Shaving the pads? That sounds horrible! I've never heard of doing that. The first two times I took Jax to Petsmart, they did a great job. The third time, it was horrible. She gave him a schnouzer cut which I think is ugly, didn't trim his butt/genital area, and cut everything else in a very ragged, half-done way. He's also scared of the clippers now, and he wasn't before. I have to desensitize him to the clippers now.