08/11/2024
Archie 💙
This may be a bit long but I am so proud of Archie (and his family!)
Archie started coming to me when he was a puppy when I first opened 3 years ago, and he was so good for being groomed! He can be quite an anxious boy at times in general however when it came to grooming I never had any issues. Until September last year…
During his groom in September 2023, Archie suddenly decided he had an aversion to his face being touched while being groomed. He would show me his teeth and would snap at me, there was never any growls but he was communicating he wasn’t happy 😓 I spoke to his mum, and we decided to ask Kate from Ruff Mutts to come to a grooming appointment to see what she thought as she had had sessions with Archie and his family for his anxiety outside of the salon.
Kate attended Archie’s next groom where she seen the issues I was having and we spoke to his mum and came up with a plan, which was essentially going right back to basics to rebuild up his confidence 💪
To begin with, Archie came for bi-weekly sessions with me in January of this year, just to spend time with me in the salon. Then Kate started coming to the salon for sessions. Archie at one point was coming weekly for an hour where we would break down the whole groom into small chunks, he spent most this time leaving with some very questionable grooms 🤣
However, Archie was still struggling with different parts of the groom, and it was hard to pinpoint exactly what it was as one week he would have an issue with his ears being groomed, but the following week it would be his feet, he wasn’t consistent with what parts he didn’t like and was confusing both myself and Kate 🙄🤣
We spoke to his mum and we decided to try some light sedation to see if that would take the edge off, and it did….. The first dose was slightly too strong for Archie and he just wanted to sit down or lie down the whole time which made it actually harder to groom him 😂 So we attempted a different lighter dose which was a success which was in August of this year.
In September I groomed Archie for the first time in a long time without Kate and we had no issues whatsoever! 💙
This week he came in for another groom (photo below) and again 0 issues! Archie’s dose is low, but it takes the edge off for him to cope with being groomed. Although it may not be the best groom in the world, what’s more important is that Archie is happy ☺️
A massive thank you to Kate for her help, and a huge well done to Archie’s family for putting in the work at home inbetween sessions 💙 it wasn’t a quick or easy fix (which most times it never is!) but we got there in the end 🥰
Fully Qualified iPet Network Level 3 Dog Groomer based in Balthane, Ballasalla
