Dogs Training Blog

I’m just curious what other dog owners think of my experience at the groomer’s today. I took my dog to a new groomer’s today, a big chain type, it came very highly recommended from my friend who doesn’t own a dog that needs grooming but takes her other animals there.Anyways, my dog has a lot of issues with strangers he doesn’t always react well to them, he’s never bitten anyone and I don’t think he would, but he just needs a couple minutes of patience from new people and a couple of treats to win him over. I warned the groomer of this while I was making the appointment.Got there today, no surprise when we saw her my dog backed away a little. She questioned my age, I said 19 which is true, though I’ve been told several times now I look much younger, so I was neither insulted or surprised when she asked for ID, while I was looking for that she took one quick look at him and declared that he was all matts (not true, I know what a matt is, he’s half poodle and his fur grows in a way that it often looks like matts). She then walked over didn’t do the whole ’sniff my hand’ thing before she reached out to pet him on the top of his head. He growled and gave a warning bark. She immediately jumped back and threw her hands in the air declaring that she would not groom ‘that dog’ and said that he needed to be taken to the vet’s and put to sleep for his next grooming.And that was the end of our conversation all of 30 seconds. I left feeling not really mad but very disapointed in her that she hadn’t given him a chance especially after I had given her good warning that he needs a couple minutes with strangers to get comfertable.So, now I’m just curious what other peope think…Would you have been mad?I can see both sides of this, on the one hand my dog shouldn’t have reacted like that, and I need to train him (I have been and will call a behaviouralist if this isn’t fixed soon), but on the other hand she’s a groomer she should understand dogs and give them a little timeAlso just thought I should add, this isn’t some giant agressive breed we’re talking about, he’s only about 20 pounds and really sweet once you’ve won him overTo the person who said I shouldn’t be taking him to the groomer’s because of multiple people handling him, normally I would agree with you, but apart from this place being recomended by my friend the other reason I wanted to take him there was because it was only one girl who does the grooming and she only takes one dog at a time, which I thought would be ideal for him…

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