Whilst wandering around the Festival of Lights in Valletta, Malta, lst night (29th Sept 2012) I visited the Dogs Trust Malta stall and realised that during this week, falls the World Animal Day.

The purpose of the World Animal Day., is

“Welcome to World Animal Day

World Animal Day was started in 1931 at a convention of ecologists in Florence as a way of highlighting the plight of endangered species. October 4 was chosen as World Animal Day as it is the Feast Day of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals.

Since then, World Animal Day has become a day for remembering and paying tribute to all animals and the people who love and respect them. It’s celebrated in different ways in every country, with no regard to nationality, religion, faith or political ideology.
”

You can also see a list of the Celebrities who support this cause, and their comments. There are some well known celebrities from the UK, as well and some worldwide celebrities you may never have heard from.

We do not have any events, locally, that I can see, but lets think of all the Animals this week, both in the Wild, in our Homes and awaiting their ‘Forever’ homes.

Well, along came spring … and brought with it lots of Dogs in West Dorset, who need to be groomed, now the warmer weather is here.

I have also updated my Website (and continue to do so), and you will now see on the right hand side a gallery of the latest Dogs to be groomed.

A number of Puppies have come in, in the past few weeks, for their 1st ever groom, which has been a new experience for them. I had a Havanese whose hair was about 8in long and his owner wanted him to stay fluffy, at about 2in. That took some work (and a bit longer than I anticipated), he had a couple of bad matts behind his ears, which I had to use the clipper to remove. It took him several moments and lot of calm coaxing to realise I wasn’t going to hurt him. Once he understood that, he stood and let me get the matts out, without further complaint. His owner was very happy with the end result and I will be seeing him again in about 8 weeks.

Another Puppy was a 7 month old Apricot Standard Poodle. She had to been to another Groomer, in a large retail store, who had refused to clip her, as she was not 9 months old, and would not scissor cut her either !! Weird. Anyway, her owner called and asked if I would scissor cut her Puppy and she duly brought her across last week. I scissor cut her into a Poodle Lamb Trim. When her owner came to collect her 2.5hrs after dropping her off, she burst into tears of joy, crying “I can’t believe she finally looks like a Poodle, my Grandson won’t believe me, I have to send him a picture now”, so we both took pictures of the Poodle. Which, again you can see in my Gallery.

If you want to book your Dog in for a groom please :

Call me on 07403 732327
Email me at Maria@GroomDog.co

Another busy day here at Groom Dog. Lots of bookings coming in particularly in the run up to Christmas, so don’t forget to call me on 07403 732327 if you want your Dog’s groomed in time for Christmas.

Anyway, on with today’s tale,

I can;t see anything, Mum.

Monkey arrived this morning, for his first ever Groom and was a little unsure when Mum dropped him off and left him with me (I think Mum was quite nervous too).    Monkey was very apprehensive about the hair dryer, so after trying the blaster/ finisher at which he was very vocal about not liking it, we moved swiftly on to the hand held dryer at a high setting.   Monkey was a little quieter, but still wasn’t appreciating it, so we moved to the lowest setting, which he was ok with (phew !!).   (Although, I hope by the time he has grown his double coat, we have got him used to the bigger hairdryer, or it might take quite a long time to get him dry

A short two hours later, after his brush out, bath and dry, Monkey had relaxed enough to lie down and start to fall off to sleep.

A little lie down, perhaps.

Whilst I was styling his face, he did actually fall asleep on me,  but bless him, he is only 6 months old and it takes quite a bit of time to groom him.      He was very excited tho’ when Mum turned up to collect him and promised to take him straight to the beach.

I hope he stayed clean for her, so Dad could have a bit of a giggle at his new hairstyle

I am sooooo handsome

I need help

Then it was time for Vincent to arrive, a very hairy Airedale Terrier, who had gone a few weeks without his usual handstrip.

Vincent is an extremely placed and loving dog and just stood on the table and let me hand strip him.     He was a little uncertain of the bath, but after a bit of a struggle I got him into it, and again, he just accepted being washed and shampooed.    He did smell and feel absolutely soft and gorgeous afterwards.

Wot a handsome chappy I am

Mum had mentioned that Vincent was her 5th Airedale, so I was really hoping that she loved my style … and she did.    Promised to return again in about 3 months time to have him groomed again.

Both the dogs today, were well behaved with lovely owners and I hope, enjoyed their grooms in the end.

I know I did

Til next time ….  don’t forget to call me on 07403 732327 if you want to discuss your dog requirements and/or make a booking.

A very handsome Tibeten Terrier X Shih Tzu was rescued from a local Dog Charity in the past few weeks, who, unfortunately, was particularly long haired and matted and need to be clipped off today. But he turned out to be a pretty well behaved doggie, and I think, once the matts were removed he felt a lot better in himself. He was very patient. Having spoken to his new Mum, she was worried about him nipping me. He did try a couple of times, but I managed to get away in time before any damage was done, and once he realised he would feel better, he took the groom extremely well.

His owner was so pleased when she came to collect him, and gave me permission to use the story and his pictures.

What a handsome chappy he turned out to be.

Wow, even Bobby was impressed.

By the way, Maggie, it was (as then called) Buster.