The Unexpected Grooms

You know those days when everything seems to be going smoothly, and then your next appointment shows up.

Actually my son was talking to me, he was facing the window, and suddenly said; "Look what's coming in here."

I turned just in time to see a black blob walking towards our shop door before it disappeared inside.

Another new customer.

One of my Vet's customers.

When my Vet refers someone to me, it is a guarantee that there will be issues with the dog or with the owner, or both.

  This is what came in the door.

He is a 10 year old English Cocker Spaniel.

He has not been professionally groomed in 5 years.

Apparently, every time he was groomed he would go home all upset and not act right for days, sometimes even weeks, and his owner would have to take him to the Vet.

????

  Sooo, she stopped taking him to the groomers, and started grooming him herself.

Why is she coming to me?

It seems that the clippers she was grooming the dog with have finally stopped working.

Instead of buying another clipper, she talked to her Vet and he highly recommend me for the job.

Now, I know that I should be grateful for the referrals that I get from my Vet, but over the years he has sent me some crazy people and dogs.

I also tend to feel nervous about living up to his praise.

So far I have always been able to groom the dogs he sends me, but one day I may have to turn one away.

Anyway, I had no idea what to expect from this dog.

His owner was so nervous about leaving him.

He was one thick, overgrown Cocker.

I will say, for not being groomed professionally for 5 years, he hardly had any mats in him.

Of course he was a little chopped up from his Mom cutting out mats.

She warned me that he was a jumper.

She was right.

He spent 90% of the groom trying to find a way to jump out of the tub and off of the table.

Nothing like grooming a large Cocker that is constantly pushing against you to get off of the table.

I am sure some groomers out there are saying, why don't you use a noose?

In my opinion, it wouldn't work with this dog.

He is a choker.

Meaning, even with a noose he would be struggling to get off the table, constantly choking himself on the noose.

He was doing that with the noose in the tub.

He was a big job.

He was a good dog, just a big job.

The kind of job where you feel like you will never finish.

I could tell he was a little nervous, but I thought that a lot of that came from the nervous vibe he got off of his owner when he first came in.

The more I worked with him, the calmer he got.

Towards the end of the grooming, when I was able to turn him towards my window so he could look out, he stopped trying to get off of the table.

 I had to clip out his chest and belly with a #4f blade.

I also had to clip the inside of his back and front legs with the #4f blade.

He was also still a little choppy from some of the places his owner had cut out mats on his legs, but over all he turned out okay.

The owner was happy with the groom, and the dog was dancing all over my lobby while his owner wrote her check.

He sure looked like he was happy to me, so we will see if we get a phone call about him acting funny.

I went from this big guy to this...

  This little lady could not have been more than 4 pounds soaking wet.

Oh, and guess what.

She is 16 years old!

 Look how big my scissors look next to her.

Needless to say, I did not use the HV on her.

Even on it's lowest setting, I think it would have blown her across the room.  :/

She had a really nice, velvety coat for her age.

 Her feet were so tiny!

The Cocker's head was bigger than her whole body.  :)

It felt strange going from a large dog, trying to get off of your table, to a teeny, tiny, elderly Toy Poodle who stood like an angel on my table.

I breezed through her grooming.

It was such a pleasure after a large grooming job.

Don't you just love that little face.

She had to feel so much better getting all of that hair off.

I have been lucky the past two days.

Both of the 16 year old dogs were great on the table.

Summer grooming.

You never know exactly what is going to walk through your door.

You do know, that once the dogs are finished, you are the one who made them feel better!

Happy Grooming, MFF