by Louise on January 26, 2012
Why is Sweets sulking?
I had just finished the daily ritual of brushing his teeth. He absolutely hates it but it is a necessary evil with him being susceptible to dental issues.
He had two teeth pulled and a full cleaning last July and I vowed that I would never have him have to go through that again. He does like the toothpaste though. After I’ve put some on the toothbrush, I let him lick the top of the tube, which he loves. It’s poultry flavoured. Even though he likes the taste of the actual toothpaste, he absolutely detests me brushing his teeth. Poor little thing.
by Louise on January 25, 2012
By default, Sweets has a new groomer. He still goes to the same facility, but it is under new management. The two women that used to work there were fired without explanation to any of the customers. We were assured it had nothing to do with the treatment of the animals, which I tend to believe because the groomers were on camera every step of the grooming process.
The grooming part of the business has been “sold” to a new owner and she runs it herself. She is a very nice lady, who’s name I can’t recall at the moment, and has been grooming dogs her entire adult life. Apparently her mother is also a dog groomer. The new groomer seems nice and patient with all the dogs requiring that during the first visit she has with them, she requires a bit of extra time to get to know the dog. I liked this idea.
When I picked Sweets up from the groomer, besides looking fantastic, he WASN’T in a crate. He was allowed to wander around while she was grooming another dog. I guess when I told her to call me if she was done early because I don’t want Sweets to be locked in a crate waiting for me because he is uncomfortable in crates she actually listened to me. I was happy to see him wandering around just sniffing and taking in the environment. He seemed to be quite relaxed which is good because he tends to be quite uptight when getting groomed all the way up to the point of me picking him up. It was very reassuring to me to see that she had listened to me about him not liking crates.
Anyway, here are a couple of photos of what he looked like post-grooming. The grooming took place January 2nd, so they are a little out of date.
His ‘stache is a little longer than what I normally request but I didn’t request a particular length at all for this grooming. I just said “do a puppy cut with 1″ length on the body” and let her go with it because I’d seen the “puppy cut” she did on my Mom’s Schnoodle and absolutely loved it. I was equally happy with the results on Sweets!
Look at the detail of the cut and fuzziness of the fur on his paw. The fluffiness was carried all throughout his body. The groomer says it is the type of conditioner she uses. It stays like this for about a week. I’ve never seen or felt him so soft and fluffy. Talk about pouffy. 
All in all I’m happy with the new groomer. If I had one complaint, it would be that she cut the fur around his lower belly too short. He was licking it quite a bit after the grooming session. I don’t know why she cut it so short because he certainly didn’t have any matts or anything. The next time I take him in, I’m going to make sure I mention to her not to cut it so short there. He’s not used to that and he certainly didn’t like it that short. It was a couple of days before he stopped licking, what can only be described as, long stubble.