First Trip to the Groomer!

[Star and Goldie]

First trip to the Groomer's... quite the adventure!

It was off to a rocky start right from the get go...

• Call to the Groomer to talk about pricing, what I wanted etc... I didn't get good vibes on the phone. The woman was not friendly- never even told me her name. When I asked her how often she would need a full groom once she's ready for it she responded so RUDELY with "well that's up to you and how much maintenance you want to do" followed by a lecture on how important maintenance is.
• Arrive at the Groomers and am taken back by DISGUST for the place. It smelled like urine and 100 wet dogs in there. It's a tiny shop and yes of course there are wet dogs in there all day but should it smell like that first thing in the morning? Light a candle... create a nice atmosphere, something! I fought my gut instinct which was to turn around and walk out and I went ahead and checked Goldie in
• Go to pick Goldie up and I try to hand the woman my card. She says "Um, we don't take cards. Cash or check only".  She said it in a tone like DUH you should have known this.  Payment methods are not posted anywhere in the shop and she didn't mention this on the phone so I had to get back in my car and go to the nearest ATM- UGH...
• Come back to pay. She takes the cash and instead of a 'thank you' or' sorry about the inconvenience' she says "Do you own a comb? I thought you said you comb her. Do you know what you're doing?" OMG OK LADY!!! Cue the lecture about how I'm not combing her properly
• Resist the urge to jump over the counter in a fit of rage
• Smile and nod while thinking bad thoughts
• Finally, she brings Goldie out and alas, my blood boiling starts to calm when I see my sweet baby's face. She was so excited to see me and she looked so....so... DOODLY!

So this was not what I expected our first trip to the Groomer to be like. I still don't even know the woman's name. She is NOT friendly to humans but she talks to the animals in her shop in a super sweet voice. Goldie seemed to love her and she did a good job.

So my question, would you look past the look (and smell) of the shop and put your personal feelings for her aside and continue using her based on her skills or would you look elsewhere?  Finding a reasonably priced decent Groomer in this area has proven to be a challenge.

Todays bill was $20.  Petsmart quoted me $65 to have the same thing done.

[Caleb Chun]

if it was me i'd first complain to management(unless the groomer was the manager/owner)about the customer service... she might just be the best groomer ever, but part of a business is customer service and the best businesses out there always have outstanding customer service... and after you complain i'd give them another chance to have a proper attitude on what they're doing and if it's up to standard than i'd continue using them if not than i'd look elsewhere :)

p.s. Goldie looks awesome :D

[Jessica Girardot]

She looks adorable! I think I could get past the rudeness, as long as my dog was well taken care of.  Plus you like the way her haircut turned out.  A lot of people have a hard time finding a groomer who grooms the way they would like. 

[Ginny Nightingale]

Lovely grooming and extremely reasonable price--fr a puppy's first cut, I charge $35-40 and I am the cheapest around here! (I just do one dog now and then in my home, so I do not charge much as I have very little overhead.) So, yeah, the most important thing is that the dog was not traumatized--she probably prefers dogs to people!

[Joanna, Zoe & Bender]

OMG SHE LOOKS ABSOLUTELY STUNNING AND AS CUTE AS A BUTTON!  

I'm not sure if I would look past all the smell and attitude even if my doodle was this cute after the first grooming experience.  It makes me wonder how she treats the animals if she's that rude to people.  i do have to say that $20 is a steal and she does look REALLY good!  kinda torn... LOL sorry i'm no help.

[Heather]

She looks "PRECIOUS"!!!! It's MOST Important that she is Kind to All of the dogs and does a Good job. Maybe she just has to warm up to you. I find some people are like that until they get to know you....Sad but True~

[Lori, Quincy & Frankie]

I don't think you will be able to beat that price.  She looks gorgeous.  The attitude you can ignore.  the smells-not so much. i would probably give it another try-especially since your pup was fine and not acting afraid or skittish.  I know the  owner and groomers in the place I take Quincy go out of their way to reassure and please ---but I can tell you what I paid for that was way more than what you were charged. It was for a good cut on a 50lb slightly matted long haired boy.    

[Bonnie and Kona]

Goldie is so cute I can hardly handle it. But I would be looking for a different groomer.

When we started having Kona groomed we went to a person who was relatively inexpensive, rude to people and had really yucky shop... but Kona seemed fine with her. In the second shop we tried, the dogs had freedom to roam in the shop. They told me Kona hid in the bathtub the whole time he was there. I went to yet a third groomer. This place was immaculate! The owner was nice; the groomer was unfriendly. The price doubled in three groomings from $60 to $120. Kona just shook from the time he arrived until we got him home. I have been grooming our doodles myself since. There is no trauma to the dog and the price is right. The tools were paid for after grooming two dogs once. I want my dogs groomed where the premises is clean, the dogs are safe and the price is manageable. That turned out to be at my house for me. Others on this site have wonderful experiences with groomers. I wish you the best of luck finding a good place to take your precious pup. 

[Jarka, Monty & Auggie]

I think I could get past the rudeness as well. If you take Goldie the next time and she is not shying away from the place or the woman, then she had a positive experience. The price was really cheap and the groomer actually did a great job. So if Goldie approves, I would stick with the groomer. I don't need to have a pleasant conversation with somebody. All I need to know whether they are being nice to my dogs and whether my dogs like them. That's all I care about.

[Camilla and Darwin]

I personally would not feel comfortable taking my dog to a place that your first impression was a bad smell. I think if you do take her again, you should request to see the back room. I worked at a grooming shop for a summer, and I know how hard we worked to keep everything clean, and how many times we would take each dog out to go potty during their stay. It did NOT smell like urine in the shop. That makes me wonder if the dogs aren't being let out enough, or if there is urine sitting around not being cleaned up. In addition I think the payment methods accepted are a bit strange, and her behavior was totally unprofessional. 

Goldie looks ADORABLE and that is a great price, but maybe you should tour the grooming shop to make sure that proper health and safety standards are being adhered to before taking her back.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

This is a tough one. This groomer clearly knows what she is doing, she did a great job! Goldie looks amazing! Clearly, this groomer knows how to groom a doodle! She also clearly cares deeply about the dogs, which is so important. That business about "Do you own a comb", rude as it seems, is deep-down person-who-likes-dogs-better-than-people speak for "I want to make sure this owner knows how to take good care of this sweet puppy", lol. The best groomers I ever had were the ones who weren't afraid to tell me off if I let a dog get matted. Their interest is the dog, not you, and that's actually a good thing. 

And of course the price is right. So far, great groomer. 

BUT...My concern is with the sanitation issues. If the place is filthy and smelly and she really has too many dogs crammed into a tiny space, Goldie may be exposed to something contagious from another dog. We all know how easily things like giardia and kennel cough are spread. If there's a dirty wet floor and a smell of urine indicating that things are not cleaned and disinfected promptly, that would worry me. My groomer's place is tiny, there are usually about 6 dogs there at any one time, and it always looks & smells clean and fresh in there. Did she ask you if Goldie was UTD on vaccines, including bordatella, and preventatives? Many places require proof of this before they will take your dog. If she didn't ask you, she didn't ask anyone else, either, and you know that everyone doesn't take the kind of care with their pets that you do. And she doesn't strike me as the type of person who would take kindly to your asking about this, lol. 

So this is a tough one. Maybe she did ask for proof of vaccines? 

[Star and Goldie]

I had to bring in a copy of vaccinations. The only one she was most interested in seeing was proof of the rabies vaccination.  She told me upfront that if she didn't have her rabies vaccine then she would not be able to be seen but she didn't say that for ALL vaccinations.

I struggled with how I felt about her "lectures" as well because yes they were rude and off putting but it was clear that her goal was to make sure that I was prepared for taking care of Goldie like she should be. It actually reminded me of the way I read some responses on here and how some take offense to the way certain things are said- they aren't attacks- they are just PASSIONATE. So I wanted to give her the benefit out the doubt and just push it off as her passionate about what she does.  But like someone else mentioned, she owns a business and part of that business is customer service. Her soft skills definitely need some fine tuning!

After thinking about it for a while I do want to give her another chance to win me over since she quickly won Goldie over. I mean, Goldie loved that woman and the way she interacted with Goldie was great. But I'm with you, the cleanliness part just has me so totally on the fence. If she is only concerned with the rabies vaccine and that's all she checks then that means that dogs that have not been fully vaccinated may be groomed there. What kind of danger does that put Goldie in???  She did tell me that 'sick dogs' are not able to be groomed but what is her definition of sick???

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The fact that Goldie loved her speaks volumes. I would definitely give her another chance. I'd much rather someone had lousy customer service skills and interacted perfectly with my dog than the other way around. Goldie is the "real" customer here, and the groomers skills with her are topnotch. You can deal with a little rudemess if Goldie is treated well, looks gorgeous, and doesn't tremble when you leave her at the groomers every 6 weeks for the next however many years. AND it's affordable. One thing we know is that this lady isn't in it for the money. 

Asking for proof of rabies vaccination is somewhat reassuring. Maybe she figures that if your dog sees the vet every year for rabies, the vet will make sure she's UTD on everything else. 

Personally, I would try to win the groomer over rather than the other way around. I'll bet she's a sucker for being asked for her advice. Maybe you could ask her opinion of  doggy daycare places and whether she's heard about any of her clients getting sick at daycare...that kind of thing. That might open up the topic of what she does to make sure her clients don't get sick, lol. 

 But I'd definitely give her another shot.