Highly recommend finding another groomer, especially if your dog is bigger than 25lbs or if they have fear of absurdly loud noises. Our experience unfortunately resulted in two dogs not receiving their agreed services, and one gushing blood for nearly two hours from an injury. We have three dogs (one 50lb border collie, one 25lb border collie mix, and one 18lb shih tzu mix), all who have been professionally groomed their whole lives without a single complaint. On top of that, our two border collies had extensive professional training for years. The services agreed upon were: full groom/shave for the shih tzu, no cut for the collies, only a sanitary trim and nails/paws/ears done. The shih tzu was done perfectly.
Then, the small border collie was returned to us with a gushing wound on her ear, paw pads not done, ears not cleaned, and her hair shaved. Holly had texted me that she found a small scab that came off during the bath. I figured no big deal. However, when she returned her to us, her ear was gushing blood and her headed was soaked with blood. If she had been bleeding in the bath, because of the amount of blood, it would have been noticeable once she started trimming her. After inspecting the "scab" in her tub, I am not confident our dog had it previously. I was holding and petting her ears this morning and would have felt that. The "scab" was soft and looked more like clotted blood that had just happened and was in a clump of hair (even though we asked her not to shave). If the groomer was the one who cut her, I would not have been mad. Mistakes happen. I could have done that if I tried to groom them myself. However, I don't appreciate dishonesty and going against special requests. Any professional groomer knows not to shave a border collie because it ruins their coat.
Our last dog, the biggest, doesn't like his paws touched. We warned Holly of this even though no groomer has ever complained about him. We told her it was okay if she put a muzzle on him to make her comfortable. Shortly after, she texted asking if my husband could come hold him because our dog was afraid of the blow dryer. Of course, I sent my husband out to help. When he got in there, he saw that this mobile unit was not equipped for bigger dogs at all. There was hair covering the inside of the trailer from previous dogs that weren't ours and it appeared poorly maintained/dirty. The "blow dryer" more accurately resembled an industrial vacuum that was so loud that Holly put on earmuffs that one would wear shooting. If the noise is too loud for a human, how do you think it is for dogs who have MUCH more sensitive hearing? No wonder he was freaking out. The muzzle she was using completely covered his nose to where he could only breathe out of his mouth and it was unbearably hot in there. While my husband was in there, our dog was not nipping but trying to pull away from the noise/restraints. Our dog had not received any nail/paw cutting, ear cleaning, and wasn't going to get a sanitary trim until my husband reminded her to do so. Essentially, he only received a bath.
When it came to payment, Holly wanted to charge $80 for the shih tzu, $65 for the small collie, and $90 for the big collie. $90 is absolutely unacceptable for a bath. We told Holly that we were not comfortable paying full price for our last dog since he did not receive the services agreed upon. We told her we would give $200, not $235. Holly responded by screaming out her car window, speeding her truck down our residential street, and sending me threatening texts. I would not have even left a review if she had responded appropriately by apologizing. read more