And by knotty, I mean matted!

We had two dogs in for grooming at the kennels yesterday - a golden retriever and a westie.

The golden was muddy but mostly okay - but she had some nasty mats on the inside of her thighs.  In the end I had to buzz them off - poor girl was in a lot of pain despite my best efforts at removing them painlessly, so the clippers were the only option.  She was a lot happier for it though, and had ample feathers to hide the little shaven bits!

The westie, though, was in full coat - the owner had said when he dropped the dogs off that the golden's neck was a bit knotty, as were the westie's legs.  Actually, the golden's neck was fine, and the westie's legs were fine - only one little knot that came out with a slicker brush - but the long hair on his back was horribly matted :( I did manage to un-mat him though, and he went home sparkling white with all his coat intact, and I went home with an extra fiver!

It just annoyed me though, the guy was telling me when he booked them in over the phone how the westie (called geoffrey!) was miserable with the snow because it stuck to his fur - he was probably miserable because it pulled on his mats.  He did have some bad ones on in his bum feathers and under his tail.  It's not like it's that difficult to run a brush over such a little dog once a day - he was very tolerant of me brushing him as well, although I did have to muzzle him briefly to dry his face (not impressed with the dryer at all!), so it isn't much of a hardship, surely?  Annoyingly, they picked the dogs up, paid and left so quickly I didn't get a chance to ask them how often they brushed Geoffrey + Honey (the golden), or what with, but they've been before and were so impressed with little Geoff that hopefully they'll come again before I move, so I'll have a word then.  Really narked off about it though - aside from the state of the dogs, it also meant a stupidly long shift for me - by the time I'd finished them, bathed a boarding dog (little whippet X collie, muddy lunatic!) and let the dogs out for the last time, it was 10pm. ARG!

I used to get a lowchen in for grooming that was an ex-show dog and was an absolute angel to do, he would never dream of even growling at you no matter what you did, but was always matted solid and it eventually p****d me off so much that I made the family stay and watch to see what the poor dog had to go through to be dematted every time.  They always said he was part of the family so I asked would they not brush their daughters hair either for 8 weeks at time then!!!  Funnily enough he was never as matted after that, not perfect but at least they made an effort :rolleyes:

I must say that sometimes I am so annoyed at the owners that I shave their dogs bald, keep the coat or mats and show them to the owner afterwards. They either go to another groomer or the dogs are done more regularly when you do that!!

Dapple