Tail Talk Grooming Chronicles with Hound Therapy

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

• Shannon & Tanya • Episode 7

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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

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Tail Talk Grooming Chronicles with Hound Therapy, the podcast where we talk all things pet grooming, daycare academy and more. Hosted by Shannon and Tanya of Hound Therapy serving pet owners across North Texas, we're here to share expert tips, hilarious pet stories and the inside scoop on keeping your furry friends 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:

Thinking of booking your pet's first grooming session or switching salons? Here's what you should expect from your grooming professional and how to ensure a positive experience for your pet. Welcome back everyone. I'm Sofia Yvette, co-host slash producer, back in the studio with Shannon and Tanya, professional groomers at Hound Therapy. Shannon and Tanya, how's it going today? Good, thank you. How are you? I'm doing great also, and that is great to hear. We're excited to have you back in the studio and your listeners would love to know about what to expect from your groomer.

Speaker 3:

You want to start? Sure, my biggest thing of what I would want from a groomer of my choice I would want them to be very honest. I understand that. You know mistakes do happen. We are working on live moving animals with sharp objects. Accidents happen. I would want a groomer that would own their mistake, Like, yes, this happened, this is how it happened and here's how we grow from it. We'll make sure it won't happen again. That's what, that's the main thing I would expect from a groomer of my choice.

Speaker 4:

A lot of people are not forthcoming. We're very honest here. So if your dog acts up, I'm going to tell you. We're going to give you some tips. We do a lot of dog training in here, not training as in sit, stay, come, but how to stand on a 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. You want to leave here and go another state or another groomer and they're like oh my God, why is your dog so awful? Well, they're not. They're going to be great because we're going to teach them that grooming isn't bad.

Speaker 4:

I would suggest that if you're looking for a new groomer, that you come see how therapy. But if you're looking and you're not sure where to look, online is great. Check the reviews Yelp reviews, google reviews. We have neighborhood apps. Ask a friend coworkers, you know where do you go with your dog? Good, common, just organic referrals are usually great. The bigger box chains are harder to find. Not that you can't find good grooming shops there, but they have a set box concept and not every dog fits into that box. So here we do a lot of older dogs, 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 things here and we tailor that groom to each dog. We have an open concept grooming here. That means that we have a play area where dogs can play and they're vetted so that we know who plays with who. They have their own little dog friends and we hear all the time oh my God, we pull around the corner and they know they're coming here.

Speaker 3:

Or you can hear them when they pull into the parking lot. You can hear their dog barking in their car.

Speaker 4:

So those are some good concepts. Your dog's reaction when they're coming back to your thing, when they're walking into a place. Dogs are very perceptive and you know they can pick up on a good vibe Smell. We smell like a dog grooming shop in here. We do dogs but we clean, we clean every day, we disinfect every day. Not all shops do Hair on the floor is a big, you know, other than just normal grooming hair.

Speaker 4:

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 on here. You know dogs pee in here regularly, on a daily. You want to be able to see within sight pretty much everything and if you ask if you can't some shops aren't set up that way and that's okay you should be able to ask your groomer. You know, can I come back today and 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 your kennel area, that's a problem.

Speaker 4:

You can come into our salon at any time and we do tours all the time. You know we groom behind glass very much like a big box store, but you can see we have no doors. You need to be able to have a line of sight. So your basic common sight smell, reactions, right? Just your three basic things. And if you're looking for a trial, come in, bring your dog in. Maybe have them do a nail trim or do a bath without a big clip. Something that's light, so that you know.

Speaker 3:

And you can kind of fill out the situation before you leave them there for however long that specific grooming place asks for a groom.

Speaker 4:

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 can walk, but we are focused primarily on getting them in and getting them out so that they can get home for you.

Speaker 2:

Now getting into the psychology of the pet a little bit more. How can a groomer support a pet with anxiety or a history of trauma?

Speaker 4:

We see a lot of that every day. We have a dog in here today actually. We work with some rescue groups and it's a year, maybe a year old, doodle matted just to the bone and she's got probably six inches of hair all over. She didn't want to walk in and she's not used to being on a leash. Right now she's a little anxious. I took two of us somebody to hold her head and talk to her, another person we picked her up and carried her in here and now she's walking on a leash. So, being able to go slow, take your time, meet the needs of your animal If they're anxious and shy and you go up and pet them high and you go up and pet them High-pitched voices are good From a groomer's standpoint. People will see me often with a dog. My eyes are closed and I'm counting one, two three Like.

Speaker 4:

I chose this, I chose this, I chose this career.

Speaker 3:

I love my job.

Speaker 4:

I love my job Because there are some dogs that are more trying than others. They honestly, every single one of those dogs I can't tell you how many dogs that we've come in here and they have been terrified, cut at other places, left dropped off. This particular dog was left by a breeder, so she's got little to none experience. Yeah, no social. No, no social experience at all. So socializing your dogs is a key for us, but for here, something that we do is is we just tailor our grooms for your dog and your pet? Uh, I, it's explained for me.

Speaker 4:

However, you know we have X, y, z times that it should take us to do a dog, and if your dog takes longer time, we may charge more for that, but that's because we're not grooming other dogs. We're focusing our time and our attention on a dog that needs it. So we tailor, groom, and sometimes we'll do them straight through. Our attention on a dog that needs it, so we tailor, groom, and sometimes we'll do them straight through. We do a rush groom where they come in, they get roughed in, they go to the bathtub, they get dried, they get groomed, they go home all within the hour. So I have people that wait, I have people that will stay. It's really very tailored to what you're doing. Owners, staying with the dog is not always helpful. Yeah, it sometimes can make the dog more anxious because their human is anxious.

Speaker 3:

And that or the dog's. Like mom saved me.

Speaker 4:

Don't let this person do this to me.

Speaker 4:

Oh my gosh, you see she's touched me here and I'm like, yeah, he'll be fine, because they've got to learn. Your kids are always better for other people than they are for you, and it's the same concept here. When you leave, they're like I'm the best dog ever. I do everything awesome. I play with the toys, I eat my snacks, I stand on the table. You can brush my ears all day. Yeah, you want to do that to my feet? Go right ahead. My dad touches my feet. I bite his fingers, so it's it's. You know. They know what they could get away with at home and they know that here. They're like nope, I love you, it's good, it's okay, no bad behavior allowed.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, you're gonna get a good talking to well as always.

Speaker 2:

Shannon andanya, thank you for sharing this very valuable information with the listeners today. We'll catch you in the next episode. Have a fantastic rest of your day. You do the same, thanks.

Speaker 1:

That's a wrap for this episode of Tail Talk with Hound Therapy. Ready to book your pet's next groom daycare stay or grooming academy tour? Call us at 469-367-0009. That's 469-367-0009 to schedule an appointment, or visit us online at wwwhoundtherapycom. Serving North Texas with expert pet care. Until next time, keep those tails wagging.