Centre Stage Dog Grooming

17/10/2026

https://unit.link/katie-rourke-dowding

Katie Rourke Dowding - K9 professional with 30+ years in film training, master grooming, education and innovation.

05/10/2026

OWEN EXPLAINS NO-SHOWS

Apparently Hoomans have invented something called a “no-show”. This means you tell Mother you are coming, she saves you a chunk of her day, turns other Hoomans away because that time now belongs to you… and then you simply do not appear. I find this concept deeply troubling, mainly because I have investigated the economics and there appears to be a serious Scooby Snack problem.

I do not understand pounds. Pounds are imaginary Hooman numbers that live in phones and occasionally make Mother swear. I understand Scooby Snacks. So, in my economy, Mother does a job and receives Scooby Snacks. Those Scooby Snacks then pay for important things like food, heating, electricity and, presumably, Gin. If somebody books an appointment worth six Scooby Snacks and then does not turn up, those six Scooby Snacks are irretrievably abolished from Mother’s income for that day. She cannot earn them back by selling the same walkie time to somebody else because that piece of the day has already happened. They have not been postponed. They have not moved to tomorrow. They are simply gone.

Then there is the time itself, which I understand perfectly because time can be measured in WALKIES. Imagine somebody is booked for 10am. Mother is ready and waiting, but nobody appears. She waits because Hoomans are sometimes late. By 10:20 she finally gets a reply to her text asking where they are... they are not coming. Excellent, you might think. Surprise walkies for Owen! Except the next dog is arriving at 10:45 and there is no longer enough walkie time to get all the way around our walk and back before they arrive. Mother could perhaps do it if she ran, but she has a new hip and a stuffed knee, so absolutely not. I could run it, obviously. Several times. Possibly while carrying a rabbit. This is not relevant.

The important bit is that the missing Hooman has not merely taken the time they were booked for. By the time Mother knows they are definitely not coming, there often isn’t enough usable time left to do anything meaningful with it. She cannot rewind the clock to 11am, phone one of the people she turned away and say, “Would you like an appointment twenty minutes ago?” Walkie time, like appointment time, is a once-only deal. Once it has gone, it has gone.

Now, because Hoomans are apparently not always reliable custodians of either walkie time or Scooby Snacks, Mother uses Fresha. Fresha keeps what I shall call a Scooby Snack Card safely on file. But here is the important bit: you do not get to put your Scooby Snack Card into the system and then act surprised later. To confirm an appointment using that card, you are shown the payment policy and agree to it as part of the process. That policy says what happens if you cancel too late or simply vanish into the mist.

At Centre Stage, giving less than 48 hours’ notice starts costing Scooby Snacks. Cancel within 24 hours and Fresha can retrieve 50% of the agreed snack allocation. Cancel on the day, or simply forget that Mother exists and fail to turn up at all, and Fresha can retrieve 100%. This is not Fresha rummaging through your pockets while you sleep. It is Fresha carrying out the policy attached to the Scooby Snack Card that you agreed to when you confirmed the appointment.

And then we come to reminders. Sometimes Hoomans see the words “your appointment may be cancelled” and apparently interpret them as “your appointment has been cancelled”. These are not the same sentence. “May be cancelled” means something could happen. “Will be cancelled” means it is definitely going to happen. “Has been cancelled” means somebody actually did it. I am a pug and even I can see that these are three different things.

Reminders are also a courtesy, not ownership of the appointment. If Mother tells me on Monday that we are going for a walk on Tuesday, I do not require an email, a WhatsApp message, a push notification and a small brass band on Tuesday morning before I consider the arrangement legally binding. I remember the walk. In fact, I begin reminding her about it several hours early.

So if you have booked somebody’s time and you no longer need it, cannot make it or have simply changed your mind, please tell them while there is still enough time for somebody else to use it. Forty-eight hours before the appointment is appropriate. Small businesses do not have an endless warehouse full of spare hours hidden out the back. They have one working day, divided into chunks, and once a chunk has passed it cannot ever be sold again.

Same with Scooby Snacks, really. Although if one of those goes missing, I probably know where it went.

03/10/2026

I have two spaces left on Monday 5th October's clinic - 12.00pm and 3.30 pm. Give me a call if either of these works for you.

03/10/2026

How to Have a Naked Dog After Your Holiday

If your goal is to come home from holiday and immediately arrange for your fluffy dog to be stripped down to approximately the aerodynamic profile of a seal, there is a surprisingly reliable method.

Step one: keep the coat nice and long before you go away because you “don’t want them too short”.

Step two: leave them with a relative, house sitter or kennels for a fortnight and assume they’ll somehow maintain a coat that normally needs regular, thorough brushing, combing and proper drying.

Step three: add rain. (This bit is important.)

Dogs live at ground level. Their legs, tummy, chest and feet are constantly collecting wet grass, mud and puddle water and in winter I genuinely doubt some of them ever get completely dry before they’re wet again the next day.

For a little experiment, put on a pair of wet jeans, sit on the floor in them for two hours and see how cheerful you feel. Then imagine doing it daily.

And while we’re on the subject, I’m already hearing, “I don’t want him as short this time because it’s getting colder.” It sounds logical. More hair equals warmer dog, surely?

Not necessarily.

A long coat that is wet for hours is not keeping your dog cosy. It is keeping your dog wet and chilly. A shorter coat that dries quickly can actually be far more comfortable than a long damp one hanging around the legs, belly and chest all afternoon.

If your dog genuinely feels the cold, put a decent fleece or waterproof coat on them. It keeps them warm, comes off when you get home and can be thrown straight in the washing machine when it is covered in mud.

Much easier than trying to put the entire dog through a 40-degree cycle.

Now hand the long-coated dog to someone who loves them dearly but doesn’t groom professionally. They take them for a lovely wet walk, give them a vigorous rub with a towel and brush over the top afterwards.

Congratulations. You are now making felt.

Towel rubbing doesn’t necessarily dry a long coat properly and enthusiastic rubbing can tangle it further. Meanwhile, the coat underneath stays damp, compressed and increasingly tangled while the surface continues to look deceptively fluffy.

By the time you get home, everyone says, “But we brushed them every day!” And I believe them. Unfortunately, they brushed the bit they could see. Underneath, your dog may now be wearing something structurally closer to Axminster carpet.

At this point there is no magic spray, secret brush or groomer wizardry that can safely turn two weeks of compacted felt back into a flowing coat. If it cannot be combed away without hurting the dog, it comes off.

Hello, Naked Dave.

The really painful part is that this could often have been avoided by simply having the dog groomed much shorter before the holiday.

Yes, they would have looked shorter when you dropped them off. That is rather the point.

A shorter coat dries faster, collects less muck, is much easier for the carer to maintain and gives everyone far more room for error. Two weeks later it will already have grown back and your groomer is far more likely to be dealing with a few snags rather than carrying out a full-scale wool demolition.

This is particularly relevant now the kids are back at school and lots of people are escaping for a peaceful holiday while everywhere is quieter.

If your dog is going too, or staying with someone else, think about what will actually be easiest and most comfortable for them while you’re away.

Because there are two ways to end up with a short-haired dog after your holiday.

You can choose it before you go.

Or the matting can choose it for you.

25/09/2026

Why I don't publish a grooming price list

“Given vets now have to be transparent about their prices, do you have a price list on your website?”

Nope.

I don’t have a published grooming price list and I probably never will.

Because the nano-second I put “Cockapoo from £xx” on my website, somebody will decide that £xx is now the legally binding international price of grooming every creature ever described as a Cockapoo.

Regardless of the fact that their particular Cockapoo appears to have been infused with Labradonkey and Kangapoo to improve height, coat density and stamina, weighs 30kg soaking wet and has the strength of a determined Shetland Pony who has just spotted some particularly succulent grass on the verge whilst exiting the starvation paddock for his laminitis.

Then there’s the coat.

One Cockapoo might be 7kg with a relatively easy coat, brushed properly at home and groomed every four weeks.

Another might be four times the size, have the coat density of a bath mat, arrive every twelve weeks and require considerably more time, product, equipment and physical handling.

They are not the same job.

Behaviour matters too.

A dog that stands happily while I groom it is a very different appointment from Milo, who quit training classes after the first pre-beginners session because “he didn’t like the yappy little dogs and was traumatised” and has subsequently spent four years perfecting his impression of an alligator whenever somebody touches his feet.

So instead of publishing meaningless “from” prices, new clients are invited for an assessment.

I look at the actual dog standing in front of me.

We discuss the owner’s expectations, the style they want, their lifestyle, how often they intend to visit, what maintenance they are realistically prepared to do at home and how the dog behaves about being handled.

I look at size, coat type, coat condition, grooming history and the amount of work actually involved.

Then I quote a firm price based on the evidence in front of me.

That, to me, is genuine price transparency.

You know what your dog’s groom will cost before we start.

No vague “from £65” followed by six extras at the till because apparently shampoo, nails and having ears were optional upgrades.

And equally, I’m not expected to groom a 30kg Labradonkey for the same price as an 8kg spaniel-cross because somebody gave them both the fashionable name “Cockapoo”.

Fair pricing should work both ways.

You should know what you are going to pay.

And I should be able to price the actual job I am being asked to do.

15/09/2026

YOUR PERFECT CHRISTMAS GROOM STARTS NOW

If you want your dog looking gorgeous for Christmas, the planning does not start with the Christmas appointment.

It starts about two grooms before that.

For many dogs the ideal grooming interval is around 4–6 weeks. That means the beautiful December groom is usually built on what happens in October and November.

Skip one of those appointments or push it back by a couple of weeks and you haven’t simply moved a date in the diary. You have added extra coat growth, tangles, friction, dirt and general dogginess.

In simple terms, two weeks more knotty can easily mean an hour less pretty.

And Christmas is absolutely not the time to discover this.

Every dog has a certain amount of time allocated in the diary. It has to. That time has to cover bathing, drying, nails, coat preparation, clipping, sc******ng, styling and finishing.

If the first 40 minutes are spent undoing knots that could have been prevented by regular brushing and keeping to the grooming schedule, those 40 minutes have to come from somewhere.

There is no secret cupboard at the back of the salon containing spare Christmas minutes.

We CAN spend ages brushing out a coat. We do have those skills. But that comes at the expense of detailing a beautiful muzzle, perfecting conical legs or creating that lovely mushroom head.

The more time spent repairing the coat, the less time there is for the actual hairdressing.

So if you want your dog looking fabulous on Christmas Eve but decide to skip the November appointment because “it’s only a few extra weeks”, just remember what I’ll be seeing.

You’ll be picturing a slightly fluffier dog.

I’ll be picturing a small walking hay bale arriving on one of the busiest grooming days of the year.

Those are not the same thing.

Think of professional grooming like going to the hairdresser. You do not stop washing and brushing your own hair because you have another appointment booked. You do the everyday maintenance yourself then pay the professional to do the parts you cannot do, do not want to do or do not have the equipment and skill to do properly.

That is our job too.

You keep the coat reasonably clean, brushed and manageable. We use the clippers, trimmers, scissors, products and experience to create the style.

And at Christmas, that matters even more.

A well-maintained dog arriving for its December appointment means we can spend our time making it look beautiful.

A neglected one means quite a lot of the appointment becomes agricultural.

So if you want the perfect Christmas groom, don’t just book December.

Protect the October and November appointments too.

That is where the Christmas magic actually starts.

11/09/2026

For the first time in around 10 years, Centre Stage Dog Grooming has spaces available for new clients.

Our books have effectively been closed for a decade, but sadly we have lost a number of our lovely long-standing dogs recently through old age and accidents. A couple have also had the audacity to emigrate to Australia and South Africa, which is frankly a little too far to travel back for a haircut.

So, we have a small number of spaces available, but we are looking for a fairly specific type of client.

Centre Stage is for owners who want their dog groomed to a high standard and consider things like nail grinding and teeth cleaning part of a normal groom rather than optional extras. Ear plucking and a**l gland expression are only carried out when they are actually necessary.

Dogs need to be 12kg or under and I don’t handstrip.

Tiny, elderly, frail and fragile dogs are very much my speciality. I’m also happy to work with nervous dogs and dogs who may be difficult or aggressive, provided their owner is willing to work with me so we can make grooming safer and less stressful for everyone involved.

I’m certainly not the cheapest groomer around, nor do I try to be. My prices are all-inclusive. Whatever your dog needs during that groom, they get. There are no extra charges for special facial shampoo, teeth cleaning, scent, collar charms or the little finishing touches.

I’ve been grooming professionally since 2003 and hold the International Certified Master Groomer qualification. Before grooming, I worked as a dog trainer from 1990 to 2003, including training dogs for film and television, so I’ve spent rather a lot of my life working out what makes dogs tick.

If you think your dog might be a good fit, you can find more information at:
http://www.centrestagedoggrooming.co.uk

WhatsApp is by far the best way to contact me:
07767 341424

Centre Stage Dog Grooming is owned and run by Award Winning Groomer, Katie Rourke Dowding. Be assured, your dog is in the very best hands here.

09/08/2026

I always make something pretty to put on your dog’s collar when it leaves Centre Stage freshly groomed.

This summer I’ve been slightly obsessed with all things Paracord - I thought these little bones were spectacularly cute.

I didn’t, however, realise what brilliant “Dirt-O-Meters” they would be!

This is a genuine “before and after” scenario!

03/08/2026

I’m very happy with today’s Teeth Cleaning Clinic. The next one is on Monday 7th September.

13/06/2026

What’s your tip to get a finish like this?