Brian and Buster needed to be groomed, and I wanted to avoid taking them to Petco or Petsmart again because those places usually just end up chopping off all their hair with a set of electric clippers. I don't think they're as experienced in grooming Bichons as they are with other breeds.
So I found Sue's Grooming (www.suesgrooming.net) in Bellevue and gave her a try today. I'm glad I did... nobody I know had heard of her so I felt like I was taking a risk, but judging from her website, I liked that she only did scissor cuts (and there were lots of cute pics of other Bichons). And once I got to her residence, I found that there were no other dogs in sight. Definitely a stress-free environment for the boys.
She gets very high recommendations from me. She really loves dogs, I could tell just by the way she treated them and spoke to them. She even had a very clean rest spot for them to sleep on. As a matter of fact, that entire place was spotless.
From talking to Sue, I found out that she was the former groomer at Companion Animal Hospital before they shut down their grooming operation. So she started grooming dogs from her house (and I bet many of her former clients followed). What impressed me was that she's happy grooming 2 to 4 dogs daily and isn't interested in doing a whole lot of volume. It's all about the personal touch...
... which gets me thinking about franchises / corporations in general versus mom-and-pop shops. Like comparing Olive Garden to the local Italian place, or McDonald's versus Wibbley's in Bellevue, and Petco / Petsmart versus Sue's Grooming. But that's a whole other discussion.
So, enjoy the "after" picture above... and see the "before" pictures below (they both look like hobos) that I took right before taking them to her.
