Visit to Our Pet Store@Serangoon

Please note that this post is created to share our personal experience, if you are unable to accept honest and/or straightforward opinions then this blog may not be suitable for you.

The first time I met the director (or one of the directors) was a guy named Bernard. Bernard to me was one of the most down to earth groomer I've met, the reason to meeting him was to talk about Yorkshire Terriers as I was planning to get one in future. When I first met Bernard, he was still having his late lunch and had to finish it quickly to speak to me. I learned a lot from him on that day and I am still thankful even if it is already a year later.

Since the shop had won awards and Bernard had been telling me to try out his service, i decided to try them to help Amber create a new style. During slot booking with Bernard, I shared the style i was interested in through photos and told him that he could suggest anything according to his experience, he then referred me to a senior groomer due to our budget constrain. Senior groomer was about $88-$98 and $120 onwards for director's cut under Bernard. 

On the day of grooming, Bernard actually texted me again asking for the cut request as he lost all the photos, honestly i felt a little bit uneasy as it was too last minute, i'd expect that he had everything ready for the senior groomer. We reached on time, Bernard and the senior groomer greeted us at the door, I highlighted the cut again but after he did a brief check on Amber, he mentioned that her hair did not have enough volume for the style required. I agreed and allowed him to make decisions based on what was best. We were told to wait about 2.5 hours for Amber to be done, and would be contacted 30 minutes before she was ready. After waiting for 2.5 hours, we decided to slowly take a cab to the shop believing that Amber was about to be done since there were no calls. When we reached, we were told that we had to wait up to 5 hours instead of 2.5, after checking with another groomer, he told us that grooming is always 4-5 hours. We were confused and was wondering why no one called me to tell highlight that it was delayed. We simply waited in the store and this other groomer was kind enough to talk to us about their products so that we won't be bored, he also mentioned that they will try to get Amber done ASAP, i was a bit concerned about rushing but decided not to think too much about it.

After a total wait of about 4.5 hours (instead of 5), Amber looked really cute after grooming and I had no complains about it. After doing a brief check her body seemed fine. However when I was about to reach home, I noticed that Amber was not behaving as per usual, she was hiding in her bag and when I reached out to pat her head, she growled at me. I've never seen her behaving this way after grooming, so I decided to text Bernard to ask if there was anything abnormal during the grooming process, he assured me that it was fine and it could be due to being new to the place. The grooming place couldn't be seen as it was in another room without see through glass, i had peeped into the room and could see a lot of tables with dogs being groomed by different groomers all at once, it looked more like a grooming school in my opinion. While waiting outside i did hear lots of barks and fights going on, not sure if it was their in-house dog, i was wondering if these were affecting Amber's mood.

The next day, I saw 2 patches of redness on Amber's body, i did thought of it being cause by grooming but decided to wait a bit more before reacting. On the third day, the 2 patches became clusters of dry skin with red/pinkish blisters surrounding it. I decided to text Bernard again, asking if it could be caused by shaver or something else, he did reply but he just mentioned that they were using thick blades and sterilised. Frankly speaking I was taken aback as he did not show any signs of concern, there were no follow ups after that. No asking how was she, nor advice me to take her to the vet or anything like that.

Note that the green is just aloe vera cream

3 weeks forward due to my trip, Amber's wound started to clear up but I decided to get the vet to do a test on her skin just to make sure as I could be overthinking. The vet diagnosed Amber's skin to be caused by chemical reaction from the shampoo used, it couldn't be from us because she hasn't been bathed for 2 weeks before grooming, and also she has not been bathed till the day of vet visit. How did shampoo cause chemical burn? Well the vet said that some groomers like to squeeze the bottle of shampoo on dog's skin directly instead of spreading it around their body or on their hands first, this direct method although is faster, can actually cause the dog's skin to be burnt and then infected. I'm sure Amber did feel some sort of discomfort but she has a hardy personality so it doesn't show much, her growling after grooming could be a sign that something was wrong. The vet also mentioned that she could be bald there forever, it was kinda depressing to hear that.

Skin all healed up after a month, just no hair!

As for the groomer part, the lady handling Amber didn't even speak to me much, she'd just pass message to Bernard and he'll pass the message to me even though I'm right in front of her. During collection she also didn't appear to meet or talk to us, I'm not sure if this is the usual process at this place. She sounded like a Chinese national, name was Yaya or something.

I hope this post serve as a constructive view as I've had high hopes for this place due to my past experience with Bernard. I really do wish someday I could change my view but this time round, I wasn't impressed by the service rendered.