Early Saturday Morning I had the daughter of a very long time customer come in with a dog she called about earlier in the week.
She wanted me to trim around the dogs eyes and rear.
This little guy had been rescued off of one of our very busy highways after being hit by a car.
His pelvis is broken.
The vet is letting it heal on it's own because he thinks surgery could make it worse.
Nobody told this dog that his pelvis was broken.
You could not even tell.
He does not limb or favor it in any way.
What a great personality he has.
We were booked, but when I saw that the dog was overgrown and matted, I could not help but offer to give the dog a full grooming.
He had been through enough, and I did not want him to have to wait for a grooming appointment to get those mats off.
Right now he is being fostered by the young lady who brought him in.
She has fallen in love with this dog and wants to keep him.
He was great for the bath, and didn't mind the HV drier at all.
I did turn the HV down, and used it very gently around his back and hips.
He never showed any signs of discomfort.
As I was clipping off his mats, I was thinking ahead about clipping the mats off of his belly, and the tight mats he had around his scrotum.
I did not want to lift his legs to clip his belly and take the chance of hurting his pelvis more.
I also didn't think picking up his front legs to get to his belly was a good idea either.
He stood great on the table, and was very good about letting me do whatever I needed to do, but I didn't think he would want to lay on his side, on my table, to get to his belly.
So I called my Vet to get his opinion on what he thought was the safest way to clip the mats off of this little guys belly and scrotum.
(He will be getting neutered in a couple of weeks.)
My Vet agreed with me, and then the next words out of his mouth caused me to have a 'why didn't I think of that' moment.
"Have someone hold him in their arms while you clip his belly so that you don't put any extra pressure on his pelvis."
It worked like a charm.
Once again I have to say that for an un-neutered male dog, this guy was a pleasure to work on.
He didn't constantly check on the family jewels.
He didn't slobber on me while getting horny.
He didn't slam his butt down on the table to protect the family jewels every time I came close to his back legs.
He didn't try to hump.
He is most definitely a keeper.
An Angel was watching over him on that Highway.
Sometimes, fitting a dog in on a busy day, just to help them feel better, makes being a groomer worthwhile.
It also makes you feel good when the (soon-to-be) owner really appreciates what you did, and thanks you.
I have to say that this little guy stole a piece of my heart.
I'd take him in a minute!
Happy Grooming, MFF
I wanted to leave this comment on the previous post but couldn't get th comment thing to come up on it on for some reason anyway ive been reading your blog a lot and I think have commented on this topic before. But ive been grooming 6 years and always clipped, bathed, kennel dried, did a finish clip. But I tried your way, right in the tub then hv drying and then clipping. I did it on a long time customers Bichon. Ive never gotten complaints from her but ive never gotten compliments either. When she picked up her Bichon she said she absolutely loved the way I did it this time! Score 1. Later in the week I groomed a standard poodle bathed and then hv dried. He looked great. I also used your trick of using mousse in the topknot and it worked wonderfully. Thank you for all your tips!
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