Upon settling in our new house in Phoenix (for those of you who don’t know, my dog Hudson and I are now splitting our time between Michigan and Arizona), one of the first things I knew I had to find was a local groomer for Hudson (because of his breed, he requires regular haircuts).
And so, I was delighted when I found a nearby business that advertised dog grooming as one of their services and had great reviews. Interestingly this business also called itself a “dog gym” where dogs could run on treadmills – yes really! (Side note: Although I don’t think a dog treadmill would be Hudson’s thing, I can see how it could be very helpful for high energy breeds).
When I arrived at our appointment time, a man greeted me. He wasn’t very communicative about details and at one point mentioned that he was new there. This perhaps gave me slight pause (paws – har har), but I thought perhaps he had prior experience. I decided to trust all would be fine and left Hudson in his care.
An hour or so later I received a text that Hudson was ready for pick-up. When I showed up, I saw the owner had arrived – a woman! I couldn’t help but be thrilled that this was a woman owned business. It made me want to support them even more.
Unfortunately, because of Hudson’s haircut (or lack thereof), I’ll never go to this business again.
The man, who it seemed had never actually cut a dog’s hair before, had skipped all the parts that might be a challenge for groomers to cut: Hudson’s entire face, his paws, and the bottoms of his legs. The word that comes to mind for Hudson’s haircut: “janky.”
I SO wanted to pull this woman aside and give her some heart-to-heart business owner advice: you can NOT offer a service unless you intend on doing it with excellence.
In other words, if you are going to do a thing, do it well!
Or don’t do it at all.
I decided against doling out unsolicited advice (which – let’s be honest – no one ever appreciates) but must admit, the situation made me a bit sad. In my view, this business owner should stick with the services they know – providing high energy dogs with a place to burn off energy – and leave the grooming to the professionals.
Hopefully at some point she’ll figure this out for herself 🤞
