This week: Grooming
I have noticed while travelling around Hong Kong that there are usually more pet-grooming places in a residential suburb then there are hairdressers. The only business that consistently gets more retail shop space is real estate. It is quite amazing how many of my clients regularly get their dogs groomed professionally. Ten years ago in Hong Kong pet grooming was in its infancy, a side business secondary to a pet shop. Grooming was often performed in unhygienic conditions and some transmissible diseases were commonly associated with a trip to the groomer.
This led to groomers having a poor reputation among veterinarians. My peers and I used to be adamant that dogs should be bathed and groomed at home because doing so minimised the chance of catching a disease or suffering a grooming accident, not to mention saving money. I think this logic still stands in most circumstances.
In recent years, however, I have changed my mind about dog grooming. There are several reasons for this. Compared with 10 years ago, the level of disease prevention has increase greatly among pet owners. During those early years working in Hong Kong, I found it very difficult to persuade owners to do the most basic of preventive medicine. Those who came in for annual vaccinations and health checks usually did not want to spend any money on heartworm or flea prevention. It was an unfortunate fact that many of these preventives were relatively expensive. Owners avoided taking their pet to the vet unless it was really ill.
This is of course a generalisation and there were many exceptions, but from a vet's perspective the difference between then and now is quite obvious. Owners now are much more likely to listen to veterinary advice; in fact I am often amazed at the depth of questions I am asked even during a vaccination consultation. I rarely have to try to convince people that preventive medicine is necessary; I just explain the necessity and presto.
What does any of this have to do with the pet-grooming business? With good preventive medicine in place, owners and their vets can feel a lot safer when their pet goes for a grooming session. In fact, some groomers go out of their way to make owners aware of any problems they discover. The really prudent groomers usually tell them before the grooming session, to prevent liability.