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Dog dies during grooming at Pet Smart
#1
Chuck Crawford dropped off his two Corgis for grooming at a New Jersey Pet Smart. Two hours later he got a phone call to come and pick up his dog's body. His 8 year old dog, Abby, was dead. It wasn't even a nice call. It was cold and callous. 
It also wasn't the first time a dog had died during grooming at a Pet Smart.

https://www.google.com/url?rct=j&sa=t&ur...ioAmglDcKg


There has been no explanation for the dog's death and it is not an isolated incident. Three dogs have died since December.

http://www.wnem.com/story/37241615/2-dog...owners-say

I found another incident at a different Pet Smart

https://cisnfm.com/news/4006123/petsmart...abuse-dog/

I am a little surprized at how many different incidents I am finding.

http://www.nbc4i.com/news/u-s-world/pets...1065086362

I have found something from 2015

http://www.wndu.com/home/headlines/Dog-d...31361.html

2007

https://www.turnto23.com/news/dog-dies-d...t-petsmart

Clearly there is a problem. How does a healthy dog die from grooming or getting its nails clipped. I know animals can sometimes die for no apparent reason, but dogs are not fragile like rabbits and guinea pigs. How does a healthy one year old dog end up dead. What are these groomers doing? 

I do know of an incident in Toronto in a store that is now closed. The groomer had the dog on the table with a noose around its neck to keep it in place. The groomer left the table to answer a phone(or something like that). The dog jumped or slipped off the table and was hung by the noose. It would have taken a few minutes to die so the dog was not left for "just a minute".

Are groomers really that careless with the animals they look after?
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Catherine

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#2
(04-07-2018, 04:02 PM)Catherine Wrote: Are groomers really that careless with the animals they look after?

The short answer is yes - some of them. There are too many cases of dogs dying at grooming sessions. Pet Smart seems to have by far the most cases, but there are others elsewhere, too.

Such workers are not paid very much, which of course absolutely does not excuse cruelty or gross negligence but does mean that the sort of people going into such employment tend to be of poor calibre, just looking for any sort of work and not necessarily dedicated to animal welfare. Such people can be trained - as Pet Smart does - but that does not mean that they will follow the rules once trained.

I have never taken Forgy for a hair cut or nail trimming, because he is so sensitive to his tail, back and paws being touched. We distract him by giving tiny treats whilst we are giving him a hair cut. But I can well imagine that even a patient groomer would have great difficulty dealing with him when he is being touched on the tail or back (I suspect that he was previously ill-treated by a young family, with children pulling his tail). His paws are sensitive, because of a previous allergy he had and he gets very anxious when they are touched.

So he gets stressed enough when we cut his hair or nails; with a stranger, I would imagine that the stress would be tremendous. It is perfectly possible that a few dogs could die from extreme stress whilst being groomed. So really the safest thing to do is to do any grooming oneself, if possible.

With Puce, her hair stayed about the same length and did not mat together. Regular brushing was enough. But Forgy's hair is naturally curly (poodle cross) and gets matted very easily. So some home grooming is essential.

We prefer to avoid the risk of taking him to a stranger. In general, dog parlours are to be avoided.

Blessings to the souls of the dogs who have passed over in such places.
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#3
The so called groomers involved in these cases are not real groomers. They are minimum wage workers who have learned some  basics of dog grooming. They clearly don't know enough about dogs to keep them safe and I don't think they care.

I knew a real dog groomer. She was a true professional and she could make any dog look its best. No dog ever died on her watch. Dogs didn't even get stressed out and she never hit a dog. She would have hand combed out a dog like Forgy and trimmed him very carefully. Since groomers like her don't exist anymore you are better to groom Forgy at home.

If people need to take their dog to be groomed it would be best to find  a private groomer working from home or one that will visit your home. Our local Pet Value store has a walk in dog grooming space. It is all set up for bathing and grooming, but you do the grooming yourself. Dogs like visiting a store like that so you could give a treat every time and the dog wouldn't mind grooming.

Pet Smart has a history of other offenses. I know they throw out live reptiles. People have found an iguana baby live in a dumpster behind a pet smart. I think they threw out live bearded dragons, but I don't remember the details. They are clearly all about profit and not about the pets.
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Catherine

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#4
Many dogs don't actually like their feet being messed about with. Many dogs are actually scared of having their nails trimmed. Misty hated it. She wasn't literally "scared" when I did it for her but she was apprehensive, put it that way. But she learned to trust me. But even so, sometimes she would reflexively jerk her foot back so I had to be careful. And she always cringed a bit when I got the nailclippers out.
I had a feeling some clumsy person in her life before "us" once cut the quick by accident and she never forgot it.

I can't imagine what she'd have been like with a stranger doing it....in a groomer's room, probably with the radio blaring, phones ringing, the horrible sound of dryers running etc. AND being restrained by the neck on a table.
She would have wriggled about. At least. She wouldn't have bitten anyone but would have been stressed. Very stressed.

So what probably happens is that a dog wriggles a bit and the "groomers" restrain the dog, or tighten the noose around its neck. That makes things worse. The dog wants nothing to do with it. At this point it is worse than the vet's. They want out. At which point some so-called "groomers" lose their patience, or even their tempers. Every time they try to clip a nail the dog pulls that foot away. It happens three times and the person gets angry. They have a schedule. They are not being paid well. They maybe don't even like dogs. It's just a job. They have no experience with loving a dog in their lives. They lose it.

How terribly sad. My heart goes out to those people whose dogs were killed so suddenly and horribly. And as LPC said....blessings to those dogs' Souls.
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#5
When you describe it that way the dog groomers is a very unpleasant place for a dog. It is full of strange dog smells and even strange dogs. A total stranger ties a noose around the dogs neck and even a muzzle. The place would be noisy because people choose the music they want with no regard for the dogs and how they feel. The lights would be bright and all the sensations would be overwhelming. 

When they use the electric clippers it must be horrible. No dog wants to be clipped. The clippers get hot too and dogs end up with burns. 

They need to rethink the whole way dogs are groomed. I don't know how these dogs are dying, but something in the way things are done is clearly killing the dogs. One dog might die of stress. It could happen. Three dogs dying since December is a problem with the groomer and not the dogs. They were healthy dogs. Places like Pet Smart should not be doing grooming any more. I just hope people care more for their dogs than for the convenience of dropping them off at Pet Smart.
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Catherine

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#6
My opinion is that people should do what LPC and his wife do with Forgy. Surely it's not rocket science to learn how to brush, comb, bathe a dog you love and who trusts you. It's a bit more tricky to learn how to trim the dog's coat properly or clip its nails safely, but it can be done.
In a relaxed home environment it doesn't even matter if you can only trim two nails at once, then have to wait an hour to do another two. And the same with using a clipper or some instrument to cut the dog's fur.

I do remember a comb/clipper thing when I was a little girl. My mother used to cut our hair with it. It was a comb basically with a blade inside (may have been a double comb.) The blade was safe between the teeth of the comb so it wasn't possible to cut yourself on it. It was hand held, not electronic. When she used it, the feeling was just like having your hair combed. Very pleasant.
I wonder if those things are still available?

(later editSmile well look what I found. This is on Amazon.com but I am sure similar can be bought on other sites:

https://www.amazon.com/RAM-PRO-Personal-...ir+trimmer


I know there are some dogs who cannot bear even being combed or parts of their bodies touched. There are ways around that as LPC does with Forgy.
And if a dog can't stand that and makes it a difficult job to do, then why would someone send that dog to a groomer's, where it will be 10 times worse?

People do too much rushing about, so dropping their dog off at 8am and picking it up in worktime lunch hour is convenient. They also are rushing about and think they haven't the time or patience to do it themselves. But mostly I wonder if it's that some people would rather skirt their options and just pay someone to do it for them?
Then there are some people who project their own ideas onto their dogs! They think a dog enjoys being made all clean and pretty again by a bunch of strangers in a "salon" ! Some even ask groomers to spray perfume on their dogs!
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#7
Quote:Then there are some people who project their own ideas onto their dogs! They think a dog enjoys being made all clean and pretty again by a bunch of strangers in a "salon" ! Some even ask groomers to spray perfume on their dogs!

Maybe if they designed a salon that a dog would like it would be okay.  I don't know how that would look. It certainly wouldn't look or smell like a regular dog groomers. Dogs don't like places like that.

A lot of dogs don't like being bathed. You can clean a coat with corn starch. You rub it in dry and comb it out and it takes the dirt and oil with it. It is how I cleaned the hamsters since they really should never be bathed with water.

That comb you posted is brilliant. It cuts and combs at the same time. For a lot of dogs it would work. Of course it would be best to groom a dog at home regularly. The hair would never get too long or too tangled if it was done as a regular routine. 
You feed the dog, you give the dog water, you walk the dog and you give the dog a quick brushing. Most dogs would get so used to a quick brushing that they wouldn't object. 

Surely if you worked with a puppy you could get it comfortable with bathing. It would have to be done very gently with little noise or fuss. I bath the guinea pigs and I have found they don't like being placed in water. I quickly hold them under running water, suds them and then rinse by holding under running water. It takes 5 minutes at most. Would a dog be okay with running water? There must be some way to bath a dog that they like or at least don't dislike.

Anything would be better than having a dog die at the groomers.
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Catherine

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