I brought my dog to the Petco on Rte 1 north in Saugus Massachusetts today. She needed to have her nails trimmed. She has all of her dew claws and they were getting long. My dogs get an hour long walk everyday and then another shorter one later in the evening. Their nails stay pretty short because of the concrete, but one of them still needed a trim.
I specifically mentioned this, so I'm not sure why they cut her nails so short. I have brought her to this Petco twice before.
The last time I was there, she was fine. The groomer put her on the table and attached the short leash to her to keep her still. Bella (my dog) was scared but she did not move. The groomer was done in about a minute. She did not cut that much off saying that since she has black nails, they want to be careful. I was okay with that because I'm always worried about cutting into the quick.
This time when I brought her in, there was another groomer who tried to trim her nails.
Now, my dog is 6 lbs. I know every dog can bite, but this was ridiculous. My dog was growling and trying to nip at the girl after she was in the leash on the table. The groomer had another groomer pick up my dog and put her hand tightly around her neck. I understood as I did not want anyone to get bitten. I have seen this done before but this looked a little too extreme. Before I could even say anything, the first groomer started trimming away.
At this point my dog was not moving, but she was petrified. She started screaming like I have never heard any animal do before. That is the best way to describe it. She peed and pooped while it was happening. The groomer got to the last dew claw and started saying how it was curled all the way around and into the skin. She asked yet a third groomer to come and look at it. The third groomer said it was fine, not cutting into anything, and just clipped it with no problem. Her facial expression made me think that she thought the other groomer was an idiot. After that, the first groomer went and got styptic powder.
Two of my dog's paws were bleeding. Now I understood why she was crying so much. She kept saying it happened because my dog would not stop moving. They kept complaining because she peed and pooped too. They just kept repeating it over and over again. I have never experienced anything like this before. I felt bad that my dog relieved herself on them, but that happens sometimes. "Real" groomers know this.
The groomer that was holding my dog did not recognize me, but she was the groomer who had trimmed my dogs nails the last time with no problem. This time she told me that I should not let the nails get that long. I said that the last time I was here, they did not trim that much off. I did not mention that it was her, but she got kind of quiet so I think she remembered. She just kind of ignored me and told me to come in sooner next time.
There won't be a next time. Anyway, there was another customer waiting to get his dog's nails trimmed. He looked horrified. He looked at me with sympathy and I just left. This happened about 10 hours ago and my dog is still shaking and I cannot put her down. She is in my lap as I am typing this. I will never go back to Petco for anything.
If they cannot hire competent groomers or, at the very least, groomers who can admit they might have made a mistake instead of blaming the dog and the owner, they do not deserve my business at all. I understand the groomers need to be safe and trimming black nails is hard, but that does not excuse their attitudes.
