Nik
Well-Known Member
This is Dakota after his last grooming appointment.
As some of you already know Dakota is my mom's dog. Last weekend he came back from the groomers. When she picked him up he was soaking wet and they insisted it was only because they ran out of time and Dakota was nervous of the dryers anyways (Dakota has never been nervous of dryers in the past). By the time she got him home and went to get him out of the car he was covered in blood.
It turns out the groomer had sliced open his tongue with the shears and tried to hide it by rinsing the blood off just before she came to get him. The cut was still actively bleeding though.
Dakota is fine now. My mom and step-dad enlisted my help as her asthma came on very badly as a result of this and they didn't know how to stop the bleeding. Using ice helped slow down the bleeding and closed the cut within a few minutes.
The problem is now Dakota is terrified to have anyone try to touch his face or come anywhere near it. He is traumatized. My mom doesn't know how he will get groomed again when it is time and his face gets too long and hairy and our area gets too hot to leave it untrimmed.
She will definitely be going to a different groomer (which I will help her find) but she is concerned how to get him over the trauma of this latest experience so he will allow himself to be groomed again. Aside from keeping calm, finding someone competent etc. any other suggestions?
She can definitely work towards allowing face touching at home but once the sheers come out I am afraid that may send him into ptsd all over again.
As some of you already know Dakota is my mom's dog. Last weekend he came back from the groomers. When she picked him up he was soaking wet and they insisted it was only because they ran out of time and Dakota was nervous of the dryers anyways (Dakota has never been nervous of dryers in the past). By the time she got him home and went to get him out of the car he was covered in blood.
It turns out the groomer had sliced open his tongue with the shears and tried to hide it by rinsing the blood off just before she came to get him. The cut was still actively bleeding though.
Dakota is fine now. My mom and step-dad enlisted my help as her asthma came on very badly as a result of this and they didn't know how to stop the bleeding. Using ice helped slow down the bleeding and closed the cut within a few minutes.
The problem is now Dakota is terrified to have anyone try to touch his face or come anywhere near it. He is traumatized. My mom doesn't know how he will get groomed again when it is time and his face gets too long and hairy and our area gets too hot to leave it untrimmed.
She will definitely be going to a different groomer (which I will help her find) but she is concerned how to get him over the trauma of this latest experience so he will allow himself to be groomed again. Aside from keeping calm, finding someone competent etc. any other suggestions?
She can definitely work towards allowing face touching at home but once the sheers come out I am afraid that may send him into ptsd all over again.