murietapawspa.com

Dog grooming can take anywhere between 1 to 6 hours.

The time depends on a number of factors including, but not limited to, your dog’s size, breed, fur texture, fur condition, anxiety level, familiarity with grooming and trust level around new people/pets. For example; a chihuahua groom will take a significantly shorter amount of time than a standard poodle.

We pride ourselves on our patience and understanding with your pets and ask that you offer our staff the same courtesy.

Salon emphasizes appearance, spa emphasizes experience. While appearance is important to our staff, our first priority is the comfort of your pet. Grooming shouldn’t be stressful for your pup, it should be a relaxing, rejuvenating experience that once over, leaves your pet looking great and feeling even better!

The condition your pup comes in prior to the groom makes a big difference in the grooming process. Things like severe matting, impacted hair, fleas, overgrown nails, and more all have different ways of being tackled by our staff and often require special care and attention.

The behavior your pet exhibits also can impact the price. While our staff is trained to handle dogs that may scratch or bite, these behaviors require special attention and handling. We must provide special care for dogs who exhibit signs of high anxiety or aggression.

The age of your pet is a large factor in how we handle your pet. Puppies require special attention in the form of training and desensitizing. Senior dogs require astute observation from our staff in order to make sure they are not pushed past their physical limits.

The breed of your dog plays a large factor in how it’s coat is cared for. A husky, a yorkie, and a poodle all have completely different coats from one another and require different levels or care and technique. This also applies to popular mixed breeds like Golden doodles and cava-poos who, given their mixed nature, have coats that vary drastically from dog to dog.

Finally, the cut and style. Just like with people, the complexity of the hair cut adds to the amount of time and technique that goes into a dog’s groom. A popular misconception is that short hair cuts on dogs take longer and/or cost more than long hair cuts. More often than not, the opposite is true. Maintaining a long, lovely coat requires a great deal more attention than a simple shave.

The best thing you can do for your pet, yourself and our staff is communicate with us. We love pet parents who know what they want. We encourage you to bring photos of pet cuts you like and be as specific as possible! Words that help us understand what you’d like do not have to be “industry terms”.

Some examples of helpful descriptors: round, circle, square, sharp, short, bald, long, flowing, fluffy, etc.

The short answer? We groom different.

Teamwork. Teamwork between our members of staff and your pup. Some dogs need a little extra support, someone to pet their head while another person clips their nails or brushes out a pesky matt. Grooming can be scary for some dogs and we know this, that’s why we work as a unit to comfort your pet through the tough parts and praise them through the easy parts. Groomers do not compete with each other but rather help one another and this improves your pup’s overall experience.

Patience. Your dog is smart. Smart dogs will try every trick in the book to wiggle their way out of experiences they don’t particularly enjoy be it brushing, bathing, shaving or nail clipping. We anticipate that intelligence and work with your pet rather than against it. For example, while many groomers will force a dog to stand the entire groom, fighting against your pet, we allow your pet to sit, stand, spin, even roll over! We don’t allow these actions to hinder our process and rather welcome them. Soon, your pet understands that our staff is not here to fight them allowing your pet and our groomer work together rather than separately.

This depends on three main factors: your dog’s breed, your level of at home grooming, and your preferences regarding your dog’s haircut.

Breed: Short haired breeds (dalmatian, chihuahua, French bulldog, pit-bull, etc.) have far fewer grooming needs than doubled coated (German Shepherds, Aussies, Great Pyrenees, Spaniels, Setters.), wire haired (Yorkie, Jack Russel, Scottish Terriers etc.), and fleece coated (Poodles, Poodle mixes, Schnauzer, etc.) dogs. Please refer to our breed chart for exact estimates.

At-Home-Grooming: Your level of at-home-upkeep can effect how often you need to have your dog professionally groomed. Lack of brushing can lead to matting which is painful for the dog and creates the need for more in-depth and longer grooms with a professional. To prevent this your dog may need to be groomed professionally more often.

Dog’s Haircut: the longer the haircut the more often a dog needs to be groomed to preserve the health of the coat.