07/12/2026
Good Morning, Guys!
Let’s talk policy changes and honestly… let’s just talk! This is going to be long and I’m sorry! As we come up on a year and a half of being open, we have started to find some things that work for us and some things that don’t.
Some of you won’t mind these changes, and some of you will. Sadly, that is the caveat of running a small business; you can’t make everyone happy all the time.
Going forward, ALL new client appointments and non recurring appointments have to be requested via booking on the website. There will be very few exceptions to this. We are aware that our booking system can sometimes not allow multiple dog bookings and there are some other glitches, so if that is the case - you can book one pet and then call us so we can add the rest. If you’re just having trouble using the website in general, I would suggest trying a different browser. We will allow bookings at the front desk at the Watertown location, and you will have to pay the 25% deposit toward your groom that day. If you are on recurring appointments or rebook at time of pick up, none of this applies to you and it will be business as usual for you.
One of the reasons for this is that not only are we seeing an increase in no shows from new clients where we waived the deposit, but also an increase in the email forms not being completed. These forms are NOT optional. Some of the questions on the forms are for insurance purposes. At the end of the day, we want everyone to be safe and covered in the event of an emergency. One example; If you neglect to inform us that your dog bites, and someone gets bit - it is a mess for you that we don’t want, whereas if we know your dog bites and we are able to take the proper precautions to avoid injury, our insurance is more likely to cover what needs to be covered. We will no longer be accepting online appointment requests until the forms are filled out. It protects you, it protects us and it protects your pet. Also, our forms will be updated later this week, so if you have filled them out before - you will need to please fill them out again.
If you arrive more than 5 minutes early for your appointment at the CARTHAGE location, PLEASE wait in your car after you let us know you’re here. This location is not our main location, but it is our most important location to us. We use this location as a convenient option for our Carthage area clients but also we also use this location for our very anxious and/or reactive dogs. We try to space our appointments out to prevent overlap, but when dealing with an anxious or aggressive dog, that doesn’t always work out as planned and the last thing we want is our client walking out the door with their dog reactive XL dog not expecting a leashless (please leash your dogs if you’re not carrying them) XS dog standing there walking in 25 minutes early. If we can take your dog early, we will tell you to come on back to the salon, or at the very least we will have time to secure our current dog if it can go in a kennel. If the dog we are working on spills into your appointment time a bit (which is super rare), we will always let you know via text, call or through our booking system that we just need a couple extra minutes. This almost never happens, so if it’s your appointment time and we haven’t asked you to wait, come on back. But PLEASE don’t come back early unless you’ve texted first.
We don’t do a lot of kenneling as we are *mostly* 1 dog to 1 groomer at a time, so it’s pretty common, especially in Carthage, to have dogs loose behind the door playing or sleeping. It is imperative to please be mindful of that when arriving with your dogs. Do not show up unannounced at our Carthage location to book appointments. It shouldn’t have to be said, but it is behind the owners house and their children don’t know how to answer your questions. They are also teenagers, so if you’re expecting customer service in that scenario… 😂
Again, the Carthage location is a luxury currently. If you choose not to see it that way because it is at the owners home, then please book your appointments for the Watertown salon. We want to continue to groom in Carthage, so please don’t put us in a position to stop accepting new clients there.
We have a groomer coming back from maternity leave and adjusting to life as a new mom with limited child care. We also have a groomer about to leave to go on maternity leave. We have a groomer that’s very part time and we have a groomer who’s almost at capacity for clients as she needs to focus on our next growth spurt. We are doing our best to accommodate as much as we can when we can, but we are spread thin.
If we can’t answer your call, leave a message. We will call you back when we can. You don’t have to call 8 times every 2 minutes. I promise we return calls. It might take a day, but we’re going to call you back if you leave a message. Better yet? Text us. We love texts! (315) 775-8761 is our salon number. It goes to both salons at all times. If you receive texts from us from a different number, that is likely our booking system and you can text that number, but you cannot call it. We will not answer outside of normal business hours. Sometimes those hours vary for us, but we’re not answering your texts at 10pm. Feel free to text whenever you want, just don’t expect an answer right away. That being said, we don’t know when the adoption events are coming back to the mall, yes we groom cats, and no we don’t generally take walk ins. 😉
At the end of the day, we are a small business. We are humans and we deserve respect.
We aren’t a corporate grooming salon who has 4 other dogs booked at the same time as your dog. We rely on you confirming and showing up for your appointments, understanding that we take our time on your pets so they love not only us but the grooming process as well, and most importantly - we rely on the mutual trust that we spend our time building with you and your pets. You aren’t going to find groomers here just looking to get your pet done and gone so they can move onto the next. You’re going to find groomers here who genuinely care about your pets, how your day is going, the 4.0 GPA your kid has, and who want to hear your life stories. You’re going to find groomers here who notice things going on with your dog that weren’t 6 weeks ago and we’re going to tell you how much your dog hates certain things so we can work on it with them instead of keeping it from you because we’re scared you’ll take your dog somewhere else.
We are a small group of groomers who left the corporate grooming world because we care about what we do and we care about our clients. We don’t always have the same luxuries like being able to do a walk in haircut or leave your dog for 8 hours without any repercussions.
But I feel like we offer something much better. Whether you agree or not is up to you, but our clients… they know.
Our policies are going to get stricter, and to our long time clients, we are sorry. This isn’t how we want to run our business, but it is how we have been pushed to run our business so that we can take care of our employees.
That being said, remember that time we said we had big news coming soon and we made a comment about how we didn’t anticipate any snags? Seems there’s a snag. 😂🫠 We are definitely still hoping to make the announcement soon as we want to do big things by Christmas - but life doesn’t always go as planned. (Who am I even kidding, I’m pretty sure my big mouth has told almost everyone already anyway!)
Thank you to our clients who are always understanding and respectful. You guys are the ones who keep us going from day to day. The clients we can’t wait to see every few weeks to catch up with. Or the clients who simply just text us between grooms to keep up with us anyways lol. Just, thank you. Truly.
Thanks for making it this far into our Ted Talk.
We are all just trying to keep on swimming. 🫶🏼 🐠
