It’s your dog's birthday and you schedule a grooming appointment for him to be pampered as a treat. In your mind, the dog will be fussed over, get treats and look and smell lovely when you bring him back home. The reality for the dog however is slightly different. 

Grooming can be a tiring experience for dogs as it can be a lengthy process where they have to pay attention to the groomer and are focused for a prolonged period of time, an hour and a half on average. And if you think about how a short walk or a 15 minute training session exhausts your dog, you can imagine what an hour and a half of grooming does to their energy levels. That said, dogs who get groomed regularly are used to the process and find it easy to tolerate, they trust the groomer as they’re used to them and know that it’s not a scary experience. 

Another common misconception about grooming is that if the dog is used to a hair dryer and home bathing they’ll be fine in the groomers. Bathing experience with a stranger in an unfamiliar environment is different from that at home. And a hair dryer is relatively quiet in comparison to a salon grade high velocity dryer. We don’t call it a “blaster dryer” for no reason!

There are always elements of grooming that dogs find unpleasant and difficult to withstand such as nail clipping and blaster drying for most. And there are elements that they like such as towel drying with a big fluffy towel, a gentle massage and even brushing. The key for your dog to enjoy or at the very least tolerate grooming is to get them to the groomer's as puppies when no hair clipping is needed. What your groomer does then is basically start with training them to stand still on the grooming table, introducing scissors and clippers and just generally builds their tolerance of the various elements of grooming. And what really helps of course is lots of practice at home.

And if you have an older dog that has never been professionally groomed, make sure you take it easy and keep your expectations low. Even if your dog is confident and curious about new things, spending an hour with a stranger in a strange environment being handled in ways they haven't been before, can be overwhelming at the least. And it may take a few visits before they'll be ready for a full groom. I am a huge believer in taking it slowly and making sure your dog has a nice experience rather than pushing the dog to achieve a desired style for whatever cost.

All in all, a trip to the groomers can be a nice experience for your pup but only with a little planning and training to make sure grooming is just another part of their life.