I will start by saying I am particular. We have a Cocker puppy who I am learning to groom myself and a dense coated Golden Retriever who I groom (bath, professional dog blow dry, brush and trim feathers) every 6 weeks to 2 months and sometimes sooner if he gets into mud or rolls in something. It takes me a solid 3 hours to groom him including clean up so a trip to the groomers every now and then sounds like a good deal. Their prices are very good.
Anica at Canine Corner did a good job on my cocker puppy. I had no complaints. She is shy and afraid of the blow dryer and clippers but they were able to clip her face. She looked beautiful when I picked her up a couple hours and she was exhausted.
I am not sure if it was Anica or someone else who groomed my Golden. When I picked him up he could not get out of there fast enough and he loves attention from people more than anything. He doesn't mind the grooming process because he gets groomed so often and aside from the time it takes to groom him because he's a furry big boy, he's very well behaved. He did not like it at Canine Corner. His bath and blow dry were done well and he smelled good. It takes a long time to dry him and he was dry. His ears were clipped inside the flaps which is what I requested. He was brushed out heavily and they got a lot of hair off him. His feet were scissored/clipped well, very well in fact.
However, I specifically asked that they leave his Fluffy poof of a tail and just trim it which they did not do. When I got him into my car I noticed his tail looked thinned out, frayed and messy. They did not clean it up by doing a scissor cut following the tails curve nor did they scissor trim his leg feathers. These trims are simple to do and add a finishing touch to a Golden's grooming. The trim of the tails curve was essential to making it look clean and finished, especially after they thinned it out as much as they did.
I inquired about what tool was used on his tail and I was told "they used a rake because there was a lot of hair on the bone and the bone needed to breathe". A rake should not be used on a Golden's tail! It takes out way too much tail feathers and it's not comfortable to use for the dog. I have a rake and that is what I use to get out undercoat on his body. A brush is what is used on the tail. He did not have knots in his tail going in and his tail feathers were dense so I agree he had a lot of hair but there is nothing wrong with that as long as you can run fingers through it, which you could when I dropped him off. I know how easy it can be to cause knots in the bathing process if his tail is scrubbed which it should not be and I am guessing that is what happened. This is something that shouldn't happen.
Anica did tell me they are willing to do what I want next time but I just don't think it's the right place for us.
They get 3 stars from me because they did do a good groom on my Cocker and a decent body groom on my Golden but his tail was a mess. I had to scissor it when I got him home.
Another thing that struck me as odd is when I dropped off my Golden, there was a little white dog unattended on the table with neck noose, standing there shaking. His body had been shaved but from what I could tell his face hadn't been trimmed yet. This was day after Christmas 9am. I was dropping off and someone was there filling out paperwork. Since little white dog had the neck noose on he/she wasn't going anywhere but she/he was nervous and while Anica was checking us in no one was with him (for a good 5 minutes). I don't think any dog should ever be left unattended for any length of time on a table but maybe I'm just overly cautious. Just the thought of that happening to my dogs has me looking elsewhere. read more