08/19/2026
All American Grooming Show 2026…
What. A. Weekend. ❤️🐾✂️
It’s taken me a few days to collect my thoughts from an absolutely amazing weekend at the All American Grooming Show in Schaumburg, and I’m still not even sure where to start. It’s kind of a scrabbled mess, but here we are lol… 😂
Thursday we unloaded the trailer and got the Sharp Edges booth ready to go, and Friday the trade show opened and y’all, we were BUSY all weekend! So many sharpening drop-offs, so many conversations, and so many fellow groomers looking for new equipment.
I absolutely LOVED getting to help other groomers find the right shears, combs, blades, brushes, and tools for what they do. There’s something really fun about helping someone pick out new equipment and getting them set up with something you know they’re going to love using.
Saturday, I actually left Schaumburg to drive home because I had promised E I would be there to watch her cheer. I was about halfway home when I found out the game had been cancelled because of the weather. 🤦♀️😂
But I had promised her I’d be home Saturday, so home I went anyway. We went to lunch, I stopped by my shop to grab my grooming equipment, and then I turned around and headed right back to Schaumburg. About 2 hours and 45 minutes EACH WAY. 😅
I made it back in time to help at the booth until the trade show closed, and then we ended the night having some AMAZING BBQ with the Sharp Edges crew.
Then came Sunday…
Sunday morning, I checked in for the Rescue Round Up competition.
For anyone who isn’t familiar with Rescue Round Up, dogs from a local rescue or shelter are brought in to receive a complete makeover. Each dog is assigned a number, and each groomer randomly draws a number. You don’t get to look at the dogs beforehand. You don’t get to pick the one you want. You draw your number, and that’s your dog.
I drew lucky number 7.
Lucky number 7 was Mr. Toby. ❤️
Mr. Toby is a little Maltese mix, over at Reach Rescue Inc, and when I saw him, my heart sank.
He was severely matted, honestly, it was the worst condition I have ever personally dealt with on a dog in competition. He wasn’t just matted. He was pelted, with matting so severe that his legs were essentially casted in it. Not the worst I’ve groomed ever, but the worst in comp for sure.
At that point though, I really didn’t care about the competition anymore. The matting just had to come off.
Before we started, Mr. Toby had been nothing but sweet. But as soon as we got the go-ahead and I picked up my clippers, he absolutely panicked.
He thrashed, he tried to bite, he was scared, and it caught me off guard a little. Normally, when I work with pups in this condition, they are in complete shock and shut down. They usually don’t have any fight in them and just let me do what I need to do. I do a lot of work with my local shelter and rescue. I am used to working with the worst of the worst. Mr. Toby however, had LOTS of fight in him. Trying to safely remove that level of matting from a terrified dog was incredibly difficult to say the least and incredibly heartbreaking.
I knew the matting itself was most likely causing him discomfort. I also knew that working underneath those tight mats could be uncomfortable. Add in the noise, the environment, being surrounded by people, and a dog who had no idea what was happening to him… my heart hurt for him, but those mats still had to come off.
It took a village to get Mr. Toby through his groom.
Ashley Riemer, helped me until she had to leave to get ready for her own competition. A groomer from the crowd, who was there watching his wife compete, stepped in to help as well. Then Courtney, from Retro, helped at the end. They held him, comforted him, and helped me safely get through what needed to be done. (Also sacrificing their fingers 😬) I did provide Mr. Toby got LOTS of breaks throughout the process. I tried to get him to decompress between each step.
I shaved his body first and then headed to the bath, which, funny enough, was apparently Mr. Toby’s spa-day moment because he LOVED the bath 😂 and being carried around. Afterwards, he was definitely feeling himself a little bit. ❤️
I tried to go back in and do some finish work. I wanted to even up his haircut, clean up his face, and make him look as polished as I could. I was able to trim his visor and remove a couple remaining mats around his ears, but he started panicking again and going after my shears. He didn’t have a perfect haircut.There were things I wanted desperately to fix. But, all of the things that needed to be done were done. Continuing at that point would have been for the haircut, not for Mr. Toby. So I called it.
After I finished and was waiting for the judges to be done I questioned EVERYTHING. While I wasn’t expecting placement, I had already removed myself from that idea, I was worried what the judges were going to say…
Grooming on a competition stage is already intimidating. You’re surrounded by other groomers, people are watching you work, and you’re being evaluated by some of the most talented groomers in our industry.
I replayed that groom over and over in my head.
Did I push him too much?
Did I make the right decisions?
What could I have done differently?
Should I have dropped out of the competition completely, and tried grooming him somewhere quiet and secluded?
Should I have stopped completely and asked the rescue if he could be groomed another day with medication from a vet? I could have driven back up there.
Would any of that have made a difference?
Could I have done better for him?
It was the most emotionally draining grooms I have ever done on stage. I knew his haircut wasn’t beautiful. But, I also knew that at some point, I had to stop worrying what I wanted his finished groom to look like and listen to the dog standing on my table.
Mr. Toby had had enough.
So we were done.
And somehow, out of a groom that I walked away from questioning myself over and over again, came something I will probably never forget…
I am incredibly honored to have received the Most Compassionate Groomer Award at the 2026 All American Rescue Round Up. ❤️
Of all the things I could have been recognized for that day, I don’t think there is an award that could have meant more to me.
Because Mr. Toby didn’t need me to give him the prettiest haircut on that stage.
He needed me to get those painful mats off of him, keep him as safe as I possibly could, give him breaks when he needed them, and know when enough was enough.
Sometimes being a good groomer isn’t about creating the perfect finished groom. Sometimes it’s knowing when to put the shears down.
Mr. Toby, you certainly weren’t the groom I expected when I pulled lucky number 7, but I think you were exactly the dog I was supposed to get. ❤️🐾
I pray that your find some lil ol ladies lap to cuddle on… I pray you find your forever home…
Thank you God for placing Toby in my path, thank you for trusting me with him, as I trust in you and your guidance.
