Glad to read you had a good experience at the groomers. I'm hoping for the same.
Daisy (8 months) will have her first visit early Feb. Having phoned round a good deal of grooming parlours, I was aghast at the variety in their responses.
Some would not entertain hand stripping at all, some were totally money orientated and couldn't book me in quickly enough, others told me point blank that I was wasting my money with stripping and that clipping would be quicker, easier and would be my end result anyway at 8 months. Perhaps they might be right, but "customer service" was not part of their training!. Frankly, it was disappointing.
Only one asked me about Daisy's character, coat and did not mention money at all. Guess which groomer I picked?!!!
She said that she would firstly like to meet Daisy and assess her coat to see if hand stripping was going to be right for her or not. She said that the first few visits would be simply building up Daisy's confidence. What a difference! It was a joy to talk to someone who had my puppy's best interest at heart, rather than just telling me what they were going to do. The groomer I chose also said that if Daisy could not be stripped, she would still be able to get a nice Cocker show look with hand scissors, so it wasn't a case of clipping or nothing.
Every night Daisy and I have a "grooming hour" . She loves the attention (and treats!) and I have stepped up the (pretend) scissor work to get her used to the noise, which she doesn't really like. At present I just trim her paws - which are HUGE! But with this dreadful wet weather, the woolly mammoth look just isn't practical. I don't want an "oven ready " effect, but anything has got to be better than the present!
The final straw came when someone actually asked me what breed she was. I've never reached for a Yellow Pages more quickly!
Nearer the time I'll take some Before and After photos, but as she's a very dark Blue Roan, it's hard to tell one end from the other right now....
Kay
