Should you abandon your dog due to wrong grooming or hair trimming?

I was working in another vet clinic when a Lhasa Apso dog was brought in for grooming. I was not in charge of the grooming, the animal attendant was the one in charge. The owner, an elite looking lady displayed a lot of love towards her dog. While dropping the dog off for hair trimming she simply said: “Please make her look good for me please. I guess the hair is getting too much” and left.

The animal attendant was only used to shaving off all the hair of dogs that were brought to the grooming section. He went ahead to shave off all the hair to the skin of the dog. I just strolled towards the grooming sections and saw the dog looking very different from the lovely “sponge-looking” to a furless-naked dog. I wondered if that was what the lady intended for her dog. I was new there so I just decided to respect their way of doing things and refrained from asking questions.

The lady came back in the evening to pick the dog and was surprised at what she saw. She screamed very loudly at what was done to her dog. She complained bitterly about the trimming while saying that she only requested that her dog be trimmed to be beautiful, not naked. She stood for 15 minutes thinking of what to do about the dog.

She told the groomer to have the dog and paid all her bills. We had to beg the lady to accept her dog assuring her that the hairs will grow back. She asked if the hairs will grow back the next day and we said no. She insisted not to take the dog home with her.

I felt very bad and released the dog from the crate just to see how the lady will react when the dog runs towards her to greet. The dog ran straight to the lady as soon as I released him and started to jump toward her, then she broke down and started crying, calling the dog’s name. I tried that to soften her heart that was when she started to ask us how long the hair will take to grow out like before. The principal veterinarian told her that it will take like 3 months and maybe full in six months but in a month the dog will look better.

The lady asked if we could keep the dog for her until the hairs grow out but the boarding fee was too high for her. We tried our best to stop the lady from abandoning that dog and succeeded 3 hours later. We were practically taking turns to talk to her. She was listening to each person that spoke and asked tons of questions.

After that incidence I started to assist the animal attendant to groom dogs in order to avoid a repeat of that. The guy was a local guy from a rural area so he has no idea what that lady meant even after that incidence. I had to try to help him understand what clients wanted and sometimes I did the whole grooming myself. Sometimes I insist that the owner be there while we do the work to avoid doing the wrong thing.

I have kept Lhasa Apso dogs, Havanese and Shitz Tsu as my personal dogs, living with me indoors and I never wanted to shave their hairs off completely. The best I do is remove the matted hairs and maybe reduce the hairs just to have them looking beautiful. I think they look very beautiful with the hairs gracing their skin nicely so I then understood what the lady in the story felt.

I thought to write this article after one client of ours went elsewhere to groom her dog due to pricing issues and later called to complain bitterly about the way the groomer shaved off all the hair. She regretted ever taking her dog there saying that she was just concentrating on cost and not value. When I told her that the hairs will grow back she asked me to keep the dog for her. I had to convince her to keep her dog.

The lesson here is to make sure you are properly understood by the groomer. If possible try to be there while the grooming is going on to avoid mistakes such as the one in the story above. If your dog groomer already understands your style, then you may not border but when you are meeting a new groomer or you use a company where different people groom dogs and you are not sure who will be assigned to groom your dog then you have to try to be available during the grooming.

Please note that sometimes your dog’s hairs can be so matted that the best the groomer can do is to shave off everything. Most groomers will recommend that when it is inevitable so try to keep an open mind.