Brought my Newfoundland here in November. They did a fine job on her. Not as good of a job as our…read moreregular groomer, and my dog was returned to me slightly damp, but Happy Doggy is a few blocks down the street from us so it was convenient and I thought I'd give them a try. One thing I noticed and didn't like was that when I went to pick her up, the groomer let my dog walk from the (I assume) kennel area at the back of the building, all the way to the front of the building, past other dogs on grooming tables, without my dog being on her leash. And then when the groomer and my dog got to the double gate that separates the grooming area from the front of the store, the groomer left my dog - now unattended *and* without a leash - at gate while the groomer walked to the back of the store, and then came back. They could have opened the first of the double gates to contain her, or put her on her leash (ideally *before* walking past all the other dogs) and then handed the leash to me. But no, they just left her unattended with no leash in an area with other dogs, on the other side of the double gates away from me. My dog is sweet and usually fine but is not 100% reliably good with small dogs (and with any dog - there's no guarantee that all dogs will get along with all other dogs at all times; That's why we leash and supervise them.), and I was nervous because there was a small dog on the grooming table next to her while she was unattended. This is a safety issue. My dog ignored that dog and nothing happened, but it was woefully negligent of the groomer. And like I said above, she was retuned to me slightly damp. Not a huge deal for her, not ideal, but meh. Cost was $155 before tip. My dog's previous full groom (with a different grooming business) had been the prior August, and she had had a full brush-out (no bath) in June, 5 months before I brought her to Happy Doggy.
I recently brought my dog back for a scheduled groom at Happy Doggy in March. I received a text two days before her appointment saying they did not have my dog's rabies vaccine on file. That was weird, because they should have had it on file from her groom in November. When we arrived they said they had found it, but still, it seemed like they were disorganized with their vaccine records.
I had scheduled for the same groom as we had done in November. It wasn't until I and my dog were physically in the store and checked in, that one of the groomers came up to us and told us that because it had been over six months since my dog's previous groom (It hadn't been over 6 months, it had been 4), that it would be "at least $400-500" for this groom. Imo a price discrepancy like that needs to be noted at the time of schedule. I'm sure they saw on my face that that wasn't what I expected. They asked if I needed to reschedule, and I decided to reschedule with the intention to later cancel, frankly to avoid any cancelation fees, because a business that jumps their groom price from $155 to $400-500+ in 4 months, seems like the kind of place that would slap a cancelation fee on a client who needs to cancel same-day because if their ridiculous price jump.
The non-transparent pricing alone is reason enough for us to never come back. Letting my dog walk from the back to front of the store off leash and then leaving her unattended, already had me questioning this business anyway, so it's probably for the best that we go back to our previous groomer or seek other options, anyway.