05/09/2026
Behavior success story ❤️
Mr. Finnegan has been coming to us for almost 2 years now.
He’s always been a sweet boy, but our bodies USED to ache for days after grooming him. He hated it. He would fear bite during drying, pull against us while trying to clipper or scissor his legs (and determined dogs are STRONG 😅), and bark nonstop… which usually triggered every other dog in the salon to join in.
Now?
He jumps into the tub and onto the table with a simple prompt. He stands perfectly still for all grooming needs, and not a peep — even when my personal dog Zilla is pretending to be the doorbell 😏
Honestly, our biggest issue with him these days is making sure we don’t trip over him while he’s laying at our feet waiting for pickup 😂
We have so many behavior rehabilitation success stories, and we plan to continue recognizing the dogs who have made huge improvements over time.
But HOW do we do it?
I wish I could say it’s one simple trick… but the truth is, it takes a lot of emotional regulation from myself and my staff.
Every visit, we treat our “difficult” dogs the same way. They may not be excited to see us… but we are excited to see them.
Yes, difficult dogs can be frustrating sometimes — we’re human too. But they didn’t choose to be there. They have a right to protest. WE chose this career, which means we owe it to our dog clients to have control over our own emotions so we can give them the reassurance they need to feel safe.
That’s really it.
We accept them.
We love them.
And we give them the opportunity to eventually accept us… and love us too ❤️
