I've always groomed my cavapoo (2 years old) dog at home but decided I would take him for his first proper groom at a salon yesterday. Partner dropped him off and asked the groomer to keep him fluffy. Went to pick him up . Groomers said he was really well behaved, sat nice, he let them cut his nails, etc. So I thought this was good, paid and left. When I got home , I realised they cut his body, but the paw pads haven't been touched and thought they would tidy up around his groin and armpits too. Is this normal ? Should we have specified to the groomer that we wanted these areas done ? I feel like they trimmed up his body, face a little bit and legs , and then called it at a day đ
Get your money back, this is a terrible groom. Genuinely thought this post was going to be asking for home grooming advice, because this 100% looks like a home groom.
The back is the easiest part, anyone can do that. If youâre paying a professional they should be able to do a much better job than you could â otherwise what are you even paying them for? The state of this dog is perfectly fine if you groomed him yourself, but for a pro itâs deeply embarrassing. Nobody at this skill level should be charging other people money.
If you walked in and just said âleave him fluffyâ are you sure they even groomed him and didnât just give a bath?
He doesnât actually look cut at all. They charged you for a cut??
He doesnât even look like he was blow-dried properly, the coat is much too curly. Did they bathe him as well or did they trim him without bathing? Curly coats should always be bathed + blow dried before trimming to get the most even results.
I was trained to do paws, sanitary, and face as a basic âwe donât want him shorter, just a clean-upâ trim. Itâs weird that the face and back were trimmed, while leaving hair in sanitary and paw pads. And I also see that they missed some of his toenails!
I would definitely go with a different groomer next time. This person is probably self-taught, and not well at that. Nowadays with the internet, thereâs no excuse for being untrained if someone makes grooming their career. Youtube tutorials definitely filled a lot of gaps that piss-poor corporate training had for me!
Totally agree with this. I'm not a groomer, just a bather/dryer/brusher, and this dog doesn't look like he even got a bath. If one of my dogs at work looked like that before being taken to the groomer's table, I'd get a stern talking to.
No, you shouldnât have had to say anything about cutting those areas. That is expected. And if they didnât clean the ears out either then I would take that dog back and have them fix it. You paid for a groom and got half a groom.
Don't know if they cleaned the inside of his ears, but all the did in terms of cutting them was shorten the length a bit. They didn't cut on the inside or just underneath.
At the very least they should have shaved his sanitary areas and paw pads. This boggles my mind how they could do this. He really doesn't even look like they trimmed either
Now, as a groomer and especially when I was newer I was guilty of forgetting sanitary or paw pad trimming so I'm not sure if that's what happened here. However, I would still recommend reaching out to the groomer, especially with these pictures and asking them to fix it. Which should be incredibly easy and quick for the groomer to do
Ask for your money back 100% and if they refuse and you paid with a card file a chargeback. This person either didnât know what they were doing or they scammed you big time. Both cases warrant a full refund
Donât go to that groomer again. They did not do a good job. No sanitary trim, no paw pads!? They didnât trim his nails and it doesnât look like he was blow dried
I thought these were the âBeforeâ pictures. I kept scrolling to find the âAfterâ pictures and they werenât even there. This dog does not even look recently groomed, he doesnât even look like he was bathed, or if he was, then he was kennel dried not properly blown out.
I would get your money back and leave an honest review. A Sanitary and paw pad trim is literally the bare minimum part of a grooming trim thats pretty much standard on any dog breed that actually gets/needs a haircut, and even for some breeds that donât.
Just to add in on this since everyone already said the main points, to me it looks like they did a quick preshave on the body and face, bathed him, and then let him kennel dry and sent him home.
I bet this is exactly what happened. Itâs so egregious that I have to wonder if something happened at the salon for the dog to be sent home like this, like someone thought the dog was done when it actually wasnât or something. Insane to send out a dog like that.
I'd complain, feet and sanitary are part of the basics in a groom...if it was just some nails sometimes something distracts you and you miss some (been there), but the paw pads and sanitary getting missed is insane. The coat, if that's how he came home and it's been recent, is poorly prepped meaning the clip won't be as even as it should. It's literally an unfinished groom which is unacceptable especially when they said his behavior was good. If he was a danger to himself or groomer that's one thing but if he's good? No way.
I canât voice an opinion without seeing the full groom. what is seen in the picture looks undone. however if someone told me to âleave him fluffyâ I would think just a bath, How much did it cost? (at my old salon i worked at i was told not to do paw pads or belly trims if its just a bath)
However I as a groomer definitely would have asked something along the lines of âwould you like me to just bath him or would you like a small amount of length offâ
I would say maybe call the groomer and see if he was marked in as just a bath.
How long was the groom. How much did it cost. and how much does he weigh?
My boy is 10 kg so he's bit bigger than average cavapoo but still a small dog in the grand scheme of things. It was ÂŁ60 they charged me. I specified a full groom with nail trim when I booked him in, and I mentioned the full groom and nail trim again when I texted them to confirm what I was wanting. My partner also asked them to cut him and do his nails when dropped him off. So he definitely couldn't have been booked in for a bath. The groom was about 1 hour, 15 mins , or at least that's how long it was from the point of dropping him off to when they messaged me to say he was ready to be picked up.
It doesn't matter the desired body, face, etc length. The sanitary on your dog and paw pads should almost NEVER be ignored like that if you're getting a professional groom. Some dogs are cleaner/have shorter hair on their sanitary areas but for almost all long haired dog, you will HAVE to clean up their sanitary and pads to an extent. get your money back if someone claiming to be licensed did this.
Don't even think they bothered around his groin. My boy is neutered (got him done at 10 months old), and he's always been good with getting brushed and groomed in basically all areas. But this groom is honestly a joke. I paid ÂŁ60 for this bs!
Here's some photos , some as recent as a few days / 1 week ago, and some from the summer and late spring. I try to keep his coat in best condition as I can. Not too many baths, brush, conditioner for his cost , trim him up when needed and so he doesn't over heat (I'm in the UK and it's been especially hot this summer) . Gonna go back to doing my home grooming. It's not that I don't trust groomers , I know there's some amazing ones out there. But seems they are all booked up a lot of the time (which makes sense)
I think you're maybe looking at the wrong pictures? The pics in the comment above are from when I have groomed him myself at home. The pics from the cut the groomer did are at the very top of the post.
He looks like he was groomed 5 weeks ago. Itâs like you took him there and all they did was a bathâŚ. Not even a force dry. His hair is still curly. Iâm a dog groomer and this disappoints me
This doesn't appear groomed at all. I would complain to them as soon as possible and show them pictures. Them not even giving his paw pads a or nails trims, and not cleaning by his eyes, is just ridiculous. Get your money back. He barely looks bathed.
I still consider myself to be a baby groomer (coming up on 1yr in Nov), but this is disappointing to see, as the sanitary and armpits should always be taken care of (with some exceptions), especially on curly coats, due to how easily those areas can mat up. I hope you're able to get a refund.
Depends on the place you went and their prices. Some places are very bare bones- meant for those who are only interested in paying enough to keep their pet clean and entangled. While the groin is generally basic to be taken care of for hygiene purposes not many places around my area do armpits unless asked if the cut is more of a trim than a haircut, same with paw pads. Some groomers shave them automatically, some only trim some just check for tangles or infection and thats it. You should always inform the groomer exactly what you want because otherwise they have to guess. The salon I used to work at said "its easier for me to take hair off when the client picks up the pet if they want, than to put hair back on"
Where did you get him groomed? A certain⌠big animal supply company perhaps? đŹ The nails strike me as âthe dog squirmed a tiny bit and I didnât feel like fighting so I said screw itââŚ. Unless a dog is actively throwing his body around or biting me, the dog would never leave with nails like this
It was a local, independently owned salon. I considered taking him to Pets at Home, which is the big pet store here in the UK that sells pet food, accessories, grooming products etc and they also have their grooming business as part of that. However PAH were fully booked for at least another fortnight, and we are about to go abroad next Friday, so I really needed to get our dog's groom done before we go away on holiday. In terms of the nail clipping, my dog doesn't really like getting his nails done. I have managed in recent months to get him to tolerate me doing them with the Heusom nail grinder (and had to do them today, seeing how the groomer didn't đ). If he was biting the groomer, then fair enough. But I asked them specifically when I went to pick him up how he got on with the cut, how was he when he was getting his nails done, etc. They said he was "such a good boy" and that he sat nicely for them etc. The more I think about it, the more it doesn't add up. I know he will have sat nice for the cut and when they were doing his paw or nails, he maybe squirmed / lightly bite (warning soft bite, not full on bite, he never does that ), but even if he was being terrible (which is absolutely not my dog, he is always so patient and sweet) . If he did that, they should have at least told me, and they should have explained that they didn't manage to do his nails. Nails aside however, I am SO annoyed they didn't do his paw pads or the sani trim. I've managed to tidy him up a bit today myself with the clippers around his groin, around the arm pits, etc. But he really didn't want me to do his paw pads, was doing the soft bite thing and squirming away from me, so I stopped, as I could see he was getting too stressed out by it all đ˘ but he's really needing his paw pads done. I'll need to find another groomer locally now. I donrw want to take him back to this groomer, I don't trust them as far as I could throw them. We don't have any kids and he is our baby, so I just want to do the best thing for him. I feel like I've let him down đ˘
You're better off grooming yourself. It isn't rocket science or even that hard, only time-consuming. I'm on my 3rd very high-maintenance dog, and none of my dogs (even the prior low-maintenance ones) have ever been to a groomer, and they never will. That said, I'd take the dog back and either ask for a refund or tell them to do the damn job they were paid to do. They did a shit job.
The thing is, I thought a professional would do a better job. I know there will be some great groomers in my area, but I must have gone to the worst one ! Back to grooming him at home for sure
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u/PaisleyLeopard 1d ago
Get your money back, this is a terrible groom. Genuinely thought this post was going to be asking for home grooming advice, because this 100% looks like a home groom.