Our History

A matt is when a dogs (or cats) fur tangles up and forms a thick clump, if not brushed out correctly, they can become bigger and bigger and can be quite painful for the animal as they tighten on the skin. When the matts are tight to the skin the skin cannot breathe and dirt can get trapped under the matts causing sores and broken skin. Problem areas where matting tends to occur most are the friction areas i.e. behind the ears, under arms and in the groin. The easiest way to avoid your pet becoming matted is with regular brushing using a slicker brush. You can also buy special slicker brushes with plastic ‘nibs’ on the ends for delicate skin.

We recommend getting your dog professionally groomed every 4-6 weeks. This just ensures that problems like matts can be kept on top of, it also keeps your pet looking their best!  Whilst at home you should be brushing your dog at least every other day to make sure they don’t get tangled.

The sooner the better! when your puppy is still on their mum they should be bathed, then the first week they are in your home bathing is an essential part of their health regimen. Taking your puppy to the groomer at an early age gets them well used to being groomed and this also helps when you are brushing them at home. Visiting us for a groom is also a great way to socialise your puppy with other dogs. Weekly baths if your puppy is inside is also a great way to get them used to their bathing and brushing routine.

Trimming your dog’s nails is a crucial part of the overall care for your dog. A typical rule of thumb is that when your dog is standing with all 4 feet on the ground, his nails should be just slightly above the ground – if they are touching the ground and being ‘pushed’ back up then they are generally too long. If you’re not sure whether your dogs’ nails need trimming or not, then just bring them down to The Petcare Company and one of our grooming team can take a look and advise you. Some dogs have very long quick’s (which is the part of the nail that provides blood supply to the nail) which means that you cannot clip them back too short otherwise it will cause them to bleed.

THEY SURE WILL!!!!!!
We always do our utmost here at The Pet Care Company to make your pets’ time with us enjoyable and stress-free. Some dogs will shiver when they come through the door but they always settle once they are with us and are surrounded by other dogs enjoying themselves. Most dogs love to be with their own ‘pack’ (or family in human terms) rather than someone else, but because we provide a calm, confident, secure environment, they tend to settle very quickly. To reduce separation anxiety it is best to drop your dog off and not linger. If your dog senses that you are in any way anxious, then this will be enough to exacerbate his own his own anxiety. Because we do provide calm, consistent, confident care, he will always settle when the reason for him to worry is gone ( in the nicest possible way of course!)!! He wants you to be happy and calm just as you want the same for him, therefore if you are at the groomers and worried, he will worry even more. What he needs while he isn’t with his pack is to have his worries taken care of by someone else (us) and that way he will relax very quickly – if we aren’t worried, he won’t be worried – it is that simple! We have staff here qualified in canine behaviour and they know this to be a fact.  Dogs will always pick up on their owners feelings, so if you are worrying, so will they! You should never fear as they are always in the best care with us. It is absolutely no problem at all for us to give you a courtesy call once your pet is all finished so you can collect them earlier.

Unfortunately there is no way to completely prevent your pet from shedding if you have a breed that has a double coat. The best way to reduce the amount of shedding is with regular brushing with a tool like a Furminator or an undercoat rake. We find that giving your pet a really good scrub in the bath to loosen all that dead undercoat and then blasting it out with our high velocity hair dryer is also a great way to remove any unwanted dead coat. When brushing out the dead coat, you want to focus on areas such as the neck and chest, around the hind quarters and on top of the rump just before the tail. These tend to be problem areas where a lot of the dead coat build up comes from. You will need to brush out as much of the dead coat as you can because any undercoat left behind can cause tangles and matts which can be painful to your pets skin.

You are more than welcome to bring in your own medicated shampoo from the vets for us to bath your pet in. We also have a special derma wash that we use for our customers who have itchy or sensitive skin. This soap contains oatmeal which soaks up that ‘damp doggy’ smell and aloe vera which is soothing on the skin. Please be aware that none of the shampoos that we use at The Petcare Company have any soaps and are free from parabens.

HUGE!!!!!!! Ladies – assuming you wash your hair roughly every second day - have you noticed the difference in how your hair looks and feels when you wash it and immediately blow-dry it as opposed to wetting it (on that day in-between washes) and then blow-drying it? We have!!! It tends to bounce, fluff up, look great & feel great when it’s freshly washed. On that ‘in between’ day it is not bouncy and fluffy it has certainly lost it’s lustre. That’s because of the immediate oil production that begins when the hair is washed. It is the same with your dog. It is false economy to think that you will save money by washing your dog before he comes in for a groom. For the time and effort (and shampoo!) Our Groomers have specialty shampoos and conditioner for your dogs, they also have special finishing dryers for a professional finish on your dog. so even if you dont want us to wash your dog, we will do this to get the professional finish we are looking for. 

Send your pooch to The Petcare Company after their stay at the kennels, we can ensure your pet smells fresh and clean after their holiday at kennels.

If you have a fluffy or long haired dog, your essential grooming kit should consist of AT LEAST a decent slicker brush AND comb. A BIG HELPFUL HINT……….. avoid grooming your pet on the floor. The floor is their play area and as you move around after them with you brush or comb as they squiggle on the floor they’ll quite likely see it as a  fun game!! If and where possible, put them high up on a table or groom them in a room that they don’t normally go into -  this will lessen the idea in their mind of this activity being another playtime. If you groom them in the same place each time, they will come to associate that place with having to stand still and enjoy the attention! The way that groomers get rid of matts is to first locate them, using a hair dryer, so if you have one pop it on the lowest possible setting and very gently guide it over your dog’s coat to find any tangles. Once you’ve located a matt, use your slicker brush to ‘pat and drag’ over the matt until it breaks up into smaller ones. This is when you use your comb to ease out the smaller knots and brush through the entire coat to make sure that you haven’t missed anything. If you have problems with larger mattes that just won’t break up using a slicker brush, there are other tools that you can purchase to help get underneath the matts and split them up such as a matt break or a matt splitter. For more advice please feel free to ask any of our groomers – we are more than happy to help.

We offer appointments in the morning ranging from 9.00am to 9.15am (although we are happy to open a little earlier if you need to be at work at 9.00am) and in the afternoon between 1.00 – 1.15pm. When you come in you will have a consultation with one of our grooming team where you can tell us exactly what you would like done with your pet and where we can offer you any advice that might be necessary. Every now and then it may not be possible to give you exactly what you would like due to some unexpected matting that may need to be clipped out rather than brushed out. If this is the case, the groomer will let you know that at the consult, so there are no surprises when you come to collect your pet. Your pet then gets to have a whole morning or afternoon to make some new doggie friends and to be pampered and you get the morning or afternoon to yourself! You then call in at either 12.45 (if you were booked in for a morning groom) or 5.00pm (if you were booked in for an afternoon groom) and collect your sparkling new pooch.