Concerned

[fionapap]

Due to a recent broken shoulder, I have not been able to groom my 4 year old Griffon. I usually trim her coat with scissors and keep it approx 2 inches long. She is a lovely dog and her best feature is her face and eyes. I trim her snout but keep the hair just a little shorter than her jaw line.

These past 2 months she has grown quite shaggy and I decided it was time to get her a proper cut. Greeks have just recently started to realise that animals have needs too so even though pet shops are bountiful, proper salons are rare. Our vet has a lady come in twice a week for cuts but they put the dogs to sleep with a mild sedative, something which I find unnecessary, especially with an animal as cooperative as mine. I did find a pet shop that does cuts and took here there.

Even though I made it clear that I did not want he shaved, especially her tail and snout, they went ahead and shaved her anyways, remembering to tell me that they do not use scissors. Her hair is now barely an inch long as is all the hair around her snout. Thank God they only trimmed her tail.

My concern is that she is acting a bit strange. We made sure to praise her over and over again about how lovely she is. We are very affectionate with her and did not change our routine whatsoever. She had her treats, hugs and games as usual.

At times she is her old self, talking to us, running around and playing, but there are also periods where she huddles to herself and looks sad. She is now digging away at her bed clothes making a ball of the blanket. She also turns around and around before finding a place to sit on the couch.

I am aware that it must be quite a surprise to her as she never had a shave before and she must feel bare.

My question is how long does this kind of behaviour continue and how long will it be before her hair starts to grow out again?

She had a very bad life before we found her in the hands of a homeless alcoholic who beat her. She was very insecure and it took lots of love and reassuring to make her realise we will not abandon or hurt her. I really hope she does not think we have punished her.

[Daisy and Delilah]

Perhaps she feels a little "naked" without her coat. It's new to her so she feels like something is missing. Probably how we would feel if we were exposed a bit more than usual.

My RB, Benny, got a haircut one time that was shorter than what it should have been. He acted like he was embarrassed for several days. It seemed to be over rather quickly though. His hair grew back pretty soon, in a reasonable amount of time.

Bless you for saving this lovely girl. I hope she feels better soon. She sounds like a wonderful doggie

Welcome to Pet Talk. My name is Terry and I have two Chis--Daisy and Delilah

[fionapap]

Hi Terry, my name is Fiona. Thanks for the encouragement. Bobbie was a Godsend at a time when we really needed it. Our vet told us once.. "you can always get another dog, but never one with Bobbies character".

She seems slightly better today (hair cut was on Friday evening) except that she still rumples her blanket into a ball and keeps turning around like a top. Poor thing.

Daisy and Delilah are gorgeous!!

[Rachel]

Keep telling Bobby how gorgeous she is. My dogs have always come back from the groomer acting like they were a diva. I even had one dog, my Bailey, who thought she was something when she had to wear cone around her neck. I believe it was that we made such a fuss over her.

On the other hand, maybe the groomer was not gentle with her as he should have been. There was one groomer we used where my dogs would put the skids on outside the door. At first I thought they just didn't like the grooming process but each time, they reacted more strongly and I finally got the message. We've been with our current groomer a long time, and although neither one is fond of bath time, they eagerly go into her shop. What a difference!

[wolfsoul]

My friend's toy poodle, Jazz, acted the same way when she was cut into a continental. She seemed very worried about her bum and often scooted and bit at her back end. After a few days she got over it.

[BaileysMom]

My Bailey acts like that when we get his hair cut. It just takes a few days to get used to and for him the turning in bed or playing with blankets is because he's cold.. I put his blankie on him and he goes right to sleep happy as a lark.. depending on your weather you might consider getting a sweater or something until the hair grows back some. Good luck!