The Note

 Let me start by saying that Saturday turned out to be a good day.

The 17 year old Border Collie showed up at 8:15.

She was a little smaller then I expected.

Her Mom said that she was having a good day, but be careful when working around her head and face because she has snapped at people.

She also reminded me that the dog did not like to be groomed.

The last groomer had called her to tell her to pick the dog up 15 minutes after she dropped her off because she was biting.

Her chest, rear, and belly were full of undercoat.

Her rear and belly also had some matting. 

She let me pick her up in the lobby without snapping.

I took that as good sign.

I was not getting a bad vibe off of her.

 I put her straight into the tub.

I bathed her with Best Shot shampoo, rinsed it off, and then worked the Best Shot Creme Rinse into her coat like shampoo.

I put extra creme rinse on the areas with the undercoat and mats.

Most of the undercoat and mats came out with the HV drying.

Like the other elderly dogs I groomed this week, I packed her ears with cotton and used the Happy Hoodie while drying.

I did not want to use the brush on this dog anymore than I had to.

It was my guess that the reason the dog started biting the last groomer was because they tried to brush the dirty coat out before the bath.

That was most likely too much pulling on an elderly dog.

I let the shampoo, creme rinse, and HV dryer do most of the work.

She was great.

She never even tried to snap.

She never got upset about anything.

I worked slowly, and she had a good time watching people out the window next to my grooming table.

I got her in the tub at 8:30 and finished her by 10:00.

When we called the owner to pick her up , she thought  we were calling her to tell her we could not do the dog.

She could not believe she was finished.

I don't know about other groomers out there, but it seems that the owners who warn you about how bad their dogs are, turn out to be easy to groom.

I have had owners call for an appointment telling us that the dogs is a mess and matted, then when they come in I only find two little mats.

As apposed to the owners who call and say their dogs have no mats and come in with a pelted dog. :/

The Border collies Mom was truly worried about how the dog was going to behave.

I will happily groom her again...even at her age.  :)

You may have noticed that my post today was titled 'The Note'.

I have received many notes or cards in the mail over the years.

99% of them are to let me know of the death of a dog, or that the dog will no longer be coming because the family is moving away.

When I saw the card in the mail, I thought "Oh no, who passed away?"

When I opened the card, this was the picture on the front of the card.

The card was from a long time customer who's Cockers had passed away a couple of years ago.

This is her new puppy.

I have groomed her four times since they got her in February.

This was her first grooming.

A bath and trim.

She did pretty good for her first grooming.

 This was her second grooming.

Her owner was doing a great job of keeping her brushed out.

She did good for that groom also.

This was the same puppy for her third grooming.

She did so good that I took pictures of her to show how to put a bow in with bangs.

 Her Mom was still doing a fairly good job brushing her out, but the owner said that the puppy was really starting to act up when she tried to brush her out.

So I scissored about 1/2 off of her for this grooming.

I don't have a picture of her for the grooming I did in May.

She came in matted.

She was really giving her Mom a hard time about the brushing, and the owner had given up and told me to take her short.

She was pretty matted.

I was able to do a cute lamb cut on her.

I used a #4f on her back, and a 5/8 blade on her legs.

The husband didn't care if we took her short, but don't take that bow away!  :)

She was really feisty for that grooming.

If I even tugged on a knot she would swing around and snap.

I just ignored her, she wasn't really being mean, she just did not want you to pull on her knots.

And, she was just being a hard headed Shih-Tzu.

(I can say that, because I owned one, and boy was he a hard head.)

The owner always asks how she does, and if she is getting better about the grooming.

We always joke with her that 'she is getting there, just give her time.'

This is what was in the card.

I don't remember her rushing me about the groom.

Yes, she asked for a special time out, but it gave me plenty of time to get her done.

The couple of times that she snapped at me didn't even brake skin.

I have been bitten pretty badly by a couple of dogs and one cat over the years, and no one has ever sent me a note or called back to see if I was okay.

I have always really liked this customer.

This note was so unexpected, and appreciated.

I wish all of my customers were like her.

This is one note that I plan on keeping.

Happy Grooming, MFF