Pet Peeves...Cont'd..Matted dog Pics - Page 1

Ok ....Here are the pictures of the matted dog, a year and a half old Lhasa Apso, that the owner SWEARS she brushes and combs every day.
I also had two other dogs there at the same time to groom, one was hers- a nine month old son of this dog. She could not understand (being a human hairdresser) WHY it was going to take me 5 hours to groom her two dogs, plus the Labrador shavedown!!!
Because the pictures were from a cell phone they didn't come out that great, but you can see the dog was a solid mat. It was like shearing a sheep, only more difficult. Sheep teeth are not as sharp as a dog's....
He was also all matted in between his toes and around his testicles, and in his armpits as well as inside and behind his ears... It doesn't take a groomer to understand that those are sensitive, soft and elasticy areas, and you must go slowly and carefully...
Oh and all the while, the owner's three children were running wild in the store, running into the salon yelling "ROCKY! ROCKY...HI ROCKY!"..Until I finally  had to ask the owner to keep her kids out of the salon, and out of view of ROCKY,  since the dog was already trying to bite me and the kids were making him jump all around.... So I guess this has to be one of my biggest pet peeves... Stacy

      

OMG Stacy that is horrible!!! That is a pp of mine too.I have groomed before and helped frineds of mine that were groomers.I would tell them to up the charge just for the aggrivation. So they did.There was one time she shaved a husky or some kind of fluffy big dog and was careful how she shaved it...so it came off in one big rug!! She showed it to the owners and they couldn't believe it.This "rug" was so solid you could pick it up and wear it as a shall. One she hung up on the wall. Unbelieveable!! I winder if the people that do this to the dogs also do it to the kids.

The kids eventually learn to do things themselves - I once worked with a family where the 2 year old figured out how to microwave hotdogs because otherwise he wouldn't get to eat.

That's just horrible.  Thinking  you should brush your dog every day and actually doing it are two different things, but this lady probably didn't know the difference.

Opal

WE just got this yorkie  puppy thats the first place i took her when she got 4 mnths old was the groomers...Owners do not understand how painfull it is for these dogs to have netted hair

Lavk9
Yes It is digusting! And the dog had so much poop caked to his butt, I was wondering if they smelled it when the dog is on their bed, sofa, lap whatever YUCK! It was obvious the dogs were kept inside because with the matted outside dogs, there are more "sticks" and leaves in the rugs that come off the poor dogs! I also saved the rug from this guy and when the lady came back,  Oh about the 3rd time to see what was taking me SO long, I went to the back, grabbed the rug and said "This ma'am, took a very long time to safely get off your dog."  Not to mention, even with my blades well oiled, I had to keep switching between 4 different #10 blades, because I din't want the blades getting hot. and him getting razor burn...
 
Opal,
A two year old microwaving his own food? ARGHH That is awful! I SO wanted to call her out on that blatant lie about brushing her dog every day! You cannot lie to a groomer about that. There are people who claim to brush their dogs all the time and I can see that they try. The hair on the top will be in good shape but the whole undercoat will be matted. The can't understand that I refuse to demat a dog, no matter how much money they offer me because it is just too painful for the dog. I was accused once of being lazy and not wanting to  do my job LOL...

Duval,
Kudos to you for getting your Yorkie used to going to the gromer at a young age. It would hurt to (if possible) watch from a distance where your puppy cannot see you, just to make sure that it is being treated kindly. Puppies can be rambunctious, and I have seen groomers (in a few different salons) with my own eyes treat puppies roughly because they are wiggly and excited, or scared... Good luck with your yorkie puppy....I bet he/she is precious :-)

Stacy

Yes, that is a pet peeve of mine. I don't brush Oakley every day, like I should, but she doesn't get mats like longer coats and dogs with hair do.  Many years ago, when I was little, we adopted a collie from the animal shelter in the next town over from ours, and the poor dog had hot spots that the shelter's vet said was caused by an allergy to fleas, but the hot spots were directly around places where his coat was so tightly matted and knotted that it was ripping at his skin, and he had weeping sores and places where he'd licked himself raw trying to pull at those mats.

It took weeks of working on him, little at a time, to get all those mats off and the skin condition cleared up, but once his coat was all groomed out, he never again had any skin issues, up until he died a few years later.  His nails were horribly overgrown, too...More than an inch and a half long, so long that his feet were malformed from trying to walk on them...The vet didn't clip them back short when they neutered him, so we had to spend months clipping them back a little at a time.

Huge pet peeve when people don't bother to keep up with coats and nails on their dogs.

Crys

Hi Crys,
That poor collie! They are one of my favorite breeds to groom. Usually they are really well behaved too. I have had a few like you described and had to be shaved. And the toenails that have grown so long that they deform the toes breaks my heart. Especially when the quicks are so long that you can only take a little off at a time without making them bleed .
I don't brush my dogs daily either although I should. Sometimes I get so lazy I even pay other groomers at work to groom them for me LOL

Another matted dog story...
Today I had a pomeranian that was kennel aggressive, so I wasn't supposed to kennel him.  I groomed him all the way through, but since the owner wasn't going to be back for a couple of hours after I was done I couldn't very well hold him for two hours lol.
He was matted really badly. Since he was shedding bad and not being brushed there was a ton of undercoat... And on top of that he was somewhat people aggressive. I had to shave him bald except for a litlle lion mane and lion tail... He was kinda cute though, every time someone came by me he growled and barked at them , but by the end of the groom he was kissing me :-) He had been to the salon a few times before and after the groom was complete the owner had to come back and get him out of the kennel himself... None of the groomers could get near him. While the owner was paying I decided to see if I could get him out (carefully lol) He came right to me! Well, it made me feel good I made a friend :-)


Stacy

I really feel for the poor dog. The shep I have now was matted to the skin so bad that I couldnt even get the clippers through his coat. I had to use sissors for the bad areas. Being that he is a long coat (dont care for them really) his coat is relativily easy to care for. I would actually say that its easier than a standard coat. The previous owners shaved him (huge pet peeve of mine) once a year. I knew when I got him that by the feel of the hair he was shaved.

I think if your going to have a coated breed then take care of it. If you dont want to take care of it , have the dog groomed regularily or get a short haired breed. My dogs coat now is getting nice. I only comb him once or twice a week (min combing) and it stays looking well.
 
Im getting ready to go the nursery. Its nice here in the 60's high clouds. The nursery I go to has parrots on perches all througout along with various other critters. Its kinda like going to the zoo. Glad Im not in the snow !!!!!

Bhaugh,
I completely agree... I got permission from my district manager to offer a discount to people who bring their dogs in regularly, well the coated breeds anyway...
It is also a pet peeve of mine when people shave labs, goldens, gsds...any breed that shouldn't be shaved. I try my hardest to talk people into and good bath and brush, even though it's less money for me, but some people can't stand "shedding."

If the dog you are referring to is the one in your avatar, you have done a lovely job getting his coat back into beautiful condition. You already know sometimes the dogs whose coats don't continually grow may not grow back the same.
Another story (sorry lol,,,I'm bored and like to talk dogs!) I had a Golden Retriever that the owners shaved every year come in for a shave... At the time I didn't know that, so explained that the coat may not grow back the same... They said he was 12 years old and it always grew back the same... Wouldn't you know that when I shaved it the last time it didn't grow back the same! They came back this year and said," I don't know what you did different, but look at all these fuzzy/bald patches."
I felt SO bad... I guess it was probably because of his age, because he got the same #7 haircut every year since he was a young dog... 
Ahhh well... I hope you had a nice time at the nusery, it sounds peaceful!

Stacy

Try this  - -  recommend short-haired breeds.  I hate seeing long fluffy matted dogs that the owners swear are high dollar purebreds or some funky designer breed.  I don't care if its a pound pup.  If you can't maintain it get rid of it.

Of course, the grooming business promotes the grooming of these dogs thereby perpetuation the problem.  I find it somewhat ironic that the groomers complain about the condition of these dogs.  When the fact is, this is their bread and butter.

If that is not the case - - - take down the long-haired dog signs.  And put up signs sayings "Short-Haired Breeds are the New Trend."   Of course, it'll never happen!

Tuff