Pet Grooming Dangers

Imagine a lovely Spring day - you drop your best friend off at the dog spa for some well deserved pampering and grooming. A relaxing bath, hair cut and perhaps a nail trim. Who could imagine that something as pleasant as a trip to the groomers could end the life of your sweet devoted pal. What possibly could have happened and how could it have been prevented?

Most occurrences of fatality at the groomers happen because the dog becomes overheated in the drying process. Dogs are bathed and then placed into a drying cage where a large blow dryer is set on the cage door. As easy as it is for a dog to become overheated in a car on a sunny day, it's just as easy for this to happen when trapped in a small cage with heat blowing straight at them. An attentive and trained groomer with this set up would not let the dog sit for long periods of time in a drying cage and under strict supervision a drying cage is not necessarily deadly.

The second leading cause of accidental death at the groomers is strangulation. Most small dogs are placed on a grooming table where they are tethered by the neck to a pole on the table. It is merely a way of keeping the dog in control while they are being groomed and definitely not a safe way to leave them alone. Small grooming locations may not have enough employees to answer phones or talk to customers. It may so happen that the person grooming your dog leaves them on the table in the tether and walks away to help another customer. When they come back the dog may have hung itself in an attempt to get down from the table.
It's always best to know your groomer. Check out the facilities yourself and ask to see everything. A groomer with nothing to hide will show you the bathing and drying areas without hesitation. There are no requirements for groomers as it stands now but there are schools of grooming. Be sure that the owner and groomers that are working on your pet have training. If the actual grooming facilities are in the back and out of view of the public, ask if you can watch the procedure. If the answer is no, take your dog somewhere else. There are many groomers who work behind a large window so that the dogs never leave your sight and that is where you want to go. Make sure the groomer has a policy preventing dogs from being left unattended, as this is when most deaths occur. A few questions from you may save your dog's life.