I saw Hair of the Dog on facebook and saw that the lady (Lorraine) was in the Oldham area so quite local. After reading some of the comments on her page, everybody seemed to speak very highly of her so I decided to make an appointment. The beauty of this dog groomer is that she comes to your home so already the dog is a lot more relaxed as its in their comfort zone etc.
I booked the appointment for 5pm on a Thursday as it needed to be after I finished work. Lorraine arrived promptly set up her table and equipment in the kitchen, where the floor can be swept so thought this would be easier. She immediately started to let Bonnie (my dog) get to know her and picked her up at the earliest opportunity. My dog is very soft when she thinks something bad is going to happened and immediately started to yelp even though I could clearly see she wasn't being hurt or anything. This didn't phase Lorraine she simply held her quietly for a while until she was used to her and then put her on the grooming table.
She has a table with a metal arm thing that comes over the top of the dog with a couple of loops that she can hook straps into. A loop was placed under her rear end to keep her upright and hooked in place and another loosely around her neck to try and keep her from moving about too much or falling off the table.
As this was her first time I stayed with Bonnie and held her head so she could see me the whole time and I could talk to her to keep her calm. I was expecting Bonnie to be really agitated and maybe try and bight Lorraine, as my mum had told me she had been really aggressive at the last dog groomers. I don't know whether is was a combination of being at home with me and that Lorraine was realty good with her but she didn't make half the fuss I thought she would. Obviously she didn't particularly want to be there but she put up with it either way.
After Lorraine had trimmed her down quite short (which she needed as she had become very knotted and matted in places) she then took her upstairs and bathed her. Bonnie was kept in place with a leash around her neck that had a rubber cup sucker thing that stuck to the bath. She was also able to tidy bits up while she was in the bath and less likely to wriggle about. The shampoo was a lovely banana scent which smelt lovely and clean. I also noticed Lorraine had put the solution into a squeezy washing up liquid type bottle so it was easier to apply to the relevant areas instead of trying to tip up a bottle of shampoo whilst holding the dog in place (a Tip I will be adopting for bath times :-) ).
Once towelled dry she was back on the table and blown dry which she doesn't mind so much. When she was dry Lorraine then tidied up her face and paws as best she could. But this time Bonnie was pretty restless as in all it had taken 3 hours.
Bonnie is also really paw shy and constantly pulls away but Lorraine even managed to get them done, including her pads AND clip her nails which I thought would be impossible. She also has problems with her ears which I explained to Lorraine so she showed me how to clean them really easily with ear cleaning solution on cotton wool balls. I am going to carry on doing this regularly now as Bonnie didn't seem to mind this so much once the ball was in her ear.
I was really pleased with the outcome even though Lorraine was critical of her own work and said she would of liked to get her neatened up more. I think for her first big trim Bonnie had been patient enough so I was happy for her to leave her as she was.
I was expecting to pay around £30 as I think Pets at home charge £28 and especially since Lorraine had to come to me I thought it would of been more. But the whole thing cost £18 so I gave her £25 as I thought it had been well worth it. She even finished her off with some spray that left her smelling like Baby Powder which was lovely.
I intend to make another appointment sooner than needed so that Bonnies gets used to having it done and there won't be as muany knots etc this time so it will be a smoother process for both :-)
Thanks Lorraine for a great job. Sadly I couldn't take any pics during the process as I needed to keep Bonnie calm, but next time I get her done I will take come and insert at the relevant parts of the blog.
I did get a couple of before and after pic though:-
The Hair of the dog facebook page is below:-https://www.facebook.com/hairofthedog
