[ashley_]

When I first got Joli, the groomer at my vet was super nice and was SO excited when I decided to let Joli get groomed the first time. She was excited to get to put bows in and everything! (I got to a low cost vet, so my guess is that she didn't get many bow wearing dogs...and as a side note, I really like my vet and have had much better experiences with them than lots of high dollar vets). I really liked her, but after a few months when I went back she was gone and there was a new person that didn't seem to care about Joli as much at all. And after I took her in after she got a little too matted and wanted her to be shaved down to a PUPPY cut and she came out COMPLETELY bald, I NEVER took her back their to be groomed. I guess all he heard was shave and not puppy cut..a few inches and everything else I said. Her matting wasn't that bad....
After that she didn't need to be groomed for a VERY long time. And I think I ended up taking her to Petsmart once but I stalked around the store most of the time and kept calling up there when I left for a bit. She ended up being okay, but I was so nervous it wasn't worth it.

I then found a new doggie day care that had a groomer that I ended up REALLY liking. He asked me so many questions about how I wanted her to look and they took me on a tour of everything and showed me where she would be before during and after. And after I got Somi he offered to give her baths and blow dries for really cheap to get her used to the process before she needed to be groomed. But due to running low on money and general anxiety leaving them anywhere I decided to start grooming myself. And after reading all these stories I am SOO glad I did. Not that I would like hurting my girls or giving them a bad cut, but I much rather be the one that does it. If they get hurt I can fix it right away and will know to check it later. If it is a bad cut then I only have myself to blame (plus I was always bad at telling the groomer what I wanted). And now that I have the clippers and sissors it is much easier to keep up with their "private" areas and pads which I like to keep short to keep clean.


It is so sad that things like this happen. I didn't even realize that groomers didn't need to be licensed. How can hair stylist have to be and dog groomers not? At least a person can say, no don't do that you are burning/cutting/CHOKING me if they are doing something wrong. Ugh makes me sick.