Dog groomer for anxious reactive dog

[Chloe08]

Hello

I live in the inner city of Melbourne and I have a very reactive anxious standard poodle. We have done extensive reactivity training, ver behaviourists, medication etc but she doesn’t like people touching her that are not very familiar to her. We have had the same groomer every six weeks (except for lockdowns of course) since she was 10 weeks old. She has to go away next year for 6 months. I called many local people but no one can help us. My dog doesn’t even like me brushing her and I can’t even cut my own fringe straight. I am not sure what to do because my dog takes a long time to get used to people. We use medicating for grooming even with our regular groomer. Does anyone know someone who could groom a reactive poodle? Thanks so much. I would love some help or advice. She was is a well

loved and very carefully socialised dog. We are not sure why she is like this. 

[Papillon Kisses]

Hi Chloe,

I can’t make a personal recommendation, but have you heard of Fear Free Pets? It’s a low-stress handling certification that vets, nurses, groomers, trainers, etc can do for their respective fields. There are a few fear free certified groomers in Melbourne that you could check out. The search function of the website is painful to use so I’m hoping this search results link works.
 

https://fearfreepets.com/fear-free-directory?address=victoria%2C Australia&category=0&center=-36.9847807%2C143.3906074&zoom=12&is_mile=1&directory_radius=0&view=grid&filter=1&field_role=Groomer&field_practice_name[keyword]=&field_practice_name[type]=any&directory_category[0]=

[Chloe08]

Thank you Papillon Kisses. This is very helpful and a good place for me to start. 

[Papillon Kisses]

Another thing: you mention training but are you working directly on cooperative care for grooming? What people often do is use (well-timed and selected) situational anti-anxiety medications for training sessions to knock the fear down to where they can think rather than panic, and in the meantime full/urgent grooms are done under sedation at the vet so as not to set back the training progress. Deb Jones has a book on cooperative care that might interest you.

Edited November 2, 2021 by Papillon Kisses

[Chloe08]

Thank you. I will check out the book. We have done some training at home re:grooming and touching. Is is going to be tough getting a new person in her personal space even with situational medication but we have to work something out. I will definitely get that book. Thank you