Heather has groomed my now 11 year old toy poodle for years. We have trusted her and always been…read morehappy with how my poodle turned out. She never seemed extra stressed when we picked her up. It seemed to be a great situation (the only thing was I never saw Heather when i dropped off and picked up my dog, that was always odd, but i figured she was busy).
Anyway, we got a new toy poodle puppy recently. She was 12 weeks old and we figured it was a good time to get her acclimated to the grooming experience. We specifically said our toy poodle (3 lbs at the time) was only 12 weeks old, this was her very first groom. We asked for her to be bathed, trimmed around her face, feet, sanitary area *as tolerated.*
We were told our puppy was aggressive, had to be held down by 3 people (remember, 3 lb puppy). She hadn't been completely potty trained at the time, still tried to mouth at hands, was teething, wasn't the best behaved, so I believed it and was embarrassed for my puppy's behavior, over a bath! I had bathed our puppy probably 6 times already since we got her, I had scissor trimmed around her face, brushed her often and even trimmed her nails before. We were completely shocked upon picking up our little puppy she had a completely full groom. Shaved feet, shaved face, very short hair all over, shaved butt - didn't even look like our puppy at all. It was definitely not a puppy trim *as tolerated.* Now we understand why our puppy got so scared and stressed that she lashed out, fight or flight response. She had never been groomed before, she must have been terrified.
Ever since then, our puppy is a different dog. She now is very anxious about everything. She had such a bubbly, joyful, easy-going personality. Now she is scared, fearful about so much. We have her in private training now, and the trainer has said she is scared of anything and we have to work in baby steps to even give her a bath again. I am devastated that my now 14 week old, 3.5 lb puppy has been traumatized. We trusted Heather for years with my older toy poodle. We thought she was the best groomer. It is never appropriate to hold down a 12 week old puppy to shave her completely. I wish she would have stopped, so that our puppy would have happy associations with grooming.
2 stars because we really did trust Heather for years, with my most prized possession, a family member. 2 stars because now that trust is broken, our 12 week old puppy was restrained, looks like a different dog, and has a completely new anxious/stressed personality when handled by strangers.
