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PetSmart’s Pet Grooming – a Review

Anal Glands, Keeshond, Petsmart

People should be wary of pet grooming places that they have never been to before, especially if they don’t know anyone else who has been to that specific location. For insurance reasons, customers aren’t allowed in the back of these places. The rule is understandable, however, you are handing your little animal child over to strangers. And that can be dangerous. It is safer to take your pet to your long trusted veterinarian for grooming. Grooming is a service that most veterinarian offices provide at a reasonable cost.

I used to have an eleven year old Australian Shepherd/Border Collie mixed dog. He was a little overweight at 51 pounds, but not really. I always took my dog to his veterinarian to be bathed. Almost two years ago when I called my veterinarian for an appointment, though, they didn’t have time to do a bath in addition to seeing him. And my dog really needed a bath. So I made the appointment for them to see him, and then started looking for somewhere else to do the bath.

PetSmart was the first place that I considered. I had heard only praise about PetSmart locations in other areas. And since we had one here in Lynchburg, VA, I decided to call for an appointment. They told me that they have to keep the dog for two to three hours. I thought this was rather odd since that wasn’t how my vet’s office did it. They explained that they wash the dogs, towel dry the dogs, and then leave them to air dry. They admitted that it’s faster to do the dogs in a group and that they keep them so long because most people don’t want their dog until it’s dry. I told them that I might as well take my dog sooner if that were the case and to call me when they were finished. Then, I walked down to a sandwich place to eat while I waited.

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I surprised them when I came back earlier than they had expected. My eyes immediately locked onto my dog. He was tied to the outside of a cage on about a foot long little piece of rope—his nose bleeding.

What I couldn’t understand was why they didn’t call me. My dog was obviously upset and needed me. Then I glared at the lady behind the little desk. She put my dog’s leash on him and handed it to me. The dog smelled worse than when I had brought him in because they put this stinking dog cologne on him. He apparently hated it too since he was sneezing. I told the woman that I didn’t request dog cologne, and she said that they do it automatically. Getting no where with her, I told her to ring me up. When the price was higher than it was supposed to be, I demanded to see the manager.

A lady came in and I explained to her that not only was my dog bleeding, but that they did all these extras services that I didn’t request. My bill was about 50% higher than what they had quoted me over the phone. They claimed not to know why his nose was bleeding, and suggested that he may have had something dried on his nose that came off in the tub. She twisted the whole situation trying to say that it was my fault. She removed the extra services from the bill, but I was appalled that the bath wasn’t free considering the dog’s nose was still bleeding.

After I got the dog in the car, his nose finally stopped bleeding. I was thankful that I had already made an appointment with my vet about the wart on his head so that they could also look at his nose. The vet waved off my concern about the wart saying that it was harmless. I told the girl assisting the vet about the dog’s nose bleeding and how rude the manager at PetSmart had been. The girl looked at me strangely, and then declared that the manager of PetSmart in Lynchburg was not a woman. I really wasn’t surprised to learn that woman had lied about being the store manager.

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My dog had always been healthy and never had any problems. A month after this experience, his anal glands became infected and he had a stomach virus from licking the infection. He was on antibiotics for two weeks and his diet consisted of only homemade chicken broth. My dog became better and he was eating like he should. We took him back to the vet and they agreed that he was better.

My dog died two weeks later. I’m not saying that it’s PetSmart’s fault, but I don’t think his experience there helped him either. I called the real manager at PetSmart and told him about how the female assistant manager impersonated him, about the rudeness, my dog’s nose… He said that he’d love the chance to make it up. Then I admitted that the dog had died. He was shocked and went quiet for a few moments. He told me if I got another dog to give him the chance to make it right.

While they didn’t kill my dog, something did happen there to make his nose bleed. And I’m not convinced that he didn’t catch something while he was at PetSmart. For all I know, they put all the dogs in one big tub together… But either way, it wasn’t PetSmart’s fault that he died.

When I did get another dog, a Keeshond, I called the manager of PetSmart again. He had me bring the new dog in for a free grooming to make up for the previous service not being free. But mostly, he wanted to show me what an excellent place they were. I requested for it not to be the same person who bathed my previous dog. When I arrived, the groomer came out to meet me. She was so friendly and they did an excellent job. It was very hard to believe that this was the same place, and only two months later from my first visit to them.

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The groomer was so nice in fact that I had decided to continue using PetSmart as long as it was the same groomer. However, things didn’t work out with that new adult dog and I took him back to the person I got him from. Knowing that I couldn’t love another dog as much as I did the one that died, I never got another dog.

I recommend PetSmart in Lynchburg. But be sure that you meet the groomer, even if you have to ask to meet them. However, I still think using your own vet’s office is better.