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Whats involved with a groom
There's often more to grooming that people realise. While we do have many customers who come in only to have their dogs nails cut (only costs $10 and no appointment necessary) most of our customers want or need the works and so appointments are essential.
For a nice groom on a poodle, bichon, shih tzu and most other medium to long coated dogs, here is what we do...
Book in the dog and find out your requirements and your dogs history.
Pre-groom which includes cutting nails, shaving pads, reducing the coat (if it is to be shorter or thinner that it is), shaving sanitary area, de-knotting and brusing out.
Then we wash them in warm water and check and express if necessary their anal glands whilst in the tub. The amount of baths they get depend on their condition. Some get three baths! We massage the shampoo mix in by hand (they LOVE that part) so we can feel if there are any areas that need attending too and to make sure we get a really good clean.
Once thats finished, we chamois them and they are wrapped in a dry towel and taken to the drying area where they are given a good rub down to remove the last of the excess water and are then in most cases dried with force dryers that blow the water out of their coats. Those dryers dont have heaters (for their safety), but the air is still warmed as it passed through the motor so they dont get a chill.
Then they are brushed and combed out. This process leaves them with absolutely no knots, tangles or loose undercoat.
Depending on the coat, some dogs (and cats) are fluff dried using a special dryer that focuses on the area where we are brushing to ge the coat nice and straight to make for a better cut.
After that, we do their ears, always cleaned and sometimes plucked depending on the coat type. Dogs will woolen coats do well to have their ears plucked to remove the fur that stops airflow getting into the ears and stops moisture being held in that area if they get wet.
They are then moved to the finishing area where they are re-clipped to perfection and then scissored to the desired style. As you can imagine, scissoring (in many cases) every hair on your dog takes time, but its worth it. Its the difference between an average job and an awesome job. We often get customers asking why their pets never look as good when they do them at home, and its in the amount of detail we put into our grooms.
Its as important to get a style that suits your lifestyle as it is to get a style that suits your dog. A busy life with homelife, work, kids etc leaves little time for daily grooming of long and easily knotted coats, so a shorter style may be more suited to that lifestyle, where someone with more time may be able to easily cope with a longer style. Knots hurt, not just in the removal of them (although we use quite painless methods of removal) but just in their daily life with running around and knots pulling at their skin.
After the groom (and cuddle), if there's time, many dogs are photographed in our in-house photography studio and when you return to collect them you can order photos of your pet looking their Sunday Best if you wish.
So there you go... your typical groom... so as well as all this, we need to check in other dogs that are coming or going and answering the phone, and cleaning up etc, so it can take time. We like them to stay 2-3 hours as a minimum. (Really for us. the longer the better.) We are more than happy for them to stay with us all day while we are open. They seem to enjoy it too as we can start and stop when it suits and its not so rushed.
In most cases we can txt you when we're done and you can pick up when you suit.
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