Monica Gates, owner and professional pet stylist at Hartman Creek Pet Center, recently attended the All American Grooming Show in Chicago, Illinois. Ms. Gates has attended this show, which includes vender booths, grooming contests and continuing education seminars, every year for more than 20 years. This enables her to keep up-to-date on the best tools and products in the industry, many of which can be found in the Pet Center's salon, and continue to add to her already extensive knowledge in the art of petstyling.
At this year's show, Monica attended many seminar programs presented by petstyling industry leaders and experts. Some of them included: "The Art of Petstyling", "Styling the Bichon Frise", "Styling Rare Breeds", "Scissoring", "Styling Mixed Breeds", and "Shed Control Program". She also brought back some highly-specialized tools which will be used to implement a new Shed Control Program at Hartman Creek Pet Center.
"The tools will enable us to remove more of the dead coat from the dogs during the grooming process than ever before- WITHOUT having to shave it off!" exclaimed Monica. The first dog the new tools were used on was a golden retriever- an older dog that was very wooley. A garbage bag full of fuzzy undercoat came out. That's a huge quantity of hair that will not be keeping the dog hot, matting up, and/or shedding all over his home!
Cost for this procedure varies,and will be charged for actual time spent on the shed control procedure. Time spent will depend on size, coat length,type and behavior of the dog. It is offered as an add-on to a regular grooming, or as a Shed Control Only service. Dogs that are harder to work on and will require more time- you may find it more economical to ask for a whole groom + Shed Control than have us work on a dirty dog. Approximate estimates can be given, but since we can't always predict the dog's (or his coat's) behavior, estimates can not be binding. You do have the option of asking that it not go over a pre-determined amount though!
Though it's not always necessary, in order to ensure the most flexibility in scheduling an appointment, please try to call at least 2 weeks in advance. Most appointments can be booked within one week unless we're extremely busy due to a holiday or weather conditions.