Hair, please!

'Tis the season. For professional groomers this is the busiest time of the year. Everyone wants their dogs to look cute and clean for Christmas. We are going at full tilt trying to accomodate as many clients as possible and hoping we will manage to stay the course until Dec. 25th without collapse.

A good friend of mine and fellow groomer says that what goes out of the grooming shop is in direct proportions to what comes in. In other words, if the dog is regularly groomed and kept matt-free and the owners haven't done any self-grooming, ie. chopped important bits out that are needed to make the dog look good, then we can do great things.

The favourite refrain of owners at this time of the year is "hair, please", even though they know their dog is a solid matted mess which even the best groomer can't save. And no we don't believe that it matted like that overnight or they were fine until a couple of weeks ago when the appointment was booked so it is our fault that the dog is matted or any of the other multitude of excuses we hear on a daily basis. We often have no choice and can't put the dog into the hairdo they want or worse have to shave the dog right off. We aren't miracle workers!

There are also those dogs who absolutely hate the grooming process and fight tooth and nail to avoid have anything they don't like done. Trying to make these sorts of dogs look like anything is usually a battle royale.

Then we also have the owners who bring pictures and want their dogs to look just like the dogs in the pictures. Besides the more obvious reasons such as their dog is nothing like the dog in the picture both in shape and hair texture, those dogs in the pictures are often frequently groomed and have the hair to shape. Those dogs also tend to have a lot of "product" in their hair to hold the shape and will require bathing to remove it as soon as the picture shoot is finished. I have no doubt should one of the dogs in many pictures be out in a rain shower when they dry their hair would be like a rock with all the powders and sprays that were holding it in place congealing.

So when you take your dog to the groomers for their Christmas have realistic expectations. Sometimes the best we can do is present you with a clean dog wearing nothing but a Xmas bow!