Top Tip Tuesday 💡 · The Holistic Dog Grooming Club

Top Tip Tuesday 💡

So one of the things I often see being wrongly advised is “never groom a dog on the floor” 😢

When someone tries to convince you that a dog will never associate calm behaviours on the floor, it only shows their lack of knowledge in behaviour and emotional safety.

There are MANY circumstances where floor grooming can be a good way to de-escalate stress, specifically when it comes to:

👉🏻 dogs who have had traumatic grooming experiences involving grooming tables and/or restraints.

👉🏻 or where a dog feels emotionally and physically more stable being away from heights, and where they have the ability to move away.

In the case study I’ve attached below, Harry felt most comfortable in the comfort of his OWN home, in the PRESENCE OF his caregivers, while ON THE FLOOR.

To give you a little bit of context, Harry was a geriatric, blind, and partially deaf, Westie with diabetes. He couldn’t cope with a conventional grooming process.

Instead, his grooming plan went a little like this:

🛁 He was bathed and dried the night before I visited by his main caregiver, to significantly reduce groom time.

🕰️ We built up his confidence gradually over weekly, 20-minute sessions until he knew and was familiar with my smell, voice, and all of the tools I intended to use.

✂️ And after around 2 months of introducing the process using positive reinforcements and lots of patience, we got to this point right here!

Harry would relax so much so that he would often dose throughout his comfort groom — he would occasionally move away for a rest, but he would return when ready.

My sessions were never longer than 30-minutes, but in that time, all of the necessary trimming, clipping and nail dremeling took place without stress 🐾

To his carers, this was worth the world and more - they paid me more than my hourly rate because they SAW my value 🩷

But the money was a secondary benefit to me, because to be able to make welfare grooming a respectful and dignified experience for the last months of a dog’s life, is one of the most gratifying feelings you can ever have.

Harry remains a daily reminder of why I do what I do, and why I teach what I teach.

Whenever a person tries to discredit me, or accuse me of being “dangerous”, I look back on these photos and see the truth.

Because grooming isn’t “one size fits all”, and we must be open to adapting and trying new things based on the individual needs of the dog in front of us.

My tip today, is to not let bad advice stop you from doing something against the norm - doing so has the potential to change a dog’s entire experience for the better ⭐️

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