[TaylorK21]

We have had our 16 month old Bichon Frise X Maltese since she was 4 months old. Since getting her we have been using the same groomer. She has never liked the groomers but was always well behaved. In the summer we took her and the groomer called us to pick her up as she had been snapping at the groomer whilst getting her face done. The groomer was really kind and said to bring her back in a few weeks, which we did, her face wasn’t done this time and she was really well behaved. We booked her in and she was due to go yesterday, the appointment was cancelled and when I called today to reschedule, the groomer said that she had spoken to her manager and they think it’s best we take our pup to the vets to get sedated for a groom every 12 weeks. We are very uncomfortable doing that to her every 12 weeks, seems a bit cruel to her. Apart from when her face is being done she is really well behaved at the groomers, however it sounds like the groomer doesn’t want her back. Is there anything else we can try or give her before going down the route of sedation… it just seems to us like a very dramatic thing to do if it’s just her face she doesn’t like being done. We can work around it, of course we don’t want anyone to get injured or stress our pup out but sedation seems a lot.
Any recommendations on what we can try first before going down this route? Any help is much appreciated! Thank you

 

[Buzzu2]

Hello:
Have you considered CBD oil?

 

[PoppyKenna]

Is it just her face that she has problems with? That can be a sensitive area, and it's not uncommon.

You can definitely try to counter condition her to having her face touched and then groomed. Start really small - just a quick, gentle touch and then a yummy treat. Rinse and repeat. When she's expecting a treat after a touch, move on to touching her face with a soft object, then just touching with a comb, then a quick comb, etc. Always follow a touch with a treat, and make sure that when you start combing you are gentle and don't hit a snag.

I wonder too if you could call around to other groomers and see if they have suggestions, and if any have experience grooming a face sensitive dog. I know around here there are groomers that will take on dogs that aren't always the best behaved.

Some dogs do need sedation for grooming, but those are usually extreme and dangerous cases - a "snap" doesn't warrant it unless it's more severe than they let on.

 

[TaylorK21]

Is it just her face that she has problems with? That can be a sensitive area, and it's not uncommon.

You can definitely try to counter condition her to having her face touched and then groomed. Start really small - just a quick, gentle touch and then a yummy treat. Rinse and repeat. When she's expecting a treat after a touch, move on to touching her face with a soft object, then just touching with a comb, then a quick comb, etc. Always follow a touch with a treat, and make sure that when you start combing you are gentle and don't hit a snag.

I wonder too if you could call around to other groomers and see if they have suggestions, and if any have experience grooming a face sensitive dog. I know around here there are groomers that will take on dogs that aren't always the best behaved.

Some dogs do need sedation for grooming, but those are usually extreme and dangerous cases - a "snap" doesn't warrant it unless it's more severe than they let on.

Thank you! It is just her face she has an issue with and it was just a little snap. The groomer said that she didn’t snap straight away, she made a noise about it first and then snapped but it wasn’t at the groomer, it was the scissors that she snapped at. The rest of her body, including her bottom, she is fine with and will let you do.
It doesn’t even seem to be the groomer that had an issue because she said to bring her back and they’ll start slow and reintroduce her to grooming. She said she spoke to her manager and it was her managers recommendation… the groomer was happy to have her back and to keep working with her, she’s been going there for over a year so we don’t want to change things up if we can avoid it!
Thank you for your help and advise

 

[Madra Anamchara]

I agree with PoppyKenna that you can work this out with the dog by doing some de-sensitizing with her on a daily basis. I would never agree that the best solution was to sedate her for grooming. Unless the dog were to be put under entirely (which would be bad for the dog's health), the dog would still have some ides what was going on and it could actually make her hate the whole concept of going to the groomer at all. Something happened at the groomer, I suspect, and that caused this to happen. I am not bashing the groomer - it might have been something very mild - but your dog having this reaction suddenly didn't come out of nowhere. It's not necessarily even something the groomer did at all; sometimes a dog will see or hear something that causes them to make an association and consequently be fearful of something entirely unrelated. In any case, careful work with the dog will very likely fix this problem, to everyone's benefit. Best of luck!