My dog has some knots. So what?

Knots and matting occur when strands of hair tangle with each other and become solid. This can be anywhere from a mild problem to a severe problem.

If you can pull the hair apart with your fingers without your dog complaining – it might be minor and be able to be brushed out! If you cannot easily find skin by pulling hair apart – the matting might be severe and causing your dog pain.

But it’s just hair – how does it cause pain?

When lots of hair over a large area gets tangled, its starts to pull on the skin when your dog moves around. In severe cases, it can cause bruising on your dog from the constant pulling. Think about what happens when your hair gets stuck in a zipper – it can’t move freely and hurts to pull out.

OK but can you still leave it fluffy? My dog looks silly with short hair!

Unfortunately, the only way to safely and humanely remove knotted or matted hair is to shave under it with a short blade. If we try to leave the hair long and fluffy the tools won’t go through the coat, and will pull on the hair – hurting your dog.

Dog hair grows about 1cm a month, so your pooch with be fluffy again in no time at all!

Is it safe for me to just cut the knots out at home when I see them?

We don’t recommend trying to cut knots out at home – scissors are sharp and dogs are wiggly! Tight matting can pull skin into places you don’t expect, and it’s very easy to cut skin when you think you’re only going to cut hair. Our groomers are highly trained and take every precaution to keep your dog safe when removing knots, but sometimes injury is unavoidable.

Injury? Are you going to hurt my dog?! Our highly skilled groomers are very good at removing knotted hair safely, but sometimes there are injuries present underneath knots we can’t see until the hair is gone. Some of these include:

Hotspots: skin infections that leave a raw, weepy patch on your dogs skin. Can be caused by trapped moisture under knotted hair, or from knots pulling on the skin.

Bruising: in severe cases, your dog may have bruising on their body from extremely tight matting. Once the matting has been removed the bruising will usually fade over a couple of days.

Aural Hematomas: if your dog has tight knots on their ears, it’s a bit like you wearing shoes that are too small. When we shave the knots off all the blood rushes into the ears and can cause bruising and feel similar to pins and needles. If your dog shakes its head a lot because their ears feel funny – the blood rushing back to the ends of the ears can start oozing out of the pores. A cool compress can be quite soothing in these situations.

Rashes: if the tight knots have irritated the skin from pulling, or if your dog has been chewing on the knots to try and relieve discomfort, often we find rashes and irritation on the skin.

Grazes and cuts: even with all safety precautions taken, sometimes we have to use very short blades to remove tight matting, and this can unfortunately lead to grazes. Tight matting can also pull skin into the knots and lead to small cuts in the skin.

Once the knots are gone my dog will be OK, right?

Sometimes it takes dogs a couple of days to get used to a new haircut – they have just gone from wearing a big fur coat to being naked! If it Is cold you may want to make sure you have a light jumper for them to wear.

If your dog starts licking sensitive parts of their body after having matting removed, they may need to see their vet or wear a cone.

SPECIFIC AFTERCARE ADVICE

Things to look out for:

Freshly clipped nails are sharp and may break skin. Try to discourage and distract your dog from excessive scratching

If your dog is excessively shaking his head this may lead to a pooling of fluid in the ears, called a haematoma. Seek medical advice.

Spring brings pollens and without the coat to protect the skin dogs may be itchy - see point 1 again.

Very short coats can also allow sunburn. Protect your dogs from the sun as much as you can (go for walks in the evening or early morning. Walk shady streets where possible)

You may be asked to sign off on these conditions prior to us admitting your dog:

I _______, owner of __________ (name) the ____________(breed), give permission for ‘Doggy Dooz’ to groom my dog. I understand that due to the condition of the coat (knots & matting) my dog will be shaved as short as necessary to make them comfortable. I understand that there may be an extra charge associated with this groom due to the time taken to safely remove knots from my dog. I understand that any injury that occurs in the course of removing knots from my dog is not the responsibility of Doggy Dooz and indemnify them from responsibility of any vet bills that may come from the grooming process.

PLEASE CONTACT US IN ADVANCE IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS - 03 9687 0299. Your dog’s wellbeing is our main priority.

Yes! We have a working price list available here. Prices are subject to change and should be used as a guide only.

All prices listed are FROM, and will increase based on behaviour, coat condition or special requirements.

FLEAS

If a dog has fleas, the owner will be given the option of immediate treatment with a Capstar (+$20) and a flea rinse shampoo (+$20) OR an extra $65 cleaning and sterilization fee will be added to the groom.

MATTING

Grooming pricing for a matted dog starts at $100 per hour minimum. This is charged on a per groomer basis - if 2 or more groomers are needed to safely groom a matted dog, the price will be $100 per groomer for the time 2 groomers are required.

AGGRESSIVE DOGS

Aggressive dogs that require 2 or more staff members to hold, settle, or work on to release the dog as fast as possible from the salon, will incur extra charges at our discretion.

MEDICATED OR SPECIALIZED SHAMPOOS + CONDITIONERS

TINY, SMALL AND MEDIUM dogs - add $5 for special care shampoo or conditioner including Malaseb, Aloveen, ProGroom Dermal Care, Nutriderm, Mediderm.

LARGE AND GIANT DOGS - add $10 for special care shampoo or conditioner including Malaseb, Aloveen, ProGroom Dermal Care, Nutriderm, Mediderm.

We send text reminders the day before your appointment as a courtesy. You must respond to the reminder to confirm you are attending.

If you need to cancel or reschedule your appointment, please let us know as soon as possible, a minimum of 24 hours before the appointment.

Failure to cancel 24 hours prior, and/or failure to show up for your appointment will incur a fee of 50% of the service price. In order to secure a future appointment with Doggy Dooz, it is necessary for this fee to be paid on the day of the appointment.

Our friendly staff can arrange payment either over the phone or via an invoice.

Not quite a full groom, a bath and tidy (or B+T as we call them) is great for between grooms, in the Winter, if you like your doggy in a longer cut, or if you’ve got a special occasion coming up and you need to look glammin’. After a big brush out, lovely wash in premium ProGroom shampoo, pooch is dried carefully and all the ‘extras’ areas are tidied. Groomers trim the face, do the pads and nails, hygiene areas and under arms. No length is taken off the body. Huzzah! Fabulous, check.

Quite simply, a pet trim is any wash, dry and cut that is not a Breed Specific / Traditional clip. Doggy is brushed out, washed in premium ProGroom shampoo, dried and then trimmed all over to your desired length and face styled to maximise cuteness (or cuteness and practicality!)

If you’ve seen Best in Show then you’ve seen those dogs getting around the show ring looking absolutely smashing – and matching to boot! All the Schnauzers have the same haircut, all the Westies, Yorkies, etc. All purebred dogs have their own specific set of rules to ensure the haircut is of breed specific standard. Doggy Dooz groomers are all fully trained and can provide a Traditional or Breed Specific clip to any breed you desire.

Well spotted! Of course, there is no traditional clip for an oodle as they are not recognized or pure-bred dogs. We can however make your oodle super cute with scissoring and/or the use of extension combs to keep the fluffiness and teddy-bear factor. This is a skill we charge for like a traditional clip on a pure-bred dog.

For shorter double coats (ie your Cattle Dogs, Corgies etc): Dog is bathed in warm water and washed (and conditioned if necessary) with premium brand de-shedding shampoo. Once the dog is dried (using our high velocity dryers to reduce drying time and blow out any of that extra coat) the smooth coated dog is brushed and furminated, its nails clipped and the owner called to collect. For longer double coats (ie Samoyeds and Shelties): As for the shorter coats, but add in lots more time for brushing out, and extra time to trim those pads as well as clip the nails. We can tidy any feathering for you, trim around the feet and shave hygiene areas too.

Dog is bathed in warm water and washed (and conditioned) with premium brand ProGroom Shampoo. Once the dog is dried (using our high velocity dryers to reduce drying time) the smooth coated dog is furminated and brushed, its nails clipped and the owner called to collect.

Grooming is complicated! To try to simplify, we start with a base price as a quote for an individual breed, that then increases based on a number of factors: 

SIZES: There’s always a variation, especially in oodles. Some cavoodles are the size of a toy poodle, others are getting into Spoodle size territory! A larger dog requires more product, drying time, and grooming time, therefore a higher price is charged.

TEMPERAMENTS: Not all dogs like being groomed. And that is fair enough! Difficult dogs do require more time, skill and quite often more staff to manage the groom. All of these things need to be charged for.

COAT CONDITION: A matted dog will be in pain. Doggy Dooz will never put the dollar before the dog and a heavily matted coat will never be brushed out, only shaved. Clipping and scissoring through mats requires skill and takes a toll on groomers’ tools, therefore a charge is incurred.

Dogs are individuals and the groomers will price according to how they present on the day – taking into consideration all those things above. SIZE – was the dog a puppy last visit and has grown? TEMPERAMENT – Was the dog having a bad day last visit but today was positively angelic? Is the dog getting on into senior years and requires extra nurturing, care and time? COAT CONDITION – Last visit the coat was matted, this visit it was in great condition, etc. Also, generally every financial year as wages and consumables and rent and utilities bills increase, we will increase our prices.

Absolutely! We have a range of ‘walk in’ maintenance services available. See the pic below for details.