Beans

“The change in groomers was a difficult change but the right change. ‘Friends of the Family’ is the term we often used when thinking about the prior grooming-service providers. For over fifteen years our first dog, Freckles (or as most of us call them, our 4-legged family member), showed nothing but pleasure when visiting them or spending time with them when we were out of town. We will be forever grateful for all of those years of great service and camaraderie.

“Beans (our second Cocker Spaniel), however, developed a different pattern of behavior than our first dog on his visits to get baths and grooming. The entire bathing and drying experience began to bring on what were called “seizures” during the process. Call them seizures, call them “episodes”, call them anything else, they always boiled down to “scary” and “cause for concern” for all of us. Of course, we began to search for solutions.

“During our search for ways to prevent more seizures during the bathing and grooming process, we came across the names of Kendra and Jennie of The UpScale Tail. The word was that they specialized in dogs who exhibited what we will call “some significant apprehension” about the bathing and grooming process. Their approach, while time-consuming for them, was based on building a trust and friendship with Beans before ever beginning any type of bathing or grooming. For Beans, that meant “no-risk visits” during which he was treated as a friend of the family.

“We don’t even remember how many ‘no-risk visits’ there were before they started implementing tiny steps towards the bathing process, but the number is not important other than to say ‘it was enough.’ We don’t need sedation of any kind any more. Beans seems to love to visit the shop, and even does sleepovers.

“We could not end the story without sharing that we have not had a single ‘episode’ raise its ugly and scary head since the visits began. And of course, his little sister, Gracie, has to go see what big brother is doing in there that is so much fun, so it has come to pass that we have new ‘family members’ for the care of the only two ‘children’ we still have at home. We are blessed to have more new friends in our lives.”

-Charles, Annette, Beans & Gracie

 

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