We used to bring our dogs to the grooming salon where they were given a good bath, trimming of the coat and trimming of the nails as well. But when we noticed that our dogs were getting fleas and ticks whenever they would be back from the salon, that made us think. Now, I do the grooming of our dogs with the help of our housemaids. Saturday mornings is the usual schedule of bathing and trimming. And it seems that our dogs already know that since they would be hiding under the table upon seeing us preparing the shampoo and other paraphernalia.
I used to bring our poodle to the grooming salon a lot. Aside from being too expensive, I also found out that some of the groomers do not really take care of the animals. Some can be too harsh on them! Anyway, before I migrated to another country, I started grooming our poodle by myself. I would just buy the shampoo or whatever and do it at home.
We stick with a professional groomer every 6 weeks. I like our poodle mix to have that fluffy teddy bear look. Unfortunately, that fluff can take anywhere from an hour if it's fairly short to several hours of hand blow drying so that it is straight and fluffy instead of curly. I brush him between grooms to prevent matting but I don't bathe or cut him myself. In the attached picture, his fur is in a fairly short cut. He is often much longer than that . The previous groomer was clearly stressing him out because he really did NOT want to go in there after only a single visit and growled as soon as he saw her. We switched groomers immediately. His current groomer owns her own small quiet shop. He never has to be caged and her credentials are not only in grooming but also as a vet tech and a trainer. When he's done being groomed, he hangs out on the couch with the other dogs to wait for me. If I don't have anything else to do while he's being groomed, I can even hang out on the couch and wait for him. We know he's comfortable with this groomer because he willingly enters the shop and goes straight to her. He has never come out of the shop with fleas or other pests but we poison him monthly (Frontline) to prevent them.
