Grooming Horror Story

[cyber-sibes]

What a nightmare! I'm glad that Peaches is recovering, as I read this I thought maybe she wouldn't make it.

[elizabethann]

I've heard of stories happening like this.

Now I'm going to be scared to bring Fenway to the groomers.

[Twisterdog]

I agree with wolfsoul.

Even if you are standing right by the dog, even if you are holding the dog ... if it decides to jump, it's going to jump. This isn't much of a problem with a small dog. Ten or twenty pounds of dog is easy to stop. However, with a large dog, take the weight of the dog ... which is sometimes more than half a person's weight ... and add the velocity and force the dog is using to propel itself, and you have a 150 pound groomer trying to stop 75 pounds of solid dog, plus at least that many additional pounds of velocity/force. Sometimes it is NOT physically possible. Of course, you do all you can and others immediately help, but ANY groomer is flat out lying to you if they say this never happens. It happens with the normally calmest dog, and the best, most experienced groomers in the business. Animals are unpredictable, at best. They can't speak and tell you, "Hey, I really have to pee. I'm going to try to jump off the table and try to run to the door." or "Hey, I really like to snap at flies, and there's one over there!"

Choke nooses are not a good idea, IMO. We don't use them. But, I know of a lot of groomers that do. They are not that uncommon.

Belly straps are very common, and normally very safe. If you are trying to groom a dog that sits down constantly you have no other option. You can't use one hand to hold up the dog's rear end during the entire groom ... you can't groom a dog with only one hand free! I've personally never heard of or seen any damage ever come to a dog from a belly strap, and I've been doing this a long, long time.

Personally, I think some irresponsibility lies with both the groomer and the owner here. Obviously the owner knew before this groom that the dog was difficult to groom. She said, "She has never liked to be groomed and I take her to the vet to tranquilize her to clip her nails." IMO, if you have a dog that has to be tranquilized for something as simple as nail clipping, and it is a large, strong dog like a collie, you ought to assume that there are going to be problems with an entire groom. If that were my dog, I would have had it groomed at the vet's when it is already tranquilzed for nail trimming. She knew it was such a problem that it had to be tranquilized, she saw the groomer having problems to the extent that she had to help hold the dog. The dog had to be muzzled after biting both it's own owner and attempting to bite the groomer. And yet the owner wants to not only continue the groom, but goes outside for a while. I understand her reasoning to some degree - sometimes dogs DO calm down when their owners are gone - but it sounds like it should have been obvious by this point that the dog was very stressed and should have just been taken home.

And, likewise, the groomer should have, "I'm sorry, but this dog is too stressed, too strong, and too aggresive. You and I together can't control her, and she is biting us both. You need to speak to your vet about sedating your dog to be groomed." Then she should have sent the dog home. There are dogs that simply are NOT groomable. Many groomers try to groom them anyway because they don't want the owner to be angry with them for not grooming their dog, or to speak poorly of their grooming shop. I've had people call me and say, "I took my dog to ABC grooming shop and they said they couldn't groom him. Can you imagine? They are dog groomers - and they can't groom a dog! I'm so angry with them. I want to make an appointment with you instead." Some groomers try to avoid unpleasant situations by attempting to groom dog they should just send home. It frankly takes some years of experience in dealing with both dogs and customers to learn to be assertive enough to say no. Sometimes, the customer is NOT always right.

The groomer could have certainly been more gracious and understanding with the owners. That is not good customer service, to say the least. Of course, we are hearing one side of the story. Perhaps it absolutely accurate, but perhaps, the groomer would have a different take on the conversation entirely. We'll never know.

There are, sadly, horrible groomers in the business. And there are, sadly, owners who aren't aware of or don't want to admit that their dog is not a little angel by any means. And of course, there are wonderful, kind, caring groomers and onwers as well. We hear about the 1% of dogs that have a bad time at the groomers, and we hear from the 1% of groomers who had to groom Cujo. The other 99% of the time, the skilled, careful groomers grooming basically well-behaved dogs, no one hears about. Grooming is a TOUGH job. If it were simple, easy and fun ... everyone would do it at home in their bathroom in an hour.

[Sevaede]

Poor, poor Peaches and parent. I hear many grooming horror stories as well.

There is only one groomer, locally, that I would take my dog or cat to. Annie is very sweet and has taken excellent care of my cat before!

I would, however, trust the groomers from PT. You all know what you're doing!

[lute]

I hate seeing dogs get hurt because of someone "improvising" or being careless.

One thing that urks me big time is at dog shows a lot of people just leave their dog on the grooming table and walk away. I'm always so scared that the dogs are going to hang themselves. It only takes a slip of the paw.

[Pam]

When Bella was still a pretty young dog I took her to a groomer several times. This particular groomer did mention to me that she had to use a belly-type band, that she had bought while at a trade show, on Bella. She used it on dogs with bad hips who can't stand for long periods of time and also on dogs who would like to sit down frequently during a groom (that would be Bella ). That does not sound like what was mentioned here though. They mentioned a choker collar leash around the belly.

My reason for not continuing with the groomer was that Bella was getting lots of water in her ears which was turning into a breeding ground for yeast infections. This all began after her very first visit to the professional groomer. She had never had a problem the entire time I was grooming her myself. Coincidence? I think not, but that is another whole subject.

I know the groomers on this board are probably the best around and I appreciate your honesty. This article I think was a tragedy and that is it, pure and simple. I guess the lesson to be learned is to research your groomer well or use a groomer that comes well recommended.

[Catlady711]

While I realize this thread is primarily about dog grooming and nooses, I do however have a couple cat grooming horror stories myself, both concerning the same cat, Jack.

Jack is a slightly difficult cat to groom (by grooming I mean bathing, blow drying, brush out). He isn't hard to actually bathe, but bites, hisses and swats at a blowdryer. So basically he has to be cage dried somewhat then air dried for the rest.

When I first took him in from outside he was a horrible mess; fleas, grease, oil, mattes, earmites, and stunk like crazy. So we scheduled an appt with groomer several hours before the vet appt. (we wanted him to be clean for the vet so they could actualy look his body over, not the filth, although I got a reaming out from the groomer who thought I was a horrible cat owner for his condition. lol) Things went well with this groomer, their prices were terrific and Jack always looked nice and seemed calm when I picked him up. They did good with Dusty also (that's all the cats I had then)

Then place changed to all new groomers. That's when the problems started. First time I went back after the canges, they call me about 1 hr before I was supposed to pick him up, and said he kept peeing when they'd try to blow dry him. So they kept on giving him another bath, at this point he'd had 4!!!! I had warned them ahead of time to cage dry or air dry him, and NOT to use the regular dryer!! Grrrrr That was the LAST time I used that groomer, although shortly after that I was told they stopped doing cats at all because of not having a supervisor on shift or some such nonsense.

Next bad experience was with a more local groomer (with 4 cats). I warned them about Jack also. At least they did listen and used the cage dryer, however.... When I picked him up (right before close, he'd been there almost 7 hours!) Jack was still WET underneath, and very damp on the rest of him, they hadn't even brushed him out yet, and he wasn't WHITE like he should have been, still had faded yellowing in his fur. All the cats were damp and not brushed out, they had cage dried ALL of them (which I told them was unecessary) And they charged me TWICE the $$ of the other place.

After that experience I bought my own mini pet dryer (The dog house shaped one that doesn't get hot enough to hurt), a suction cup leash thing for the tub, a big bottle of whitening shampoo, a sprayer thing for my tub, and a bathmat. I groom all my own cats, and when it was said and done, based on the prices most places charged, the equipment paid for itself after bathing 4 1/2 cats lol My mom's cat is the most challenging, but I still manage. I don't have to worry if they get any of my cats 'white enough', or if they dry Jack properly anymore. I found out the best way to do Jack is to bathe him, let him sit on a towel and bathe Pooky, then when I'm drying Pooky, I half aim the dryer at Jack and I can dry two at once (although Jack takes alot longer from that distance) but I dont' get hissed at anymore for it. lol

[wolf_Q]

That is very sad. I'm sorry the dog had to go through that. It is my opinion that the owner should have known better than to take her dog to the groomer. It sounds like she knew that Peaches was difficult, she should have taken her to a place that sedates to groom. I've turned away several dogs because they were too aggressive or they just got too upset to groom, and sadly, the owners did not thank me for letting them know their dog couldn't handle it...they always get angry like it is my fault their dog is like that. You would think the owners would want to do what is best for their dog, but they just act mad because it costs more to sedate them and have them groomed at a vet. We do not sedate or take sedated dogs at all.

Using a choker around the neck and belly is just plain stupid. We use neck and belly loops (if the dog is wiggly or won't stand) but they do not tighten. We also use velcro safety releases so the harness will release from the table if the dog jumps. We use the leash/collar combo that does tighten, but only to walk the dog from the table to the kennel, or when bathing (on the floor for big dogs, not in the tub).