Lily & Lola went to their first official "grooming" yesterday at Mary's Dog House in Bethel Park. I got a good recommendation for Mary's from my friend, Julie, and it's not far from home, so that's why we decided to take them there. I'll sum up our experience with a quick list of pros and cons.
Pros:
-Price! It was $56 for both dogs to be deep cleaned (they even cleaned around their "bumholes" as the lady working there put it), have their nails trimmed, ears cleaned, hair between their paw pads trimmed, and Lola even got a beard/eyebrow cut and had her nails ground to make them less sharp. I definitely wasn't expecting it to be this inexpensive.
-Results! Both dogs looked bee-yoo-tiful when they were finished. Mary's put cute little flowered bandanas on each of them, and Guy didn't even recognize Lola when she first came out with her fresh haircut.
-Staff! The staff members were very friendly and accommodating.
Cons:
-Time -- Now, since I have never taken the dogs to be groomed before, it's hard to know if this is truly a con, but it took 2 1/2 hours to finish them. I was expecting more like an hour. But, I could be totally off base in my expectations.
-Appearance of store -- When we first walked in, the store definitely appeared in a state of disarray. I know that shaving and cleaning dogs all day is sure to be a messy business, but the place looked like it could use a good scrubbing.
-Strange child playpen in the rear of the store -- There was a really, really odd fenced-in area in the back of the dog-grooming space with toys and a little toddler just kind of piddling around. It looked like we were observing him at a zoo. Granted, this doesn't have anything to do with the quality of their business, but it was just plain weird.
So, as you can see, I would say the pros definitely outweigh the cons at Mary's Dog House. If you don't have the time to do a self-serve wash, I'd highly recommend Mary's for all your grooming needs.
3 comments:
2 of your first 3 Cons are exactly the same at PetCo when I take Sally. The place always looks completely messy, out of order, etc. They used to tell me an hour but recently, for the full "works" grooming, they have been telling me 2 hours. So, that may be expected.
(Factor in time to dry them off, bath time, nail clipping, etc. I think they actually forecast some extra "down" time in the middle to let the animals calm down before they dive into the next activity. The last thing you need is a dog to spaz out because it's getting its bumhole cleaned and nails trimmed at the same time.)
How about some freaking fresh content?! You live with 2 of the world's most liberal dogs (Lola is on the support staff for Arlen Spector) and yet you have no new material? Looks like good ole Mr. 9 AM needs to step in.
Anyhoo, you should post this as a link and write a little jingle about them:
http://www.justdogsshv.com/index.html
When we splurge on Sally, we'll get her treats from here. She loves them! And, this is also where Sally has received 2 of 2 Birthday Cakes.
We took Sally to Mary's Dog House today and had her groomed. I'll burger dot my thoughts - good and bad.
* Very umm... different... establishment with dogs and kids caged together (when we came to pick up Sally, one child was in the cage with puppy up front) I'm talking a medium-sized cage/crate.
* They cut one of Sally's toenails too short so she was bleeding like a stuck pig all the way home. The woman advised us of this and it's happened before, but just a pain to come home and clean up the blood.
* Sally's toenails are nice and SHORT. That's a good thing.
* Smells like Heaven and looks twice as good. ;) Good job, Mary.
* Sally was provided with a bandana. We took it off when we got home as I think it was causing Sally to itch. Still enjoyed it.
* Nice cost - much cheaper than PetCo for the same work.
* 1.5 hours for total work - good for us as we had some other errands to run.
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