Monday, June 14, 2010

My kingdom for a good groomer

Is this the face of a dog who groomers everywhere run from in fear? That groomers fear and loathe and say - "I refuse to groom this devil dog - take this beast from my premises!"
I am having the worst time getting Jackie groomed - at the groomer today they told me they are willing to try cutting his hair "one more time" - and the next time I'm the one who has to drop him off - not my father, so that it's me who puts the muzzle on him - not them - and they said they couldn't cut the hair around his face because he was biting at the clippers, and he bit a groomer and a technician and blah blah blah.

Previously I had called a couple groomers in the city and described how Jackie was to groom and was turned down flat out - and told to take him to a veterinary clinic's groomer - which is what I've done - and now they're even threatening to not groom him - and they say he's too old to be sedated anyway - but what's a person to do - he's got to be groomed!

I had such luck for almost 2 years with a super gentle groomer - why do women have to have babies and ruin everything! The groomer today had TWO muzzles on him AND an elizabethan collar on Jackie - now tell me she wasn't being rough on him - it's no wonder he was trying to bite her. It's no wonder dog's develop problems at the groomers.
I don't know what to do - I'm driving one hour down to Hubbards on Thursday to test drive a new groomer with Buttercup - I hope she'll think about taking on Jackie.

Surely to dog there's a groomer out there somewhere who takes on the worst of the worst and does it without being the Jeffrey Dalmer of groomers. Poor Jackie - I feel so bad for what I have to put him through in order to get his hair cut - if only he could figure out that all the commotion around him was there to help him.

4 comments:

  1. Have you tried Critter Cuts?
    http://canada411.yellowpages.ca/bus/Nova-Scotia/Sackville/Critter-Cuts/453056.html?what=groomer&where=lower+sackville%2C+ns&le=e43b56daa4
    I am pretty sure its where my aunt takes her dogs... We took our lab there, and though she wasn't aggressive she certainly had the potential to be.

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  2. Have you tried offering to stay with him and feeding him treats while they groom? Maybe he'd be a little calmer with you there. Also there's a place on North Street I can't remember the name but it's on the corner of North and Gladstone. The woman that owns it seems to be really good with dogs (it's got windows all around so when you're driving by you can see right in and see her actually clipping)

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  3. Debbie's Dog Grooming in downtown Dartmouth. She is a beautiful woman and tries to do her best for the dog. Maybe try there...

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  4. These are all great suggestions and I'm going to follow them up - Sarah - I have stayed with Jackie, and it doesn't seem to make any difference to him - he still tries to kill whoever is around him. I've also tried to groom him myself, with the same result - he wants to bite my hands off too - for being only 25 pounds he has the bite power of a very large dog when he wants to - he has wonderful bite inhibition though - when he doesn't want to bite me, but is just letting me know that he's uncomfortable with a situation - he only gnaws at me - he's got a whole range of signals - but when he's serious - he's very serious about his biting - he'll chase you across a room to bite you if he wants to get you. That is the everlasting allure of Jack the dog. To know him is to love him.

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