Recently I stumbled onto a post with an owner sharing his experience about his dog being humped by a large dog at a grooming centre. After I commented on his post saying that this could cause his dog to be fearful, I was notified by Facebook whenever more comments were made on that thread.
In those comments, I saw a few that caught my attention. Out of 10 comments, there were about 3 that were made by individual groomers themselves, whether they were the one handling this owner’s dog I do not know and wouldn’t assume, but they were extremely defensive in my opinion. If you are interested in the content, they were trying to explain that it is impossible to prevent other dogs from getting humped due to the fact that many owners will complain if their dogs were caged before and after grooming. After reading through more and more comments, I started to wonder, why wasn’t any groomers asking about his dog and how it was doing? Was it because these groomer wanted to help clear up misunderstandings, or was it because they too allow situations like this to happen due to the reason that many owners don’t like their dogs to be caged up?
Before you continue reading, I’d like to emphasize again that I am honest in every aspect of this blog and will not hide my opinions just because I want people to like me. This platform was created for me to share my honest views, I want people to see from my point of view about the world of dogs and people around them.
What I can’t understand was why many people including business owners themselves don’t believe how EASY situations like this could escalate to, and also how EASY it could’ve been prevented. A dog getting humped forcefully is equal to a human being getting raped, be it by the same or opposite sex. Usually dogs that are mellow in nature will try running away and hide, and if it doesn’t work especially in enclosed areas, they will have no choice but to be humped unwillingly, these seemingly harmless behavior can actually cause shock and even traumatize the victim for life, exactly no difference to the human term ‘rape’. Another scenario would be if the victim wasn’t mellow, dogs that are more confident will definitely fight back and if the stronger dog starts responding to these defensive reactions, it would end up in bloodbath, serious injuries or even death could occur. To some of you it may seem like I am exaggerating but frankly speaking, dogs getting seriously injured and dying when allowed to interact in this manner is very common, i've seen many fights and injuries happening when dogs are thrown to socialize by themselves. In the wild, situations like this happen too, but the difference is they have a choice to run and the world is huge, where else in human created environment, they have nowhere to run to.
So, what could “easily” be done to prevent this? Well, it would be a simple Monitoring, I did mention about this in my comments too but those groomers seemed to be ignoring and even created many questions asking the owner if this and this happen, what would you do? In my opinion again, your job as a service provider is not to question the owner, instead the owner should be questioning you! Even especially more so if there was harm done. After my comment, the owner actually spoke up saying that his dog was indeed traumatized and behaving abnormally. So why are these people still siding the fact that being humped cannot be prevented? Watching over the dogs when they are free roaming is the best way to counter these issues, it is just time consuming and sometimes costly, however if you decide to implement a free roaming concept then there is a price to pay, and I mean money, not risking the dogs getting hurt. If cost is an issue then go back to crate based operation where it is a win win situation, yes I do understand that some owners do not enjoy their dogs being caged, but if safety is an issue then why risk the minority? Cages in groomer centres had been going on for decades so I don’t think it is so hard to explain why they are required. Even our own boarding program uses crate as safety measure, I know the word “cage free” is a good advertisement but it is not worth it if you don’t have the resource to hire someone to watch after the dogs.
Since we are already on this topic, I recently went to a daycare centre to help my friend find a temporary daycare until our new place is ready. I went into the place and straightaway saw a medium sized dog barking at me and my friend repetitively as if we were intruders, not surprisingly it was owned by the daycare centre. So what became shocking to me was when the staff tried to shut the dog by showing a pinching hand sign close to the dog’s ear, as if she was about to pinch him. The dog stopped for a second, and then continued barking once her hands are gone. Next, she walked close to the dog with her body facing me and started to slap him on his shoulder. It was as though she don’t even care if I was deciding based on how she displayed her “affection” towards the dogs. Then as we entered into the playground area, all the dogs were surrounding us and in order for them not run out of the door entrance, she used her legs to push them. I do understand that it’s faster to use a leg to block entry but using it to push them is just rude and not pleasant to my eyes. Then there was another hotel i visited a year ago where I saw a small dog being pinned down by a larger breed and when I highlighted this to the staff they told me it’s fine. However the small dog started limping after that.
I always thought that the dog industry was getting better but for now, it’s actually becoming worst. Everything now is about money and customer requests, not many people care about the welfare and safety of the dogs. When something happen, the popular ones will sue the customer for defamation, the others would just blame the customer for choosing them willingly. Nobody apologize and feel sorry anymore. I used to side groomers and understand from their point of view that it is not an easy job, but these days I’d just see them ranting proudly and even post screenshot of customer’s feedback to their fans to criticize that person. Even our own dog Amber had to suffer through chemical burn from grooming but the groomer just don’t care.
Sorry to say but I’m just disgusted at the way this is going, i can foresee it will become worst no doubt.
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