Behind the Scenes of Professional Pet Grooming: Expectations and Honest Experiences

What To Expect From Your Groomer?

Finding the perfect groomer for your furry family member can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. How do you know who will truly care for your pet with the same love and attention you provide at home? Shannon and Tanya, professional groomers at Hound Therapy, pull back the curtain on what quality pet grooming really looks like.

The duo starts by emphasizing the cornerstone of excellent grooming: honesty and transparency. They candidly discuss how accidents can happen when working with live animals and sharp tools, but what truly matters is how those situations are handled. A quality groomer owns their mistakes, explains what happened, and implements changes to prevent recurrences. This level of accountability builds the trust that's essential between pet parents and grooming professionals.

Beyond technical skills, Shannon and Tanya reveal how they approach pets with anxiety or traumatic backgrounds. Through a touching story about helping a severely matted rescue doodle with no socialization experience, they demonstrate the patience, teamwork, and specialized approaches that make a difference for vulnerable animals. They explain their "tailored groom" philosophy - adapting their techniques, timing, and environment to match each pet's unique needs rather than forcing every animal through a standardized process. Whether it's a "rush groom" completed within an hour or a more gradual approach for anxious pets, the focus remains on creating positive experiences.

Ready to experience the Hound Therapy difference? Call to schedule your pet's next appointment and discover grooming built on their motto: "humanity over vanity."

To learn more about Hound Therapy visit:
https://www.HoundTherapy.com
Hound Therapy
3509 E Park Blvd.
Plano, TX
469-367-0009

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Tail Talk Grooming Chronicles with Hound
Therapy, the podcast where wetalk all things pet grooming,
daycare academy and more.
Hosted by Shannon and Tanya ofHound Therapy serving pet owners
across North Texas, we're hereto share expert tips, hilarious
pet stories and the inside scoopon keeping your furry friends

(00:25):
happy and healthy.
Our motto humanity over vanity.
And don't worry, we don't bite.
Let's get started.
Who let the dogs out?
Who let the dogs out?

Speaker 2 (00:41):
Thinking of booking your pet's first grooming
session or switching salons?
Here's what you should expectfrom your grooming professional
and how to ensure a positiveexperience for your pet.
Welcome back everyone.
I'm Sofia Yvette, co-host slashproducer, back in the studio
with Shannon and Tanya,professional groomers at Hound

(01:02):
Therapy.
Shannon and Tanya, how's itgoing today?
Good, thank you.
How are you?
I'm doing great also, and thatis great to hear.
We're excited to have you backin the studio and your listeners
would love to know about whatto expect from your groomer.

Speaker 3 (01:23):
You want to start?
Sure, my biggest thing of whatI would want from a groomer of
my choice I would want them tobe very honest.
I understand that.
You know mistakes do happen.
We are working on live movinganimals with sharp objects.
Accidents happen.
I would want a groomer thatwould own their mistake, Like,

(01:44):
yes, this happened, this is howit happened and here's how we
grow from it.
We'll make sure it won't happenagain.
That's what, that's the mainthing I would expect from a
groomer of my choice.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
A lot of people are not forthcoming.
We're very honest here.
So if your dog acts up, I'mgoing to tell you.
We're going to give you sometips.
We do a lot of dog training inhere, not training as in sit,
stay, come, but how to stand ona table and to get your nails
done, how to react for the dryer, what good behavior is on the
grooming table.
We don't want you to leave,especially if you've got a puppy

(02:17):
.
You want to leave here and goanother state or another groomer
and they're like oh my God, whyis your dog so awful?
Well, they're not.
They're going to be greatbecause we're going to teach
them that grooming isn't bad.
I would suggest that if you'relooking for a new groomer, that
you come see how therapy.
But if you're looking andyou're not sure where to look,
online is great.

(02:37):
Check the reviews Yelp reviews,google reviews.
We have neighborhood apps.
Ask a friend coworkers, youknow where do you go with your
dog?
Good, common, just organicreferrals are usually great.
The bigger box chains areharder to find.
Not that you can't find goodgrooming shops there, but they
have a set box concept and notevery dog fits into that box.

(02:59):
So here we do a lot of olderdogs, we do some aggressive dogs
, we do dogs that can't stand up, we do puppies, we do rescue
dogs, we do all kinds of thingshere and we tailor that groom to
each dog.
We have an open conceptgrooming here.
That means that we have a playarea where dogs can play and
they're vetted so that we knowwho plays with who.

(03:21):
They have their own little dogfriends and we hear all the time
oh my God, we pull around thecorner and they know they're
coming here.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
Or you can hear them when they pull into the parking
lot.
You can hear their dog barkingin their car.

Speaker 4 (03:33):
So those are some good concepts.
Your dog's reaction whenthey're coming back to your
thing, when they're walking intoa place.
Dogs are very perceptive andyou know they can pick up on a
good vibe Smell.
We smell like a dog groomingshop in here.
We do dogs but we clean, weclean every day, we disinfect
every day.
Not all shops do Hair on thefloor is a big, you know, other

(03:55):
than just normal grooming hair.
But if it's piled and stacked,if there's carpet, if there's
things that are stationary,things that you can't clean up
underneath, things get peed onhere.
You know dogs pee in hereregularly, on a daily.
You want to be able to seewithin sight pretty much
everything and if you ask if youcan't some shops aren't set up
that way and that's okay youshould be able to ask your

(04:17):
groomer.
You know, can I come back todayand just I just want to peek at
your salon.
Can I see the bathing place?
Can I see where your dogs are?
If they say no, like yourkennel area, that's a problem.
You can come into our salon atany time and we do tours all the
time.
You know we groom behind glassvery much like a big box store,
but you can see we have no doors.
You need to be able to have aline of sight.

(04:39):
So your basic common sightsmell, reactions, right?
Just your three basic things.
And if you're looking for atrial, come in, bring your dog
in.
Maybe have them do a nail trimor do a bath without a big clip.
Something that's light, so thatyou know.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
And you can kind of fill out the situation before
you leave them there for howeverlong that specific grooming
place asks for a groom.

Speaker 4 (05:04):
We typically get our dogs in and out within a four
hour time period.
We don't want dogs here all day.
We're not a boarding facility,so we're not going to feed them
or water them.
If we have to.
We do have a place that we canwalk, but we are focused
primarily on getting them in andgetting them out so that they
can get home for you.

Speaker 2 (05:21):
Now getting into the psychology of the pet a little
bit more.
How can a groomer support a petwith anxiety or a history of
trauma?

Speaker 4 (05:31):
We see a lot of that every day.
We have a dog in here todayactually.
We work with some rescue groupsand it's a year, maybe a year
old, doodle matted just to thebone and she's got probably six
inches of hair all over.
She didn't want to walk in andshe's not used to being on a
leash.
Right now she's a littleanxious.
I took two of us somebody tohold her head and talk to her,
another person we picked her upand carried her in here and now

(05:54):
she's walking on a leash.
So, being able to go slow, takeyour time, meet the needs of
your animal If they're anxiousand shy and you go up and pet
them high and you go up and petthem High-pitched voices are
good From a groomer's standpoint.
People will see me often with adog.
My eyes are closed and I'mcounting one, two three Like.
I chose this, I chose this, Ichose this career.

Speaker 3 (06:13):
I love my job.

Speaker 4 (06:13):
I love my job Because there are some dogs that are
more trying than others.
They honestly, every single oneof those dogs I can't tell you
how many dogs that we've come inhere and they have been
terrified, cut at other places,left dropped off.
This particular dog was left bya breeder, so she's got little
to none experience.
Yeah, no social.

(06:34):
No, no social experience at all.
So socializing your dogs is akey for us, but for here,
something that we do is is wejust tailor our grooms for your
dog and your pet?
Uh, I, it's explained for me.
However, you know we have X, y,z times that it should take us
to do a dog, and if your dogtakes longer time, we may charge

(06:57):
more for that, but that'sbecause we're not grooming other
dogs.
We're focusing our time and ourattention on a dog that needs
it.
So we tailor, groom, andsometimes we'll do them straight
through.
Our attention on a dog thatneeds it, so we tailor, groom,
and sometimes we'll do themstraight through.
We do a rush groom where theycome in, they get roughed in,
they go to the bathtub, they getdried, they get groomed, they
go home all within the hour.
So I have people that wait, Ihave people that will stay.

(07:20):
It's really very tailored towhat you're doing.
Owners, staying with the dog isnot always helpful.
Yeah, it sometimes can make thedog more anxious because their
human is anxious.

Speaker 3 (07:30):
And that or the dog's .
Like mom saved me.

Speaker 4 (07:34):
Don't let this person do this to me.
Oh my gosh, you see she'stouched me here and I'm like,
yeah, he'll be fine, becausethey've got to learn.
Your kids are always better forother people than they are for
you, and it's the same concepthere.
When you leave, they're likeI'm the best dog ever.
I do everything awesome.
I play with the toys, I eat mysnacks, I stand on the table.

(07:54):
You can brush my ears all day.
Yeah, you want to do that to myfeet?
Go right ahead.
My dad touches my feet.
I bite his fingers, so it'sit's.
You know.
They know what they could getaway with at home and they know
that here.
They're like nope, I love you,it's good, it's okay, no bad

(08:14):
behavior allowed.
Yeah, you're gonna get a goodtalking to well as always.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
Shannon andanya, thank you for sharing this very
valuable information with thelisteners today.
We'll catch you in the nextepisode.
Have a fantastic rest of yourday.
You do the same, thanks.

Speaker 1 (08:39):
That's a wrap for this episode of Tail Talk with
Hound Therapy.
Ready to book your pet's nextgroom daycare stay or grooming
academy tour?
Call us at 469-367-0009.
That's 469-367-0009 to schedulean appointment, or visit us
online at wwwhoundtherapycom.

(09:02):
Serving North Texas with expertpet care.
Until next time, keep thosetails wagging.