Sunshine Coast dog owners are chasing their tails, trying to secure regular grooming appointments for their pampered pals.
Many of the most popular local salons are such a howling success that they’re booked up well into the new year and beyond.
Going on the prowl for online bookings with some nationally known pet grooming services in coming months brings up “no results found”, especially for medium and large dogs.
That’s because pets have become a priority in the family budget.
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And growing numbers of owners are quite prepared to pay pet groomers much more than they would fork out for their own hairdressing needs – because nothing is too good for their fur babies.
To access the “top dogs” in groomers, owners sometimes drive hundreds of kilometres for the privilege of being a customer at these sophisticated salons catering for the health, wellbeing, appeal and even social media image of their canine companions.
One in-demand grooming service, with two salons on the Coast, has revealed that a phenomenal percentage of customers book in regular visits for the life of their pooches, paying anywhere from $100 to $500 per visit for specialised treatment packages.
Shayla Knipe – considered the leader of the pack in grooming and Australia’s No.1 pet stylist – runs Stylish Canine Exclusive Salon in Marcoola and Mr Barkley Maroochydore with fiancé Chris Phillips.
With Reserve Australian Champion and five Australian Best in Show ribbons to her credit from national and international showdog competitions, Shayla has had an illustrious career that also has included presenting live breed-grooming presentations at National Royal Shows, as well as training groomers and managers in one of Australia’s largest leading commercial pet franchises.
As finalists in Channel 7s Pooch Perfect reality TV contest, Shayla and Chris and their staff see a wide range of dog breeds, including oodles of “oodles” such as cavoodles (a cross between poodles and Cavalier King Charles spaniels), as well as Instagram-famous hounds that earn marketing dollars in sponsored posts and endorsements for their owners.
Shayla and Chris said 80 per cent or more of their business was recurring client appointments, booked in every four, six or eight weeks for the entire life of the dog.
The grooming is no small task, either.
Even the tiniest breed may take two hours for a “teddy bear trim” or more natural cut because, as Chris points out, they have much more hair than their human owners.
Shayla dispels any notion that today’s full pet grooming services are akin to an owner’s trip to the hairdresser.
Rather, they’re more like a day spa for tail-waggers.
“Going back 10 to 15 years for dogs, everything used to be short shave-off and nothing fancy,” said Shayla, a trained veterinary nurse who has worked in the pet industry for nearly 20 years.
“We literally do every service. Think of going to a hairdresser and getting your hair, nails, waxing and lasering – all of that done at once. It’s a massive procedure. It’s a complete all-over makeover.
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“I always say to the owner, the longer the hair, the higher the maintenance. If they like that long length, we normally see them every four to six weeks. If they like them the short length, then we normally see them every eight weeks.
“A popular package is a 4×4: they come in every four weeks for a face tidy – an in-between groom – and four weeks later for an all-over do. So, we normally see them on a monthly rotation.
“It’s for all those customers to whom their dog is their everything.”
Chris said deluxe desheds for double-coated breeds such as border collies and huskies were among the top salon packages, after style cuts and classic clips.
The warm-bath procedure takes an average three or four hours per dog.
“They get a full shampoo process. We use three different shampoo types: one to cleanse the skin, one to hydrate the skin and one to help get out that dead coat,” Shayla said.
“Then they get a conditioning treatment on top of that. There’s a special, high-velocity dryer that we would use to blast out the dead coat.
“Then we’ll go through and fluff dry them – get them 100 per cent bone dry so there’s no moisture sores or any skin irritations underneath.
“And then we would spend about an hour brushing them out, another 20 minutes trimming up their hygiene areas, doing their nails, doing their ears.
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“It’s a complete bath, blow-dry and brush out with a fine comb.”
The deluxe deshed will set owners back from $200 for a small dog (under 8kg) up to $355 for an extra-large dog (26-36kg).
Don’t even attempt to try this at home on the cheap, as Chris warns specific tools are needed for different coat types.
“If you use the wrong type of tool on the wrong coat, you’ll actually damage the coat and destroy the way it grows back,” he said.
Unlike hairdressers, pet groomers also need to be specialist “dog whisperers”.
“It’s not just handling – it’s psychology, it’s understanding the dog’s temperament, why they react in certain ways and to certain things,” Shayla said.
“lt’s really about reading the dog’s personality and understanding them as a whole.
“As a pet groomer, we build such a relationship with the dogs because we see them usually every four to six weeks for their entire life whereas a vet will only see them when they have an issue or a dog trainer will only see them when a problem comes up.”
Chris said clients came from as far as Bundaberg, Gladstone, Toowoomba and the Gold Coast “and everywhere in between”.
Shayla added that some make a weekend of the pet pampering adventure.
“We have people who come on a three-hour drive every six weeks,” she said.
“They stay at a caravan park the night before and drop their puppies off to us in the morning, pick up the puppies after we finish and then drive home again.”
Even with 20 staff, “walk-in” appointments are not possible. Occasional appointments are booked out until early next year and the books have been closed on recurring appointment clientele, with a waiting list.
“We’re now taking applications for anyone who wants to become a customer of ours,” Shayla said.
“So, they’ll go through an interview process to make sure the dogs fit within our salon culture so that there’s no aggressive dogs, no screaming dogs, or dogs that will upset any other dogs – just so we can really create an enjoyable experience for the customers, for the dogs and a really nice culture for our team to work in and to enjoy what they do.”
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