Visit a prospective groomer and ask to see her shop. The number one piece of advice I have is to never use a groomer that dries your pup in a cage drier.
At the groomer I use, I can sit and watch the entire time. Kacee is never out of my sight. She uses a blow drier, too.
Please read the following:
Dog dies at groomer: What you need to know
Imagine taking your dog to the groomer, you come back later and it's dead. That's what one Anderson County woman says happened to her.
Lola was a three year old Bichon Frise and like a child to Debby Cash and her family.
"She just loved everybody and was just a happy little, playful little dog," said Debby Cash, of Claxton.
Debby's husband recently dropped Lola off at the groomer. When he came back, Lola was dead.
"She was in good health, so my husband was shocked, as I was shocked. What could have happened?" asked Cash.
They took the dog's body to their vet who said she died of heat stroke.
"She had horrible lesions on her body. Her skin and fur had come off and she had grill marks on one side of her body where she had been laying in the crate, burned into her skin. She died a very horrible, horrible death," said Cash.
"People just do not understand the risk they're taking when they allow a groomer to put their dog in a cage with a cage dryer," said Vicky Crosetti, executive director of the Humane Society of the Tennessee Valley.
A cage dryer is set to run for a specific time at a specific temperature.
"If the animal's trapped in a cage and the dryer malfunctions mechanically, or a human fails to check the dryer, a dog can overheat very quickly and death comes fast and it's not pleasant. I just don't consider cage dryers to be safe, and I would never allow one of my own dogs to be put into a cage with a cage dryer," said Crosetti.
Losing Lola is devastating for Debby and her husband.
"It's losing a member of your family, and it's hard enough when they grow old and they get sick and die. But when something this senseless and this heartbreaking happens, it just makes you very angry," said Cash.
Now she is just hoping what happened to her never happens to anyone else.
Crosetti suggests telling the groomer you do not want a cage drier used on your dog. She also suggests asking the groomer to see the facility and watch as another dog is groomed.
http://www.wbir.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=27441