Most groomers try their hardest to make every dog they work on look the best it possibly can. But sometimes, we must be happy with a groom that is merely "good enough." Here are some examples of these times.
- Matted dogs - If a pet comes to you with a matted and neglected coat, removing those tangles and leaving the pet looking great can be difficult. Areas where the tangles are the worst will have damaged fur and may cause the coat to clip unevenly because the tangles pull on the skin, causing the clipper blade to trim those areas more closely. Achieving a smooth finish on a severely matted dog can be tricky or impossible.
- Behavioral issues - For pets that are unused to being handled by strangers and are timid about being groomed, it is sometimes preferable to get the fur trimmed safely and with as little stress to the pet as possible and not fuss with a perfect finish. With regular, patient grooming, many dogs can learn to accept the process without fear. Then, we can move past "good enough" and make the trim look terrific.
- Illness - Pets with health challenges such as cancer may be unable to tolerate routine grooming. Depending on what the dog can handle, abbreviated sessions may have to suffice to keep the pet comfortable. Comfort should always come before perfection.
- Old age - For some pet owners, maintaining a high level of grooming is essential to them and their mental image of how their dog should look. It can be difficult for them to adjust to a comfort clip or other allowances to make grooming easier on their pet. For example, some elderly poodles that have had their feet shaved all their lives can no longer tolerate this procedure. In this case, the challenge for groomers can be persuading the owner that the comfort of their pets comes before vanity.
- Physical challenges - Dogs who are missing a limb, have physical deformities, compromised joints or spines, or are blind or deaf can be challenging to groom, depending on their individual limitations. Some pets have difficulty standing for more than a few moments at a time or at all. Some cannot be still enough for us to get a smooth finish. The variety of challenges can be endless depending on the problem, and "good enough" is often as good as it gets.
Suspending our desires for "perfection" can be a sincere challenge. Still, in many cases, we must adjust our expectations for the pet's best interests and choose to be content with a clean, tangle-free, and comfortable dog. Sometimes good enough is actually great.
