animal behavior. It helps you to read their body language, which is so key for everybody's safety. So again, a neutral slate, but then just being able to identify. And one of the things that we talked about earlier, in what we think they're being cute, they're actually not, it can be this, just like with humans, it's not always the same. 

And what I mean by this is you have to use situational awareness with the foundations of what you already know. And of course, it's an animal, so play safe. You don't know this animal's history. 

You don't know where they came from, or, you know, maybe they just got scolded five minutes ago. And dogs, they, it takes about three to four days for cortisol to stress hormone. It takes about three to four days for that to exit their body system. We hold on to it and it bundles up and then we need somatic practices because we can hold on to it for years. 

Dogs will typically release it, but it takes about three to four days. So if they've had an exciting event or they just ran around or whatnot, they're probably still going to be a little hyper. And because they're energetic beings, we talk about dogs with their sixth sense, they can pick up on that. It's honestly, it's the pheromones is what it is. 

They're sensing your pheromones. And when we are afraid, there is a different type of pheromone that we release, we can't smell it, they can. And that's what they're sensing. So when you calm your breath and you take a look and like, okay, ears are back, they're fidgety, they're panting. They might have just come from a run, but they also might be like, not okay with this situation. I'm picking up some weird vibes. 

A: Right. And then the animals individual history would play a part in this. Like, you know, some animals who are, you know, the kind of animals that become therapy dogs, you know, maybe they had an early experience with a person who had a lot of those fear pheromones, but that person was very kind to them or was very gentle with them, right? 

And so they learned to associate those stress, the smell of those pheromones with like someone that I want to bring comfort to, someone that I want to connect with, you know, whereas someone, some other dog may have had some stressed out owner who was beating them or doing something cruel or neglecting them, you know, and so now there's an association with those that those fear pheromones that this is a dangerous person that I need to be afraid of, you know, so I can see how even within, you know, the context that you're talking about, there's a lot of individual, you know, as you said, situational, you know, circumstantial things that can color an individual dog's perception and behaviors and even personality, I would think. 

C: Oh, sure. My little dog, Boa, I got him when he was five months old. He was the one that was handed to me through my car window. And for most of his life, terrified of men, just was what it was. My significant other, my soulmate, is the first that he was, he actually kissed, like he's the first. 

first that he was like, okay, he like proactively goes and curls up with him. So I don't know what it is. He was handed to me through my car window. Like I don't know what happened to him. And something that people don't realize is dogs go through multiple fear stages. So basically what that means is they have their little growth spurts and all of a sudden the world is new again. 

And when they're in this window period, it's usually if anywhere from a few weeks to about a month long, typically around three weeks, things like furniture, they might not have noticed before and all of a sudden it's in their face. You know, and so it's like imprinting all over again. And so he, you know, there might have been multiple things that happened with Boa in those short five months. And then I was living in LA, you know, living the LA life and out and about. So like I didn't necessarily give him the best upbringing either in terms of routine. 

So that kind of set the foundation for a bunch of different ways. And so when we look at rescues or animals, we don't know or anything like that. Like usually when we get them, we don't get them straight from the breeder at four weeks old. Like we usually don't. That doesn't happen. 

So we have no idea. And just like with humans, all we can do is work with what we've got and we're constantly learning, constantly evolving. And the more that we can pay attention to even little flinch that they make or the shutter when I work with dogs on the table and cats too, I'm sensing their body. 

I'm getting a feel for them so that they can feel my energy and I can feel theirs. And I offer what's called grooming rehab. So I do a puppy intro package and I do a grooming rehab. And sadly, I have quite a lot of clients in grooming rehab. And basically that's for dogs who have extreme stresses and extreme reactions to certain aspects of the grooming process where it makes me not be able to complete them because I won't force them through it. 

We're only going to compound trauma. And a big one is nails, right? And it's getting to work with them to feel just you can kind of feel that nerve impulse just before they actually jerk their paw away. And it's learning to identify that and positive reward before that happens. Because once they jerk away, if you reward them, you're rewarding the joking away. 

You don't want. Exactly. And so when you're becoming familiar, when you're building a relationship with what if you've just rescued or just adopted or whatever the case is, or just meeting somebody's dog at a party, just getting accustomed to really tuning in. And anybody can do this, just tuning in and feeling them, feeling their breathing, feeling and you'll just zero in on it. 

And you can feel those like tiny little quivers and tensions and everything like that. And real quick before I forget, one of the things that you brought up earlier, misunderstanding how they're reacting in the grooming in the grooming world on the table, because we love the adorable looks, we've put so much emphasis on making them cute at what cost. 

And so many photos, you flip through Instagram, you see these gorgeous cuts and you see the dogs like and we've accustomed to saying like, Oh, that dog's really happy and excited because we often see that face when they've been running around the wide eyes, the wide mouth, or often you'll see dogs on the table and they're shaking if you see videos and people are like, Oh, the dog's just cold and people are like, Oh, OK, no, situational awareness. That dog was traumatized. And usually what happens is this kind of my PSA for grooming, I have to plug in. 

I'm sorry. What often happens is they don't get acclimated to the process. So I always liken it to taking a human child to the dentist. So dogs have the cognitive capability of a three year old human child. And that's why we call them our fur babies, because we recognize that on some level, even if we didn't understand that. And like you said earlier, they come for survival. They come to know like, Oh, I do this to get this reaction. So in grooming, it's called compliance. And they learn, OK, if I just stand still, even if I'm shaking, it sucks. But nothing else is happening. 

And this is where you get those, I don't know what happened. He just snapped out of nowhere. Like he's been such a good boy for grooming for all these. 

No, he's been terrified for all these years. And just like humans, we get to a certain point where we just can't take it anymore. And so understanding that and understanding, you know what? Cutes of byproduct, they're already cute. They're a dog. They exist. 

They're cute. We will get there through working together. So fear free is cooperative care. And that is my biggest, biggest, biggest thing because I don't want dogs in grooming rehab. 

I don't want to spend week after week after week regaining their trust and rewiring these neural pathways. But that's exactly what it is. It's giving them the respect as a sentient autonomous being. If they need to get off the table for a minute and have a time out, we're going to do that. If we need to get up and bounce like a little baby, we need to do that because compliance is not OK. It's not OK for humans to have to be forced into compliance. 

Oh, and so the child example, you've never brushed your kids teeth. So they're already in comfortable. They're three years old. You take them to the dentist. 

They've already got some discomfort going on in their mouth. This is new. What's going on? Who are you, stranger? What? 

What are you doing? You're putting things in my mouth and all these things. So the kid starts fighting back and like, oh, God, get me out of here. Oh, somebody strap them down, hold them down, restrain him. 

That kid is going to grow up terrified, lifelong therapy and probably have the most awful rotting teeth in pain because they're terrified to go to the dentist. That is exactly what happens in the grooming process. We don't acclimate them to it. They're scared. They don't know what's happening. And I only have an hour and a half to get you done. 

So you've got to go through it. Before I found Carefree, I used to tell people jokingly. I wrestled baby alligators for a living because I would literally be wrestling with them on the grooming table, trying to get it done. And the whole time I'm like, I'm sorry, I know, I know you hate this. I know I'm sorry. 

I just got to get this done. And because the grooming world working with animals tends to bring emotionally oriented humans predominantly, there's that resignation to stand up for yourself because I work with dogs because I don't like people. I don't like confrontation. There's a huge drive towards that. But then we forget, well, we still have to deal with humans. And we have to stand up and say, no, I'm not going to put the dog through that. No, we're going to, you know, and no is a complete sentence that just as humans in general, we tend to forget and add to the whole unregulated aspect of the industry. There's no uniformity of like, I can say no and let me educate because while there's a lot of groomers who have the education, they don't talk about it. 

They don't have the conversations with the humans. And so it creates this horrible cycle. And because so many of us have fur babies and grooming is a necessary part of it, whether it's you get their nails done every month and that's it, or they go through the full haircut or all of that, you have to learn how to understand them better. And if we're going to personify them, if we're going to treat them like the fur babies we are, there's some kind of a disconnect that goes like, I'm going to treat you in the fun for baby aspects. But when it comes to the other necessary things like vet bills or grooming, well, it's just a dog. 

A: Right, right, right. No, I understand. I mean, what's coming up for me, which I didn't expect to come up is like my cat. I have been feeling like I there's a few different things that happen that I accidentally without realizing it, I created trauma for her. So like, first of all, it was that we smoothed houses, like within a short amount of time, like three times. 

And one of the places that we were living was like up like 5,000 feet in elevation, you know, so we went up the mountain, you know, and she was suddenly in this totally different environment. And then she ended up on an airplane flying across, you know, and like a little bit drugged to go on the airplane to come to Buffalo with my husband. And then she was in a brand new house, like all of that. And then last year she got fleas. 

She got out of the house one time and got fleas and was miserable. It took me a minute to catch it. They were like pretty bad when I finally realized what was going on. And then the fleas were all over the house. And, you know, I had to give her multiple flea baths. And when I look back on it, like, you know, even in having, you know, your share on the podcast today, I'm like, dang, I could have done that a lot more sensitively. I could have been a lot. 

I was just trying to get it done. And I had like a five year old kid who was excited that we were giving the cat a bath and was making all kinds of noise and, you know, probably obviously terrifying her beyond like the water all over her, which cats hate, right? So what I'm dealing with now, like when I think about it is she has like a hesitancy and a fear in her eyes when she's around me that she didn't have before. 

And it makes me really sad because, like I said, I wish that I could go back in time and like be more conscious and more aware in that process, right? But I'm human. We make mistakes. And like it was not in my awareness at that moment. It was just like this thing I needed to get done because, you know, there's lots of things to get done in life. And one of them is get rid of these fleas like as soon as possible. Sure. 

C: And we all do it. Like I moving is huge for cats. Like cats are not OK with change. And I did that to my poor tiger, Lily. I moved cross country with her in my car twice. Yeah. So I didn't know that either. And, you know, now I see it all the time with one of our cats, Belle. Anybody comes to the home, she's gone for the day. Delivery drivers, anything she's gone. And it's just taking that knowledge and saying, I can repair this relationship. 

I just have to understand them a little better. Cats going to take a lot longer, but you can still find that repair. And with that comes and again, most people don't think about like grooming their cats or grooming it off, you know, their dog or cat often. And I say this to every single cat client. I've been fortunate enough to groom a couple of kittens and I'm like, please make this a regular thing, because what happens is if they're not exposed to it until something is needed, the flea bath or what I often see. 

I've got this 12 year old cat that's matted and they just can't take care of themselves anymore. Yeah. That's 12 years of life lived. And now we're going to introduce something new that they biologically don't love. And cats especially, they can go from zero to 60 and 60 being a life threatening emergency with stress like that. And, you know, I joke around, I use a lot of puns. I use all puns in my brand boys. 

It's so true. When grooming cats, it is 100% by permission only. I tell everybody if they get in there and in 20 minutes, I've clipped one nail. They start panting, they start drooling, they start yowling. We're done and we're happy that we got one nail done. Hurray. We'll try it again another day because the reality is it can get pushed and they can have myocardial. I always mess this one up. Myocardial rhythmic, I think is what it is. Basically a minor heart attack. 

They can't, from stress, just like humans only they're much more highly predisposed to it. So what I tell people is when you are working in a fear free, when you're working to repair a relationship or introduce something new, if you think you can do it slower or less, figure that out and then figure out a way to do half of that. Yeah. And it's as simple as like if you're going to put them in a crate to bring them into something, just getting them in the crate with no hesitations on their own. 

Treats tossing. If they look at it, yes, positive affirmations. If they sniff at it, yes, positive affirmations. And then once they're in it, maybe closing the door for a second, literally. And then, you know, let them come and go and then gradually build up the time that that door is closed. Then once they're in their doors closed, lifting it a couple inches off the ground. And like we're talking teeny, micro, yes, steps because they don't think the way we do. A human, you can explain to them like, OK, this is we can rationalize and have a conversation about this is why we're doing it and this is why it's OK and you're going to be fine. 

We cannot do that with them. They, you know, we always hear actions speak louder than words. Actions are all they have. Right. They hear tones. They hear buzzwords that are associated with things that they may like or not like, but actions. And so to rebuild those relationships and repair that micro, micro, micro. Yeah. 

A: It's perfect because I was thinking that along the same lines, like, you know, like if I have to bathe her again, I was like, I'm not going to have my son around. He's not going to be around making noise. 

Sure. I'm going to go super slow with it and talk to her like sweetly the whole time, you know, and like, yeah, just take it really slow because that was not what I did the like last last summer when I had to deal with the fleas. And so, yeah, it's just again, like kind of going back to some of the themes here, like choosing to connect with animals in this way where we're honoring their experience and how it is similar, but different than ours. You know, it grows your ability to be compassionate in general. 

It grows your emotional intelligence and your situational awareness. And I think that, you know, human beings are stepping more and more into this kind of heart led sensing feeling type approach like Thomas Hannah, the guy who developed my modality. He talked about in his book, Bodies and Revolt in the 1960s, he talked about this new mutation of human beings that's coming into form, where we are sensing, feeling, communicating through our somatic senses, meaning all of our senses rather than just a mental construct or these ideas that we're a body and a mind. 

It's like we're getting more integrated. And I think that the things that you're describing this mean this is I can imagine in the grooming and animal world, the stuff that you're learning and that you're involved with is really cutting edge. And it's really right in line with that growth that humanity is currently going through. 

C: 100%. And I mean, studies have shown for years that having a cat, like a lot of elderly people get cats because it helps lower cortisol, just petting your dog, like five minutes of petting your cat. 

Like there's actual scientific studies that have measured five minutes a day of petting your fur baby can reduce your cortisol. And there's other regulatory things. And one of my dreams, which is now a dream come true, not of my own doing, but I'm an avid supporter of a local place out here. And there's I've seen a couple throughout the country. So for your outside listeners, where they've taken, there's it's out here. 

It's called white whiskers. And it's a senior dog sanctuary. So number one, like, yay, thank you for doing that. And then they like legit this woman read my mind and just made it happen. They're starting a program where they're pairing seniors for seniors. So it's helping get them a home and the love and care. But of course, funded by generous donors and supports, because a lot of these senior pets have senior needs and medical bills and all that. And a lot of the seniors they're pairing them with might not have the income to manage all of that. So it's this whole full circle charity, which is literally something I dreamed up. Like, I want to be able to provide dogs for seniors, but they don't have to necessarily pay for it. 

Or maybe we can do some sort of subscription thing for family members who want to help support. And so it's a beautiful thing because they get you active. If it's a dog, a lot of people start walking more. So it helps with the physical being. And just any time that you are with a creature, I don't care what it is, a bird, the squirrel that comes and eats out of your bird feeder every morning. Another human you could naturally you create a bond. 

You're feeding off the energy. I actually one of my friends who is a physical therapist and she's like a guru on so many cool things. I love spending time with her. She told me that because our DNA changes, our biological structure changes as we live. Your DNA is more, more identical or more similar to your spouses than your parents. Because as we grow up and the more time that we spend with them, we drink the same water. We usually eat the same meals. We breathe the same air. We tend to get on the same sleep schedules. So we're more in this. 

This is where, you know, like women who live together or sorority houses and stuff, their menstruation cycles tend to sink. It's that soma. Right. That is, is communicating and bonding on an energetic level between and, you know, I laugh when you see like owners tend to look like their dogs and stuff. Like there is a thing that is totally. 

A: Yeah, you're creating this bond. So the more that we've moved them from the outside world into our homes, into our hearts, the more that we are creating this bond, whether we realize it or not. And so that's why when I found Fear Free, I'm like, this makes sense. 

C: And so many groomers are like, I don't know if I want to spend the investment or spend the time. It's a few hours and a couple hundred dollars that will transform your life, even if it's not a professional thing. 

If it's just to understand your for maybe a little bit more. And it's very foundational. There's continuing education for that. But at its basis, it's very foundational. And then you just build on from what you realized. 

And if you're drawn to taking that, you're probably more intuitive than you give yourself credit for. Lean into that. Lean into what you feel like they're sensing. Not what you're personifying and you're you're portraying to them. Read the situation. 

What's how it's it's six o'clock. Oh, they're not asking for cuddles and kisses. They want to be fed. Like we can already understand that. So just keep leaning into that in the everyday moments and the everyday interactions. 

And you'll have a few. This is how animal communicators work. This is how they start. So anybody who's an animal medium, this is literally the foundational stuff of how they start. Anybody can do this. So. 

A: Wow. Incredible. No, it's such a great conversation today. You know, if our if our listeners want to hear your podcast, if they want to connect with you, can you tell us where we can find you and say a little bit about the podcast? Sure. 

C: So the unlimited. I actually have a lot of non groomers that are listeners on it, which is funny. The unlimited groomer is currently just on Spotify and you can find it through the club posh website. 

If you want to listen to it just through the tab, I have a tab for that. I believe it's not great with technology, but all of the social media is unlimited groomer. I specifically left out the because I want to be open to everybody. And so everybody can be an unlimited groomer. 

So it's unlimited groomer and it's wealth consciousness, mindset and business savvy. Tips and techniques for the pet pernure world. I have a lot of pet parents that listen, some trainers and stuff. And this year, I've done things a little different where I've incorporated other people such as yourself that are not in the grooming industry, but that we can all benefit from, especially for working with animals. So there's a little bit of something for everybody in that. And there's a lot of personal development peppered in. And then club posh. 

Everything is just at club posh or clubposh.com. And that's P.A .W.S .H. And I educate a lot with that through video and post. 

So what's amazing to me is people actually do take the time to read my novel captions and like actually like, oh, yeah, that's so interesting. I learned this from you because ClubPosh was built on five pillars. High cutie, honesty, integrity, quality, transparency, and education. I've upset a lot of local groomers because they don't like them, and being transparent and I'm educating and they feel like I'm calling them out, which I would never do. But if the shoe fits, I mean, here's your invitation to do things better. Right. So ClubPosh is great. And I always tell people my virtual door is always open to anybody. 

I don't care where you live. If you have a grooming-related question, because education is so important because there's so much we don't know. There's so much, again, grooming is unregulated. Your groomer probably has no clue about half the things I talked about, and I'm not trying to bash them. 

It's just don't know what you don't know. And especially if they've been grooming for 20, 30, 40 years, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and they don't. And then there's this giant gap both between price and technique, where their groomers have retired, and now they're trying to find a new groomer. 

And they're like, these are three times the price. What the heck? Here's why. So the groomers are getting woke. And so I'm all about like, hey, I'm happy to answer your questions. 

Your groomer might not have the skills or the communication level to explain to you why they're doing this. Let me answer that for you. I'm happy to because the more we know, the better we can all be for all of our babies. So feel free to shoot me a message on social media, or you can find my business phone number, which is 8456catdog. Found that number. I'm like, even though I'm in the seven, one, six, I can't ever change that. Nobody has long-distance anymore. So nice. Well, 8456catdog, you can text me. 

A: That's fantastic. Thank you so much for your, you know, your high integrity and your openness, and just like really wanting. I feel like your desire for not only animals to be better cared for, but for human beings to have more tools and knowledge, and success at their disposal. So thank you for all that you're doing. It's really impressive. Thanks for coming on the show today and sharing with everybody. Look in the show notes, everyone, listeners and connect with Cassandra on social media. If you're an animal person, you got a question, reach out. She, she's here for you. Thank you once again. 

C: Absolutely. Yes. And I do offer speaker workshops. So if anybody wants me to come out and speak to their community, their salons, I do have workshops available too. So fantastic. 

A: Yeah. Yeah, totally. Thank you once again. 

C: Thank you. 

A: Hey there, friends. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I would love to hear your thoughts. Follow me on Instagram @AimeeTakaya and send me a DM about this episode. I'd like to thank you for being part of this somatic revolution. And if you'd like to support the podcast and help more people learn about somatics, consider leaving a review or a rating. And finally, if you'd like to support the podcast, and if you'd like to have the experience of relief in your tight hips or back and learn to understand what your body is really saying to you, visit youcanfreeyoursoma.com. I can't wait to share with you what is truly possible. Bye for now.