.....Even when you groom their dog exactly the way they asked you to.
This little lady was in the other day.
She is a year old now, and as you can see her owner has kept her long.
Her owner does a really good job brushing her.
Normally I only trim her feet, corner of the eyes and rear.
Lately it has been harder and harder for the owner to keep her mat free.
She has been talking about taking her shorter for the summer, so the last time she was in we decided to do a heavy outline trim to get the owner prepared for a shorter cut.
Fast forward to the other day.
A 98 degree day.
The owner was ready to have her little lady get a shorter clip.
So we talked about length and decided on about half off.
Not too much off of the face, just shape it up, and slightly neaten the tail and ears.
As I said before, the owner is used to having her dog bathed, blow dried and a light trim.
She is not used to seeing her dogs hair short.
So I used a long clip comb to skim off excess hair.
Then I followed up with scissors.
Most of the hair was shortened on the body.
The legs were not as long as the body, so I didn't take a lot off of them.
I basically neatened them up with the scissors.
This was the finished cut.
Her owner did not like the cut.
She didn't say so in words.
She didn't have to, I could tell.
The first thing she said when she saw her dog was; "oh my gosh!" with no smile.
The second thing was; "her part is gone on her back!"
The third thing was; "how fast will it grow back?"
I wasn't upset.
I had a feeling that she may not like the cut.
She was very used to seeing her dog long and shaggy.
I warned her that it would be a little bit of a shock to see her hair cut.
I don't think that you can ever really prepare an owner for the big change to their dogs appearance when they ask for a different cut.
So I will wait and see.
Once the shock has worn off she may end up liking the cut....or not.
Happy Grooming, MFF
you did a wonderful job on this dog. this is what I find so dis-heartning in our jobs now days there is absolutly nothing wrong with that grooming as far as I can see and yet she is unhappy. Your pride in your work shows and yet she was not happy. I have to work hard at not feeling like they slapped my face when this happens to me. What a let down when we try to hard to make the dog look it's very best only to not be appriciated for it. And other times a shave down will get bundles of oooohhhhssss and ahhhhhaaahhhhsss. go figure. I think our grooming is like an art that we as artist see in our own eye and the adverage person does not see it the same way as maybe we would not understand abstract art for example.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work and thanks for the blog.
Thank you PinkPoodleLady!
DeleteYou are so right about grooming being an art.
It never seems to fail that dogs I really work hard on, really try to make perfect, and they look really different from when they came in, will get absolutely no response from the owner. They act like they see their dog looking that nice all of the time. Yet you bathe and brush out a Beagle and the owners ooooh and aaah all over it for about 10 minutes. They also thank you for doing a great job. The dog looks no different than when he came in, other than he smells good and feels soft now. :)
I just don't get it. It happens so often that I laugh about it now. I have to laugh...or I would cry in frustration. :/
I also don't expect a nice response anymore, so that when I do get one I am pleasantly surprised.
Lisa, MFF