Vital Pet Care

07/20/2026

If you guys need help finding a breeder feel free to send me a message.🩷🐶

06/19/2026

06/16/2026

“Just get it done - the dog will eventually learn how to behave."

If I had a penny for every time I've came across this advice...

If I'm to be completely honest, there was a time when perhaps I did push a dog too far because in my head I felt it was "welfare" - and there definitely was a time where I believed a quicker session was always kinder than a slightly longer one.

But over the years I’ve come to realise that:

👉 It's not so "black and white" - every dog is different.

👉 Every grooming appointment leaves a lasting impression.

👉 Every interaction teaches the dog something about grooming.

👉 Every experience contributes to how well a dog feels overall.

I've realised that when we focus solely on getting the job done, we often compromise on the dog's comfort and overall welfare...

Suddenly, the dog:

🐾 becomes more anxious at every appointment.

🐾 starts resisting more, any form of handling and restraint.

🐾 learns that their communication is ignored and resorts to more obvious signs of distress.

🐾 eventually reaches a point where grooming feels too overwhelming.

And as long as each experience remains a struggle, the consequences will advance - appointment by appointment, experience by experience.

Until one day the dog appears to have "snapped out of nowhere"...

To prevent this, we need to think BEYOND what we want to achieve regarding the coat, and think more about what the dog in front of us NEEDS right in this very moment.

I've said it once, and I'll keep saying it until the industry has an industry-wide change of view, we shouldn't be asking ourselves whether we finished the groom as per our own expectations and desires...

We should always be asking:

“What is the dog learning from this experience, and is it helping them?”

05/31/2026

NO FACES NEAR FACES..
I say this lots as I work with families that need help getting their dog used to children in the household. I give this advice as it can prevent bite incidents.

Dogs often don’t like faces right near theirs as it’s not how they communicate and they can find it confrontational and quite intimidating. Also, if we are going to have an incident and a dog snaps, the last thing we want is a bite to the face 😢

To avoid bite incidents children’s faces should NEVER be near a dogs face- no lying down on the sofa with heads together, no leaning over the dog to kiss them, no toddlers popping up to face height of a dog on a sofa, no toddlers crawling towards dogs on dog beds etc.

If a dog gets worried and tries to use distance increasing behavior- a growl, or even an air snap to ask the child to move away, it’s a huge worry of faces are anywhere near the dogs face. It’s a totally avoidable source of risk.

It’s also good advice for adults too! This photo is just a tiny amount of the blood that came out of my head two years ago as I had an accidental injury from my northern inuit.

I feel asleep with my head on her chest (as I often do, completely ignoring my own advice 😳), as she’s really cuddly and likes it. She woke up and did a huge open mouthed sneeze (she’s quite a dramatic sneezer)… and a canine tooth went into the top of my head. She has humongous canines and it caused a wound in my scalp that poured and poured with blood. My house looked like a crime scene.

Totally accidental, it was just a sneeze, but it could have been even worse. Hurt my head (lots) and also hurt her tooth but it could have been my face. It’s made me really remind my kids not to put their faces right next to the dogs (and my dogs LOVE my kids).

We also model for our kids with our own behaviour and it’s no good us telling out kids not to put their head on the dog if we are doing it ourselves!

So really- NO faces near faces and NO faces exceptions (even for me and I’m trying hard to stick to it!)

I also still startle every time Sylvi sneezes and that’s two years later!

Laura McAuliffe 2026 Dog Communication

01/12/2026

01/03/2026

Humanity over vanity 🙌

Humanity over vanity
What does this mean? In dog grooming this means picking your pet over everything else. It’s when we don’t dry the face bone dry or we scissor the legs instead of using the clippers. We are choosing humanity when we shave Matting instead of brushing it out.
It’s a culmination of knowledge, skill, technique, experience and compassion.

By choosing humanity over vanity we are helping to build a confident trusting grooming dog with positive experiences.

We don’t want your dog to reach its threshold. We don’t ever want to get them to a place where they are shaking, pooping, crying, biting or puking in fear. It is our job together to help them instead of hindering them. Communicate with your groomer, know how they will handle your dogs specific needs. Will they hold them down, push them through it, brush until they’re both crying? Or will they slow down, try a different approach, give breaks, shave the matting?