Stress-Less Grooming

Little Monty travels quite far for his visits, so Barney showed him around the Colzium park after his groom. If you don’t know this area, it’s a great spot for a wander nearby. Although it can be busy! If you’re travelling here and would like any walking suggestions, let me know 🦮🐾🦮

So much love for wee Lola! Today, she let me trim her lady beard—I was delighted since that’s been a trigger for her for a while. Lola’s dad won’t mind me saying, she will bite if I ignore her stop signals, but that’s no reflection on her personality. When Lola feels safe and understood, her true sweet nature shines through. Her journey isn’t easy, but thanks to her family’s commitment with regular short visits, we’ve seen amazing progress! 🐾⭐️

One of my regular faces, sweet girl Pippa. Sadly Pippa suffered an injury to her cruciate ligament, so we have scaled her grooming visits back for a while, doing just her nails, face and hygiene areas as she would allow, while she went through treatment and recovery. Lifting and moving her legs to trim could be painful and it’s not worth the risk of causing her further pain by putting her through a full groom when it’s not absolutely necessary. As we are building her grooming routine back up I’ll keep a really close eye on her for any signs of discomfort and check in with her mum regularly to make sure she isn’t sore after her visits. Pippa is such a jolly wee girl, and I would hate for her to start finding grooming sore and not want to come in! 💛🐾

Max had other things on his mind this weekend… so do you know what we did? His mum and I just sat back and let him do his thing! Two years ago, Max was so guarded over his paws that he would have bitten at the slightest wrong move from me. He’s came on so far it’s amazing, usually having a full nail clip now. But this time, he started showing clear stop signs around his nails again. So what would forcing the issue have achieved? Would it have helped him feel safer next time? Or would it have undone all the progress we’ve made? Instead, we gave him space, let him take a break with his toys, and guess what happened? He came back when he was ready and let me do his nails. This is why I take a choice-based approach—patience and consistency pay off in the long run. Max and a good time and we got what was needed done, plus we preserved all the trust and rapport Max and I have now🐾💙

Lovely Hugo and his mum tried the Bucket Game (by Chirag Patel, Domesticated Manners) as part of his Supported Grooming. Hugo can be anxious around tables and restraints, so we’ve been working on the floor to help him feel safer. Even with tasty distractions, he can still show avoidance at times, but the Bucket Game gave him a focus and a way to tell us when he’s ready. Team work makes the dream work! 💛🐾

Little cutie, Benny, can be quite anxious about grooming. He’s just a year old now, and started coming when he was 6 months old as he was finding grooming difficult. Right on the verge of adolescence and potentially a second ‘fear period’, Benny has really benefitted from a less intensive grooming routine during this time in his development. On his latest visit he did particularly well with his sensitive legs 👌💛

From puppy to teenager 😍lovely Clover the retriever has been coming along for monthly visits building up to her bathing and drying. We’ve been focusing on clover getting in the bath herself, and a choice-based approach for her drying. Working on the floor we can observe her reactions to the drier clearer as she can move away, but she’s happy to sit with me under the drier. Today Clover practised her best patience while I was spacing out her treats a little, moving away from simply distracting her with licking mats. She is growing into a beautiful big lass👏🤩💛

It’s blowin a hoolie out there 💨 A a quick few messages with everyone who was booked in today, we made the decision to close during the red weather warning. No one needs to be out in this weather! There are already some downed trees around here so it was the right decision. I’ll message everyone today with some options for rebooking. For your dogs today, don’t take them out unless you have to, keep them on lead if you do! You can do lots of enrichment indoors to stave off any boredom! This is Barney’s favourite morning walk on our way to work a couple of days ago, but today it’s a duvet day for him 💛 Keep stay everyone!

Some visitors from the last couple of days 😍Figo the Portuguese water dog, Maddie who’s a crossbreed with the thickest coat, Libby the Malti-poo, Teddy the cava-chon, and Murphy my wee westie pal. What a lovely mix of dogs and characters! 🐾💛

Why is it that every time I go to sweep the floor, The Ginger Prince follows me round and stands in the pile? Then he walks off and spreads it everywhere. Every single time. I think he’s enjoying being a bit more involved now, so I don’t mind. Anyone else’s dog like to ‘assist’ them? 😂

I’ve been going through some old grooming videos lately, and I keep coming across clips of my girl Mollie. She absolutely loved rolling around in the long grass, but that meant she was always picking up grass seeds around her ears. Worried they might get embedded in her skin or ears, I taught her a chin rest as a cooperative care technique so I could check her ears regularly without any stress to her. We started with her resting her chin on my hand, and later moved to my knee so I could use both hands to check her ears. It became such a useful skill—we also used it for teeth and gum checks, and even during vet appointments to help build her confidence. Mollie was such a special girl, and working with her on cooperative care wasn’t just helpful—it was a lot of fun, too🥹💛

Thank you all for your kind words, thoughtful gestures, generous gifts, and generally just for being there for me with your dogs! I hope everyone has a peaceful Christmas and a happy new year 🥳💛🎄