I took Paisley to Mount Vernon and we went and visited 3 grooming shops. There are 6 in town all together. One was in a bad part of town so I decided against it. Another was closed i think.. I couldn't ever get an answer on their phone and I drove out and tried finding it but couldn't find it.
I wasn't looking to get Paisley groomed today, just wanted to find a groomer to make an appointment with.
Another I visited was owned and ran by a lady who was originally from Conneticut and used to show Goldens. She would not allow me to stay with Paisley for her grooming. She also said that Paisley would have to be left off there at 8 am or so and not picked up til the end of the day. Which i did not like. I told her I wasn't comfortable doing that and her reply was how good it was for the dogs to sit in the crate and "hang out' at the groom shop all day... it was good for them.
I asked her ,How paisley would go potty if she was in a crate all day. She replied "oh you'd be surprised at how many dogs are in the crate all day and don't go" I said , but she's a 15 week old puppy, she can't hold it and I sure don't want her potty training messed up and her start going in the crate.
So needless to say, that's not the groomer I'm going to use.
Then I went to another one... the place was basically a dump. Which I wasn't looking for a "pretty building" but a GOOD groomer.. so I went in and the cigarette smoke about knocked the breathe out of me when I opened the door
Nothing personal against cigarette smokers... but geez.. go to a back room, or open a window or something! So it was a definite NO on that place.. besides it looked dirty inside too and the lady said Paisley would have to be there 4 or 5 hours probably
.
Then We (Paisley and me) went to TSC and got our dog food and walked around a bit.. everyone loved Paisley and had to come see her
Then we went to Lowes to get a couple new blinds and everyone in Lowes loved her too
Then as we were leaving Lowes a lady started talking to me. She has a Maltese and i told her I had drove to Mt Vernon to visit groomers. She told me about the one she takes her Maltese to. She said she had tried every groomer in town and her maltese always came out of there, scared and shaking but she said she loved this lady! So I drove out there and went in.. the lady was grooming a bichon and her grooming room is right there beside the waiting room and it's wide open where you can sit and watch. I was talking to her and she said she was pretty busy with clients and didn't know about taking any new ones at this time but she had hired a girl to help about 2 months ago. This girl moved down here from Bloomington , IL. She has groomed for 11 years while living in Bloomington. She said she worked in a privately owned groom shop.. (she was not the owner, just worked as a groomer there) I met her and her grooming room is just around the corner from the waiting room and you can sit in there with her if you want. I mean you can stand at one end of the waiting room and her groom room is wide open. There's no doors on the groom rooms. It's actually a small house that's been converted to a grooming shop.
She was doing a cocker spaniel /springer spaniel while I was there... which she was debating on calling someone about.. the guy had brought him in and he was grown out, matted , stinky and covered in fleas. She said when she bathed him, the water was bloody and she showed me his gums were pale, so probably enemic. She said it was the worst flea infestation she'd ever seen
I felt so sorry for him, he was such a pretty boy, and so well behaved too. She said she was at least going to have a talk with the owner of the dog and try and educate him on how important flea control is for the health of his dog and that he needed to take the dog to the vet ASAP!!!
Anyway, I made an appointment with her for next Tuesday... She makes actual appointments.. she said it usually takes an hour to 2 hours. I can stay and watch or leave her, whichever I want.
I like the fact that she never does more than 4 dogs per day. neither does the owner of the shop. Four dogs each, per day at most.
They don't use cage dryers either. They dry with hand- dryer.
So... I hope this works out and we have a groomer!