Tail Talk Grooming Chronicles with Hound Therapy

The Real Price of Pretty Paws & Coats

• Shannon & Tanya • Episode 11

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Why Your Dogs Haircut Is More Expensive Than Yours

Ever wondered why your furry friend's spa day costs more than your salon visit? Shannon and Tanya from Hound Therapy pull back the curtain on professional pet grooming in this eye-opening conversation that reveals the true complexity behind those perfectly trimmed paws and shiny coats.

The sticker shock you might experience at the groomer actually reflects a comprehensive package of services. While your hairstylist focuses solely on your locks, pet groomers provide full-body care including nail trimming, ear cleaning, sanitary area maintenance, and bathing—all while managing unpredictable animals that don't understand the concept of sitting still. As Shannon humorously points out, "Hopefully you don't poop on your hairdresser or pee on them." These professional pet stylists work in challenging conditions, managing multiple animals in environments filled with dryers, clippers, and constant movement.

What truly separates pet grooming from human salon services is the health monitoring aspect. Groomers examine your pet's skin for issues, check for parasites, identify unusual lumps or bumps, and notice changes that might indicate health concerns. They often see your pet more frequently than veterinarians do, serving as frontline observers who can alert you to potential problems before they become serious. This comprehensive approach requires specialized equipment—quality scissors and clippers costing hundreds of dollars—plus the expertise to handle different breeds, temperaments, and health conditions.

Join us for this enlightening discussion that transforms how you'll view your groomer's services. And mark your calendars for July 19th when Operation Kindness brings adorable puppies to Hound Therapy for an adoption event from 11am to 2pm. Ready to schedule your pet's next grooming appointment? Call 469-367-0009 or visit www.houndtherapy.com to book today!

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:

Ever wondered why a trip to the groomer costs more than your own haircut? There's a lot more going on behind the scenes than just a trim. Let's break it all down. Welcome back everyone. I'm Sofia Yvette, the co-host, slash producer, back in the studio with Shannon and Tanya, professional groomers at Hound Therapy. Shannon and Tanya, how are you both today? We're excellent. How are you? I'm also doing good. Now, this is going to be a fun episode. I think people are going to be surprised when they hear everything that goes into a professional dog grooming session. So tell us, why is your dog's haircut more expensive than yours?

Speaker 3:

Well, the first one is your haircut doesn't include a mani and a pedi.

Speaker 4:

There's that, and hopefully you don't go eight weeks in between washing your hair. Hopefully, I mean I can see a week in advance your hairdresser doesn't wash your butt. Hopefully you probably sit advance. Your hairdresser doesn't wash your butt. Hopefully you probably sit still for your hairdresser. Dogs here do not. So unless you're grooming, you know two-year-olds, or if you're a two-year-old child that doesn't like to get groomed, it's difficult to hold them down your hairdresser doesn't have to deal with biting or people walking in or falling. You know pooping.

Speaker 3:

Hopefully you don't poop at your hopefully you don't poop on your hairdresser or pee on them.

Speaker 4:

And hopefully you don't bite them. So doing your hair is is going in. We get a lot of people that will come in and say, oh gosh, you know, it's just so expensive. Well, I get that and it's. It's multiply so if you have multiple dogs. But if you have teenage daughters, you know it's expensive to do hair. If you have highlights and cuts, it's expensive. But you go in. You are on a regular basis. You usually show up with hair that's prepped and ready to go. If you don't, you should be doing that. Do not show up to your hairdresser after going to a mud bath and expect them to comb that out for you. It's not fair. That is what we get. We do nails, we grind the nails, we cut the nails, we are cleaning the hair off from behind the pads. We're doing literally all the private parts under their ears.

Speaker 3:

We're inspecting their skin Like you know, my hairdresser's never cleaned my ears.

Speaker 4:

How about we check the skin for moles, ticks and fleas?

Speaker 3:

Or lumps and bumps that you might not have even known they're there. That are something to consult your vet about.

Speaker 4:

So there's a lot of things that we do here on top of a haircut, and then we wash them, we dry them, we blow them out and then we cut them again just to make sure that it's good. So we've got to prep and dry all of that hair, and most people have, even if you have very long, long hair, unless you're getting, you know, braids or a weave put in or you know, if you're not sitting for something other than just a normal haircut or a highlight that takes a couple of hours, it's got chemicals that are processing. We do do dog coloring here too, and I can tell you that that is exponentially more money because of the amount of time that the color takes to sit on your hair. Most hairdressers also don't, do you know? They're doing one person at a time. We've got, you know, two or three, but doing one dog from start to finish, it's a massive amount of time and we've got a lot of real estate we've got to cover, and the smaller the dog, the harder the dog, because our clippers are at least, you know, eight to nine inches long, and if your dog is only three inches long, it's hard to get your equipment up underneath there. So we also wrestle. I mean, we are a lot of things, we do a lot of different roles in here. You know we've we've got a whole lot that is involved with keeping your dog safe and keeping us safe, and things happen.

Speaker 4:

I, you know, I was a barber for a long time. I've nicked some ears. I've I've gotten some things done at the hairdresser, but those risks are pretty minimal because you're, you're still for us it's a lot more inevitable that something may or may not happen because we've got moving animals and people coming in and out and people walking back and forth. We're not in a controlled environment, in a salon that is, you know, doesn't have a lot of things going around. We've got loud dryers going on.

Speaker 4:

I did two dogs today that have, oh gosh, I don't know, probably seven or eight inches of hair that we have to brush and dry all four legs, ears, head, tail, um, and, you know, do their nails, get their pads done, and then I have to get them to stand still so that I can scissor that all over. The entire dog has to be scissored. So I mean it's. It takes me at least three to four hours just just for that one dog. And that's that's me, I'm pretty quick. You know it would take some groomers only do four and five dogs all day. Um, I can do A lot of those dogs but I can't do a lot of them at one time because it's you know, if you let them sit and drive, if anybody like me, I have curly hair. So if you have curly hair and you let it dry without brushing it out, you ain't going to get a comb.

Speaker 4:

It's not going to look good. You better get a braid, because it's going to be frizzy and flowy.

Speaker 3:

We do a lot of stuff and a lot of stuff, and a lot of it is the tools too. Like, none of the tools we use on said dog is cheap. I mean you're looking at two to $400 for scissors.

Speaker 4:

Clippers are a good 400. Special brushes you know the, the, the, everything that you would your brush for you is. You know you have one and hopefully your, your stylist has. You know the, the, the, everything that you would your brush for you is. You know you have one, um, and hopefully your, your stylist has. You know two or three, or you know two or three of their capes are clean. Again, we're unregulated.

Speaker 4:

So here at home therapy, uh, we do barberside, all of our you know equipment and our brushes. You know we clean the hair and stuff out of them. But I've worked with some, some barbers and some haircutting people that never clean their stuff and they use the same brush on everybody. So, ew, and they had to go to a class that learns how to clean and disinfect. So disinfecting every single one of those, that's another thing. It's, you know we want to. We don't want to pass disease on from one animal to another. So you know we've got to. We've got to buy disinfectant and bleach and we've got to clean our homes and our brushes in between each one of those dogs. And you know, if you've got fleas, you know we've got to sit and wait. If you've got special shampoos, we've got to sit and wait. So it's.

Speaker 4:

There's a whole lot that goes in here. I mean, we are hairstylists. Where what do you call it? What are those people that look at your skin? Dermatologists? We're dermatologists, we're doctors. You know a lot of people ask us medical questions. Can you look at what's this buff on my dog? What's over there, over his eye? Hey, can you pick this out? Why are his eyes?

Speaker 3:

so gross? Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 4:

You know we're, but we do know, because we see dogs every day, probably more often than most vets see them. Now we do not have the extra 12 years of school. We are not vets, um, but we are pretty good at recognizing um, if there's an actual problem.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, and what's not normal, right, or certain smells that you know give off. Um, you know, looking inside your dog's ears, you know it's like where, where, where are the barrier between everything on your dog? From the time that you see your vet, which is usually once a year, you hopefully are seeing your groomers, at least you know, quarterly, depending on what kind of dog you have, but anywhere from a six to eight week period. So we're pretty, we're pretty versed on what your dog looks like and what your dog has, and what looks normal for your dog and what doesn't. So hopefully that explains some of it.

Speaker 3:

That's why your dog's haircut is more expensive than yours.

Speaker 2:

Understood Well. Tanya and Shannon, thank you so much for this great conversation. Thanks for shedding light on all the works that go into grooming and to our listeners.

Speaker 4:

We'll see you next time for more pet care do have another quick, if we can add july 19th we are having um operation kindness, I believe operation kindness and their own bus. They're amazing. They're doing an adoption event here at our location From 11 to 2. And they bring puppies. When I say puppies, they bring the cutest puppies and they are all like six months and under puppy puppies. So if you just need, a puppy fix. Come out and check out our adoption event.

Speaker 2:

Awesome, awesome. Well, tanya and Shannon, that was such a great conversation. Thanks for shedding light on all the works that go into grooming and to our listeners. We'll see you next time for more pet care insights. Fantastic, have a great day.

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.