Donna M - Profile

Donna M
Reviews
We would like to share our experience at Muttley Crüe Organic Dog Grooming in Bridgeland. We left our happy loving little 6 month old Shih Tzu puppy at 0900 with them. Someone from Muttley Crue called at 1330 and told us that he was ready to be picked up. We asked how he did and were told he did well. We immediately left to pick him up arriving within 10 minutes. We spoke with the staff once we arrived and again asked how he did and was again told he did well. We were told nothing at all regarding his stay. Once we had paid for his grooming he was brought out of the kennel and handed to me. He was not at all himself and extremely upset. We felt he was traumatized. Once at home we noticed he cried when we touched his tail and his eyes where blood red where they should have been white. We called to speak to the owner and asked if there was anything we should know about his visit. Again we were told everything went perfectly well. We took him to the vet only to be told he had most likely been excessively restrained/choked &/or strangled causing "severe scleral bruising/haemorrhages". The vet nor the clinic had never seen such an extreme case. We then went to the shop personally and spoke with Annie. We said we understand accidents happen and could she please just let us know what had happened. We were told by Annie, who we understand to be the owner of Muttley Crüe, that they did nothing wrong. She seemed unconcerned with the extent of the injury and defending her shop seemed more of a priority to her. Her repeated comment was "we did nothing wrong." She also mentioned that if anything happened it was our puppy's fault that "they did nothing wrong". We strongly question this. She did mention that because he had peed on the floor a few times he was kept in a kennel. She advised us that because he wasn't yet neutered he was marking. We were advised that this is standard procedure for a dog that hasn't been neutered. Up until this experience the kennel had been a happy place for our little man. We would caution you before you leave a member of your family with them. Our experience caused more damage than the $70 cost of his hair cut and the $525 vet bill.
1/29/2013 8:49:44 PM Report
This is now the 8th time I have responded to this SAME review so I will just copy and paste my response left for the other 7. I understand completely that people need someone to blame in situations like this except that there are very key facts that are missing from this review. Shiraz is a great little puppy but is extremely hyperactive to the point that the owner herself had a 10 minute conversation with me about how "out of control" he was and where to go for training. She's also failed to mention that when she came to pick him up I had another conversation with her about how Shiraz did okay for the grooming but we chose to not hand dry him because of how hard he was straining and pulling on the lead for the groom and the bath. I told her that when dogs have protruding eyes like Shiraz's it's extremely easy for them to burst blood vessels in their eyes when they strain like that and we chose to not hand dry him because we were concerned that this might happen. Obviously, he was straining internally even harder than we realized and he did burst blood vessels. The owner also failed to mention to her vet this obviously important fact and conversation, as well. When we let Shiraz out he ran out to greet her and we talked AGAIN about what a happy go lucky little guy he was. Shiraz was bouncing all over the front reception area like a normal puppy and was not acting traumatized because there was nothing traumatic that happened. Broken blood vessels in the eye, although look horrific, are painless, clear up on their own and can occur from things as simple as sneezing too hard, constipation and straining. I understand the owner being upset; Shiraz is her baby but like I explained to her, I would take full responsibility if there was something that we could have done differently or if was caused by negligence on our part but unfortunately it was result of the straining/actions of her dog not by any action of ours and would have happened regardless of which grooming salon was handling him. The owner told me she was giving me "an opportunity to make things right" (ie: pay the vet bill) but unfortunately there was nothing we did wrong in the first place. Our shop is completely open concept and we encourage anyone to come in, watch through our floor to ceiling front windows or even sit in their cars and watch; we are the most transparent grooming salon in this city and any accusation of abuse of any sort is completely unfounded. I'm sincerely sorry this happened to Shiraz and that the owners were stuck with a vet bill but sometimes things happen where there simply is no one to blame.
8/30/2013 1:29:15 PM - Report