Pets are much loved members of our families. They share our hearts and our homes. Just like any other member of the family, we see to their needs... make sure they are fed well, loved much, and looked after. This often entails trips to a Groomer, particularly if yours is a "non-shedding" breed.
All dogs loose hair... even the "non-shedding" breeds. It just doesn't fall out on the floor and all over your house. Instead, the hair stays on the dog, caught in the rest of the coat. It needs to be brushed/combed out or it will develop into matts. Sure, it's nice to have a non-shedding breed, but the downside is that they require grooming... sometimes, a lot. And, if yours is a "styled" breed... like mine, a Miniature Schnauzer, they require upkeep to stay looking the way they should. To keep the average dog looking reasonably like their breed, they need to be groomed every 6 weeks.
For those dogs that shed, there are differences there, too. Some dogs have a "single coat" and some dogs have a "double coat" (both an outer coat and an undercoat). Some dogs will shed consistently throughout the year, and some are considered to be "seasonal shedders". They go through a major "blow" of their coat twice a year... Spring and Fall. Their hair clumps and they will develop tufts of hair if it's not raked out. It's amazing how much coat a dog can lose during these times. It's everywhere! Up your nose and throughout the house. During these times it helps to have a professional grooming to get rid of the excess hair somewhere else.
Then, there is the fact that dogs are animals, after all. It doesn't make us love them any less, but it does make us wonder sometimes at the times they do... like rolling in smelly things, tangling with skunks, and other disgusting pastimes. Sometimes, a bath is in order.
There is also regular upkeep to dogs... keeping their toe nails trimmed, their ears plucked, and perhaps the hair in between their toes to trim... so they don't track everything in the house.
Yes... there are lots of reasons to take your dog to a Groomer. A well-groomed pet is a welcomed pet. And, having a regular grooming schedule makes things far easier on the dog. If things are left too long, and the coat gets too matted, it's almost impossible to not cause some discomfort to the dog during grooming. The dog learns to dislike grooming, often with good cause.
 A badly matted dog |
 The matts come off in one big, felted "rug" |
Pet Grooming... What can I expect?
Grooming your pet takes time. Unless it's something very straightforward, like only a toe nail trim, you will be asked to leave the dog for a few hours. The average well-maintained dog takes 2 - 3 hours to groom through, trim the toe nails, pluck the ears, bath, blow dry, and style. On the other hand, it may take much longer if the dog's coat has been neglected. Clipping matted dogs is not like shearing sheep. A sheep's fleece does not matt to the skin like a dog's coat will. It can be very tedious work to get underneath matts in a badly matted dog. In such a case, the only option is to completely shave the dog bald. I refuse to put a dog through a lot of dematting if the owner won't keep up with the grooming afterwards. It's just not fair to the dog.
At the moment, A Cut Above only operates evenings and weekends. It is a side-line business to my full-time job. Please understand. I will try my best to accomodate you, but there is only so many hours in a day. I would encourage you to make your appointments well in advance so you won't be dissapointed. Certain times are especially busy for a Groomer, like before Christmas, for example.
My grooming shop is well set up for handling dogs. I have professional equipment, including:
What about cats and other furry creatures?
The majority of the grooming business is definitely dogs. I can, and have, groomed cats, and even a rabbit once, but they need to be scheduled separately. I do have restraint equipment for cats, but if they are violently opposed to it, the "cat's out of the bag" so to speak. I'm willing to try but sometimes, depending on the cat and what needs doing, at the veterinarian office under sedation is a better choice.
A Cut Above - how it came to be... I have been grooming dogs since I was a young teenager. I remember picking and choosing my babysitting jobs based on the dogs the family had, and their grooming needs... not the children! My family always had dogs when I was growing up, but my first very own dog was a Miniature Schnauzer that my parents bought for me when I was about 12 years old. Poor Mitzi... she suffered the slings and arrows of my steep learning curve. However, as I got better, friends and neighbours started asking me to groom their dogs and so it developed. As a married adult, I opened my first "grooming side-line business" in 1984, in the basement of our home in Swan River MB. As the word got out, I found it was too much for the basement and my husband and I opened a dog grooming and boarding kennel on our acreage. It was called Kereluik's Kennel and Klip. My husband looked after the kennel during the day, and I did grooming on weekends and evenings. It was a successful business but it was put on hiatus in 1995 after my divorce. I just felt I could not do a proper job of running it on my own with two young children to raise. I sold the business, changed back to my maiden name, and moved into town with my kids. A condition of sale was that I not re-open another grooming business for two years. I negotiated to keep 15 clients... those that had special needs dogs and/or my closest friend's dogs. I could not advertize or take on any new clients, which I abided by. After the two years I re-opened under the name of "A Cut Above". I was back to grooming in my home, where I had converted a bedroom into my shop. I remarried. Grooming was still just a side-line, with a view to turning it into a full-time job after I retired. This went well until 2007, when I was transferred with my "real" job, as a Public Health Inspector, to Dauphin, MB. Which brings things up to date. Currently, A Cut Above still operates as a side-line business. My husband and I are living on an acreage just north of the City of Dauphin. There was a single-car garage on the property which we turned in my grooming shop. For a time, while extensive renovations were being done to the house, we had to live in the grooming shop. I had to postpone the opening of the grooming business until we could move into the house. My plan is still to operate full-time after retirement from my Government job in 2012. In the interim, things will be busy.
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