Splash Dog Grooming

24/08/2023

SDG NO MORE!

Many of our customers were aware that we were thinking about diversifying into dog home boarding after we finished grooming last month and we stated if we were going to we'd make an announcement on the website and FaceBook one way or another.

This is that announcement, and we are sorry to those that were hoping we would, because we are not.

We've looked into the pro's and con's, costs and gains and decided it would not be worth it. We knew as a gut feeling that it wouldn't contribute to our income sources anything like grooming did, but the requirements and what-if numbers bear that out. Also, given our new spontaneity to retirement leisure, having to go back to planning this around bookings would seriously throw a spanner in the works.

So this really is it folks! All this will start to disappear and cease to exist once the notices, accounting, legal's, winding up processes, etc., are completed over the coming weeks/months.

Hope everyone is getting on ok with their new grooming services and hope to see you on our walks and travels around the area. Bye, and thanks for the memories!

20/07/2023

Well folks, that's us all done. Last dog finished (number 16,939).

Thank you all so much for the good wishes, cards and unexpected gifts - gratefully appreciated! We'll miss you all.

It's now time for the epic clear out and clean up, ready for the new owner to take over on the 31st.

12/07/2023

Scottish Consultation on Licensing Animal Activities Launched.

We received an email today from PIF, the Pet Industry Federation that we are a member of, on the above subject.

As we have been contacting lots of groomers about the equipment we are selling who will be looking at our site, we thought it worthwhile sharing the link as this is something that has been talked about for years, and is very likely to happen now sooner rather than later.

We'd encourage all groomers, training establishments, dog walkers, boarding and day care providers to respond to the consultation as this will affect you and could even result in some closing through non-compliance with new licensing - in whatever form that ultimately takes.

A consultation on licensing activities involving animals has been launched by Scottish Government.

The consultation seeks views on proposals to introduce new licensing regulations in Scotland covering the following activities, when carried on in the course of a business:
• Dog walking
• Dog grooming
• Providing livery services
• Offering canine fertility services.

The consultation also seeks views on proposals to license greyhound racing in Scotland, and replace existing legislation covering animal boarding (including day care) and riding establishments, replacing it with updated licensing requirements.

The legislation the proposals would replace are:
• Riding Establishments Act 1964
• Riding Establishments Act 1970
• Animal Boarding Establishments Act 1963
The consultation will be open for responses until 26 September 2023.

This consultation follows the interest that the English government (DEFRA) has shown in implementing some form of regulation for professional dog walkers.

For further details and to access the Scottish consultation, please click on the link below. NB: respondents do not have to live or work in Scotland to provide responses.

This Scottish Government consultation seeks views on proposals to extend licensing to currently unlicensed animal-related services and update the licensing framework for other currently licensed animal-related services.

01/07/2023

We created a list of local dog services to contact and make aware of the equipment we are selling, and thought it would be of use to our customers looking for a replacement groomer.

Please note that we are not recommending or endorsing anyone on this list. The list is available on our website at:

07/07/23 - just updated the list and added more in Midlothian plus a whole new section for Edinburgh. Hope it helps everyone.

30/06/2023

Our property has now been sold!

OUR LAST WORKING DAY WILL BE THURSDAY 20TH OF JULY AND THE NEW OWNER TAKES POSSESSION OF THE PROPERTY ON MONDAY 31ST JULY 2023.

We accepted an offer from a new buyer in mid-May and missives have now been concluded making the sale irrevocable.

We regret having to give such short notice of closing, but all appointments booked after our last working day will be cancelled. As we are full up to this point, there is no opportunity to bring any of these appointments forward. However, we have been notifying all customers throughout June that this outcome was expected. All those that rebooked following the last purchase debacle that failed in April were made aware at the time that if we found another buyer it was likely to result in a short notice cancellation and we stated that in our handouts and on the selling up page on our website.

Further information on the sale is on the selling up page http://www.splashdoggrooming.co.uk/SellingUp.htm , and we have created a catalogue of all the equipment and other assets we are now actively wishing to sell which is downloadable athttp://www.splashdoggrooming.co.uk/downloads/Closing%20Down%20Items%20for%20Sale%20Catalogue%20June%202023.pdf

Thank you to everyone who has supported us over the past 14½ years!

19/04/2023

WE ARE NO LONGER CLOSING AT THE END OF JUNE 2023.

WE WILL BE CARRYING ON BUSINESS AS USUAL UNTIL ANOTHER BUYER IS FOUND FOR OUR PROPERTY WITH APPOINTMENTS AVAILABLE AGAIN FROM TUESDAY 27TH JUNE ONWARDS.

As you know, we accepted an offer for the sale of our property on the 28th March, which was to be converted into a flat by a property developer.

Without going into the fine detail, we had growing suspicions over the past week that he was not the “cash available, successful developer” as he portrayed himself to be, and too many things were starting to not add up. He has now suddenly pulled his offer via his solicitor without notice or reason and is not responding to our requests for clarity. So the deal is well and truly BUST!

Moral of the story: When is a “cash buyer and successful developer” not this? When you find he’s never done a development before and a private financier is putting up most (all?) of the cash and pulling the strings in the background. Seller beware!

Not to worry though as we had two bidders providing offers at the time we accepted the now defunct developers one. But the other one is no longer interested. So he is out the picture too.

The upshot of this property snakes and ladders game, is we rolled the dice but landed on a snake that takes us straight back to square one. So we’ll just keep going...

Please note that we will not be continuing the exercise to sell our grooming business, just the property, but when it does eventually sell we will make a list available of available equipment and other assets for sale before we finish up and clear out of here - whenever that is.

31/03/2023

It's taken a while, but we have now accepted an offer for our Studio which will be converted to a flat by a property developer and we will be permanently closing on the 30th June 2023. To give us time to clear everything out and clean the place up:

OUR LAST WORKING DAY WILL BE THURSDAY 22nd JUNE 2023.

As a consequence we have moved/cancelled all existing appointments after that date to the week before our closing day. We will not be taking any NEW bookings as we are keeping the only spaces we have left (approx 12 slots between the 7th and 15th June) for repeat customers coming in over the next week or so.

Once they are gone - they're gone! Unless of course we get cancellations due to customers rescheduling with a new groomer, but we have some already waiting on a cancellation. Any spaces that do arise will be prioritised for existing customers already booked to give them more time to find an alternative groomer for their dog.

To everyone that we won't see again, a huge THANK YOU for all your past business over the years - it's been a blast!

Told you we'd try and give 3 months notice of our closing...
..more information at

You are aware through our handouts, posters in the studio and announcements on here and our FaceBook page that we are intending to sell up and retire by August this year.  It’s taken a while(!), but...

31/01/2023

Last week we did our last Friday and reverted back to our pre-covid open days of Tuesday to Thursday from today. We are also about to start our 15th year from tomorrow and have groomed 16,536 dogs since starting in 2009 - where have all the years gone?

24/12/2022

Wishing all our customers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 🐾🎅🏻🎉

21/12/2022

Just a quick note that we are closed after this Friday 23rd December until Tuesday 3rd January, and we are currently full until middle of March 2023.

For those following our selling up to retire saga, we've appointed DM Hall to value and market the property sale, plus we've updated our own brochure/cover letter for our business sale on the Selling Up page on our website. The property listing went live today on DM Hall's website at https://www.dmhall.co.uk/property-page/?propertyID=20094&listingType=Purchase

As it has become increasingly apparent over recent months that the main interest is in our premises being purchased for a flat conversion, we have now appointed DM Hall to value and exclusively market the sale of the property as a development opportunity, and a "For Sale" board will be visible on the property in January 2023. Please only contact DM Hall (property ref: ESA2936) directly if you wish to enquire about purchasing our property.

Please see our Selling Up page for the links and the rest of this posts update http://www.splashdoggrooming.co.uk/SellingUp.htm

28/11/2022

Changes to open days and times from February 2023.

We have been operating on temporary(!) extended opening hours since June 2020 to a greater or lesser extent, but from February 2023 will be reverting back to pre-pandemic days open.

This change is long overdue as we had been planning to announce this at the start of this year to take effect from March. But as you know, our bookings went skywards due to a couple of local groomers closing. However, we are gradually getting back to more normal lead times now.

From 1st February 2023, we will be open:

Tuesday 9am to 6pm
Wednesday 9am to 6pm
Thursday 9am to 5pm

The hour less on a Thursday is to allow for our end of week extra cleaning routine.

Please see our News page: http://www.splashdoggrooming.co.uk/news.htm
for an updated price guide and further information.

Please note that as of today we have made this our current price guide throughout the website, even thought the open days change doesn't come into effect until February as we are already full to the end of January 2023