About a year ago I decided that I was no longer going to take my dog, Nadi, to the groomers. She got so stressed out from being there that she would tremble once we walked through the door.
I don't know if this is because of the way they treat her or if they smack her when they are cutting her hair, which I suppose is always a possibility and one that would seriously enrage me, but whatever the reason is, it would simply stress her little doggy self out too much and now I just cut her hair myself. I can't bring myself to cut her nails but I think that is something I am going to have to get over in the not so distant future even though she hates that as well.
I make no claim to be good at this, but at the same time I don't really care. Nadi is cute with long or short hair, and it is only for her comfort and ease of bathing that I bother doing it at all.
This is the end result but here is a "before" picture for reference.
While the hair isn't too long in the before, she was getting hot very easy in the Vietnam summer and also getting stinky rather fast because of it. The long hair made baths take a lot longer and Nadi doesn't like baths. She tolerates them but would rather they not ever happen.
We divide the haircut into several different phases. The hardest part is getting her feet done but I think she is starting to understand that the less she squirms around, the sooner the entire process can be over with.
She almost seems proud of herself! All in all there were 5 phases, and two of them were because of the fact that sitting on the floor in a crouched over position starts hurting my back. I did some stretches on that same yoga mat that Nadi mostly uses for herself after I was finished.
In the end she definitely isn't perfect and up to salon quality, but she is good enough. She will stay cool longer when we are outdoors and I gave her a bath right afterwards and it took only about a minute. The drying took practically no time at all.
Getting around the toes could have been done better but I don't have a wide array of machines available to me. I think they are just fine the way they are but if I notice some wayward fluff I can always get at it later.
All in all this took me about 2 hours including the breaks for chicken treats for Nadi, and a couple of chicken treats for me as well.
It wasn't that bad.. Now all I need to do is find the courage to cut her nails and we will never need to go to the doggy salon ever again in her life. She would love that!
