The Beauty Parlor Comes to Stanley

Last week, we got a coupon in the mail for a mobile dog grooming service. We decided to give it a try, and today was the day!

You can't beat the convenience -- they show up in a fully-equipped van, complete with a big water tank for bathing the dogs. (And yes, they do cats, too.)

My concern about using them was how experienced the groomer was going to be. For instance, PetSmart is really hit or miss with the quality of their grooming depending on who you get, and you can definitely tell in the dog's appearance! Our regular groomer is really good -- she used to be in the show dog business, and she's been grooming dogs for years.

Turns out that my concern was justified. The young guy who showed up was very nice, but had only been doing this for a few months -- his previous job had been at a car dealership, and then his dad bought this franchise. So, he's an aspiring businessman rather than a dog beautician by trade. (Also, apparently the business mainly specializes in bathing/nail clipping/etc. rather than haircuts per se.)

But, that said, what he lacked in expertise he made up for in conscientiousness. We really didn't want Stanley's hair to be too short (the Skeletor look), but he'd gone too long between haircuts and had some mats that needed to be cut out. So the mobile groomer spent quite a long time getting as many mats out as he could, and then cut some parts short to get the mat out, while leaving most of the fur a bit longer.

What this means is that Stanley looks great at a first glance, but a little funny closer up because there are patches of much shorter fur. This is totally fine with us, but something our pro groomer never would have agreed to! We figure that we can even it up as it grows out.

The groomers had some cute touches, too. You can see the bandanna, but what you can't see it that they scented it with a doggie cologne called "Unleashed." (It actually smelled quite nice!)