Six Years After Pandemic Puppies, What Groomers See Now

Six years after the pandemic puppy boom, the dogs are grown and the consequences are finally showing up in grooming salons. We’re Shannon and Tanya from Hound Therapy in North Texas, and with Sophia back in the studio, we get honest about what we’re seeing on our tables: adult dogs who adore their families but feel flooded by car rides, loud dryers, new buildings, and hands on their paws. The challenge isn’t “bad dogs” or “bad owners” so much as a real socialization gap that hit both pets and people during lockdown.

We talk through the long tail of pandemic pet ownership: first-time owners learning the true cost of coat care, grooming maintenance, and breed needs; separation anxiety as work and travel return; and why grooming sometimes turns into basic training. We also share the good news we’ve watched unfold, including stronger human-dog bonds and more awareness of mental health, enrichment, and overall wellness. If your dog seems fine at home but falls apart everywhere else, you’re not alone and you’re not stuck. 

You’ll leave with practical, realistic ideas for improving grooming experiences without forcing it: slower appointments, “baby step” visits, calm car ride practice, and avoiding stressful pairings like grooming right after the vet. We also revisit how we used a Zoom-supported puppy play and learning class during COVID, what worked, and why follow-through matters once real life gets busy again. If this helped, subscribe, share the show with a fellow dog owner, and leave a review so more families can find it.

To learn more about Hound Therapy visit:
https://www.HoundTherapy.com
Hound Therapy
3509 E Park Blvd.
Plano, TX
469-367-0009

Transcript

Welcome To Hound Therapy

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to Tale Talk Grooming Chronicles with House Therapy, the podcast where we talk all things pet grooming, daycare, academy, and more. Hosted by Shannon and Tanya of House 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 fight. Let's get started.

Pandemic Puppies Six Years Later

SPEAKER_01 0:39

Six years after the surge of pandemic puppies, Shannon and Tanya break down what groomers are seeing now. The good, the challenging, and the long-term impact on grooming salons everywhere. Welcome back, everyone. I'm Sophia Yuvet, co-host and producer, back in the studio with Shannon and Tanya, professional groomers at Home Therapy. Hi, ladies, how are you doing today?

SPEAKER_03 1:06

We're great.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Great. Well, it's great to see you both today. Now, today's topic is the rise of the pandemic puppy six years later. What are you seeing now?

SPEAKER_03 1:20

Oh god, that's a mouthful, first of all. So if I stammer, that would be why. Uh so let's start with the pandemic puppy, the pandemic puppy, I can't even say it. Um it's it's most of these people were first-time dog owners. Uh, and I would say the number one thing for me is that they missed a socialized socialization gap. So these, I mean, as us as people, you know, we couldn't go out and do normal things.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

I also think like even the humans skipped like they how to socialize for a while.

SPEAKER_03 1:56

So when you only have each other and you have such a small little world, it's really hard. So these dogs didn't get to get socialized at all. Plus, we had a rise in puppies. We had a rise with people who never had dogs before because they were lonely. So people who would never, a lot of first-time pet owners. So you you put that on top of, hey, we have dogs that you know we don't know how to socialize, nor can we socialize them. Um, you know, it it's it it it can it can be a problem for sure. And then we've got a learning curve with uh on the human side, and then we've got a learning curve from the dog side. Um dogs have to be able to go

Socialization Gaps And New Stresses

SPEAKER_03 2:34

out and walk and socialize and do things. And I I don't think that this is just an us problem. It was around the world. Um, six years later, uh reality check, right? I mean, a lot of things that that owners didn't realize is that um, you know, owning a puppy uh or puppy costs and maintenance for their breed, that's expensive. And now that you can venture out, right, you've got a really cute puppy who is a full-blown adult, you know, a year to two years old. Yeah, scared of the world. And they can't ride in the car. I mean, they can't, you know, they can't get from point A to B. Um, and these are all things that, you know, I think that we took for granted um during during this time. And as somebody said, um, oh, that dog's an emotional support dog to me today. And I was my answer was, aren't they all? I mean, your dog should emotionally support you. I'm just saying. And if he doesn't, uh we we need to we we need to take a different route. Uh on on the good side of that though, um, you know, short and quick, it's it's they were able to bond with their families really well. So I think we got a whole lot of different um things that we were looking to receive from getting these puppies in the pandemic version. But from here on our side, you know, it's it's up to our grooming costs because we've had to do a lot of basic training, not just with, you know, the dog learning how to stand on a table, learning how to be in a loud, reactive environment, learning how to get into the vehicle and you know, enter a building without being scared, as much as we still have to teach this, you know, human being that look, this dog is great at home for you, but you're here. So, you know, your dog has got to be good and you want to take him more places.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

Um, you know, we I would I I would think like a positive thing too was people are more aware of their dog's mental needs, their emotional needs, like and just the overall health and wellness. They were just more kind of aware of it. I don't know if it was more of they were sitting at home and researching things online.

SPEAKER_03 4:46

Um Well, they had their undivided attention for sure. So I mean, I think that, you know, w we're lacking on that coming into the pandemic. And now that we're we're here now, um, you know, we the skilled amount that's taken to groom a dog that hasn't been groomed, that is planning on getting groomed on a regular basis, it's it's just higher. It's a higher demand for uh a higher level of skill to be able to cut these dogs. And it's it's just the the personalities are different in general. And they're used to they're they're spoiled, right? I mean, they're used to being at home all the time. Parents now leaving. Why is my dog chewing at my house? Well, I mean, you went Separation anxiety.

SPEAKER_02 5:29

You went from being there every day to going back to work for eight hours now, they're by themselves.

SPEAKER_03 5:33

Yeah. Um it's it's made you more aware because you had to be more focused, I think. Because, you know, what else were you going to focus on?

Making Grooming Visits Easier

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Well, my question for you both is what advice would you give owners of maturing pandemic pups who want to improve their grooming experiences?

SPEAKER_03 5:53

Well, just I would say no, these aren't quick appointments that dog grooming is um, it takes time in general, but for us, we want to go a little slower, um, you know, to be able to better adapt that that particular pet into what it is we're gonna do. So we're gonna try with some smaller baby steps coming into, hey, let's let's try some male trims and leave. Let's let's get him used to the car rides. We're gonna give you some tips and tricks on on how to happen that uh how to make that event happen for him in a in a or her in a fast, um, well-mannered, fun, playful kind of a setting versus, hey, I just brought my dog to the vet. It says one day out, you know, of the of the year. We're we we're gonna come here after the vet, or yesterday went to the vet, or we're going to the vet. We don't we don't want to pair those together, right? We want a a nice separate individualized. Let's come in for you know a happy routine and then stop and move on to another routine. Um you can you can bring it along slowly. Uh interact with other dogs when you're out, you know, kind of notice your dog's behavior, interacting with other dogs while you're out. I'm not a huge fan of dog parks, but I'm not necessarily against dog parks. I just can be very helpful. I just need you to be aware that, you know, so if you're aware of your dog in your social environments and you're aware of what your dog does socially, um, you know, whether it's good or bad, uh, so that you can learn when to correct or not correct. And if you're not, I you know, I recommend going and doing those things with a buddy or with a person or somebody who's less emotional. Um, because if you're emotional, your animal's gonna be emotional. Um, six years later, I think that, you know, here at Home Therapy, we've we've definitely um we've we've we've combined that bridge now. I mean, it's it's these are things that we were seeing for sure a whole lot more, but these are the first time parents that are now have, you know, they have a six-year-old dog. Now we've got dentals that are due, we've got other medical problems that have popped up. They're like, oh gosh, I had no idea that, you know, I was gonna have to do this for a dog, or what does that entail, or you know, why don't we do this? And you know, they're common, they're common sense for me because I do this all the time, but they're not common sense for just everybody.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

Or for someone who's never owned a dog and now they have a six-year-old.

SPEAKER_03 8:15

Yeah, if you're 32 years, 32 years old and you just got it all for the first time ever and you weren't allowed to have them, you know, it's it's hard. Uh,

The Zoom Puppy Play Experiment

SPEAKER_03 8:23

we did a lot of Zoom in our COVID area here. We opened in COVID. So we did a puppy play class. It was a play learn and um kind of a seven, a seven-step basic type thing. And then the trainer would go online uh with all of the people who attended the class. You literally dropped off your puppy, and your puppy would play with other puppies of the same age group. Uh, and this was for nine months and under only. And, you know, you we would do a zoom and say, okay, well, we worked on sit, and we saw that, you know, Fluffy did not do well with Jojo, and Jojo was just like uh all over the place. So here's Jojo's mom needs to do this, and Fluffy's mom needs to do this. So it was still kind of like we were together, but different. And it worked out really well for us. Um, but I didn't get that same uh the dogs were getting socialized, and that's what we had. It was a socialization class for dogs. It wasn't for people. But I do notice that a lot of those people, you know, retained us as grooming after they got done with their with their puppy training classes. And, you know, they didn't really retain a whole lot because people didn't really understand the amount that it was going to take into training them. So, you know, following through and explaining was one thing. And we were able to do it over Zoom. But once that went away and we were in person, everybody was back to work. We're back to, oh, yeah, I I haven't had time to, you know, work on those commands every 15 minutes with my dog. Um, it was in a crate all day. Uh, I used to, you know, sit by my uh, you know, at the at my feet while I'm at work and now I'm gone eight hours or four hours, or I've got to come home at lunch, or now I have to board my dog, or now I, you know, I'm I have to travel for work. Who's going to stay and watch my dog? There's all of these real, um, real life questions that are coming up. That's just you didn't have to deal with real life, you know, leaving, yes, six years ago. So they're all just so, so new. And it's it's fun to kind of it, it's yeah, it's really opened up the grooming world for us because we have a whole lot more dogs that are coming in. And I do definitely feel the love um towards that animal being a part of the family versus an outside dog that's part of the family. This is like a sibling.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

Or an actual child.

SPEAKER_03 10:42

Yeah. So it's it's been it's been nice to see that kind of a change. And I've said it before, I think we've it's kind of made us become a little bit more European uh towards our our dog relations. So I've been happy about that.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Well, thank you, ladies, for such helpful insights. We appreciate your expertise, and we'll see everyone next time.

Booking Info And Closing

SPEAKER_00 11:11

That's a wrap for this episode of Tale 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 www.houndtherapy.com, serving North Texas with expert pet care. Until next time, keep those tails whacked.