Barking Mad Cobh

Lads, here is a visual representation of how it feels to be messed around as a small business owner.

I have lost hundreds in the last month to people booking and not showing up to appointments.

If this continues I will be forced to open my books again, meaning my regulars may be affected, I’m also forced to be harsher with late and cancellation fees.

I have also had a good few people react poorly to late fees and cancellation fees. A cancellation fee is for dogs that don’t show up or if the booking is to be cancelled within a 24h period.

I have always tried my best to be as accommodating as possible, I’m easy enough, if you’re ten minutes late we can make it work but we work with animals, timing is everything. I plan a day so every dog has enough time, if we are put out time wise it will effect our whole day.

This is all very frustrating and I hate having to crack down but to be clear, we have a cancellation fee of €10 for small dogs, €20 for large dogs that take two time slots. We have a late fee of €10 if we can fit your dog in on the day but they are late enough to push their slot back.

We are lucky to have an amazing list of customers and I know different times of year people themselves are more under pressure like “back to school” time but we are at work and we get paid per appointment and I do everything possible to be accommodating. So please don’t book an appointment if you don’t think you can make that time.

I have had many people completely ignore my messages and calls when they’ve missed an appointment and that’s just so unfair. I write this in the shop now having been let down again this morning. Please understand that we love our jobs as groomers but we also depend on respect of our time from our customers.

Thanks for reading,
Hailey the groomer.

Lol I have no idea why my post about cute old man “Mister posted three times! 😂 I fixed it! Here’s my girl Sabhsaí having some fab results of green star and Best of Breed at the Munster Agricultural Canine Society Championship show!

Just letting everyone know that there are a few slots left this Thursday and Friday if anyone’s looking for a last minute appointment, first come first serve as always 😊

Last chance to get in for the table quiz tonight! We still have some space available! I’ll be quiz master so you know it’ll be good! 😂😜 for an excellent cause! .stands.with.palestine

Hi everyone! Just a reminder that me and Aishling are off this week and will be back Wednesday!

Some exciting news in the meantime! I will be heading to Belgium this September to compete in an International grooming competition at “Groomania” as part of Groom Team Ireland! I will be in the handstrip class grooming a beautiful Scottish Terrier named Archie!

I have a link here to our team page and would be so grateful if you could like, follow and share the page! We are trying to drum up some support and interest in the team!

Me and the other members of the Irish team will be fundraising to try to cover the travel expenses as this is all a bit last minute! Our team captain Monika wondered why we have not had a team to represent Ireland in many years so she took the initiative to change that! We have all recently pulled this together and while most teams have sponsorship (we are currently working on getting sponsorship from Irish businesses in the pet and grooming industry) we have the travel costs of us and the 4 dogs coming with us! There will be a link to our “go fund me” on the page and even the cost of a cup of coffee would mean so much!

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561751729464

Hi everyone! Just a reminder that me and Aishling are off this week and will be back Wednesday!

Some exciting news in the meantime! I will be heading to Belgium this September to compete in an International grooming competition at “Groomania” as part of Groom Team Ireland! I will be in the handstrip class grooming a beautiful Scottish Terrier named Archie!

I have a link here to our team page and would be so grateful if you could like, follow and share the page! We are trying to drum up some support and interest in the team!

Me and the other members of the Irish team will be fundraising to try to cover the travel expenses as this is all a bit last minute! Our team captain Monika wondered why we have not had a team to represent Ireland in many years so she took the initiative to change that! We have all recently pulled this together and while most teams have sponsorship (we are currently working on getting sponsorship from Irish businesses in the pet and grooming industry) we have the travel costs of us and the 4 dogs coming with us! There will be a link to our “go fund me” on the page and even the cost of a cup of coffee would mean so much!

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561751729464

Groom Team Ireland 2024 Groom Team Ireland 2024

Hey everyone! A bit of house keeping!

•We are NOT taking on new customers at the moment, this includes dogs that have not been with us in at least two years. we are under pressure with the amount of calls and texts we get concerning this so they will not be answered, apologies for the inconvenience but we can only do so many dogs.

•If our customers could please avoid contacting via WhatsApp it would help as a lot of these messages get pushed down by active groups and chats, it is easier for me to keep up with the bookings if it is all within texts and the business facebook messenger.

•We are booking up a small bit ahead at the moment so please expect a longer wait time for appointments, not too long though as we are doing our best to accommodate our clients and their dogs. This is just the usual summer busy time that comes every year so apologies if there’s a slightly longer wait.

•Please don’t let your dogs p*e on the PetsPlus floor or stock, accidents happen but please try to be considerate of the pet shop and mind those cocked legs 😉

•We will be having another week off for summer from 9th to the 16th July so please bear this in mind with booking and your own plans 😊

Thanks to everyone for your continued support! We will continue to do our best for the amount of customers we feel we can sustain while maintaining our level of standards that you expect.

Pic of Ruby for the announcement and to get your attention 😂📣📣📣

Edited to fix totally wrong dates I had on this post😅

Hi everyone! Just hopping on to let you know the bookings are piled up, I presume because of the sun but we will be closed next week from Wednesday for holidays. There are no more appointments left for this or next week, so we will be back to work after our break on the 28th May! So if you’re looking for as close as possible please let me know in the coming days as I won’t be taking appointments while I’m off in Portugal!
Our model is Séamus the Irish Water Spaniel who got a big makeover last time he was in! 🐻💕🐶

Calling all people who condemn occupation, apartheid and genocide!

Hi everyone! Just a final warning for your Christmas appointments! We have a few slots left between now and the Christmas break available for existing customers only! These will book up in the next couple of days so please text to avoid disappointment!

As usual we will be taking a break after Christmas and in January

We will be back from the 3rd of January to the 11th January, then we will take a week off from the 12th to the 19th.

Patch the Wire Fox Terrier after and before hand stripping!

Daphne the Dandie Dinmont Terrier was pooped after her groom 😂😍 she’s only a baby and this was her first big wash, scissor up and strip, she was a joy to work with! She’ll be starting her showing career in the coming months ☺️

Happy Halloween to all our customers, friends and family! 🎃👻🕸️💀🕷️🦇

Remember there may be fireworks tonight so mind your doggos!

Beckett, after and before in the bath! 😍💕🐶

Pretty Holly! 😍💕🐶

Gràinne the Irish Water Spaniel part 2
Before, during and after! 😍💕🐶

Gráinne the Irish Water Spaniel.
Before, during and after. She came in for her first groom today, at 14 months old she was well brushed out, well behaved and is now looking smart for her first shows coming up in November!

Handsome Romeo! 😍💕🐶

Monty! 😍💕🐶

Rosie 😍💕🐶

Lexi rocking one of our cute Halloween bows! 😍💕🐶👻🎃👹💀🦇🕸️🕷️

Everyone in Midleton is angry and confused. They don’t know who to blame or how to stop this from happening again. Irrational solutions are being bandied around like requirements of hard infrastructure to prevent this from happening again. This is not the long term solution. It is a short term solution for what you assume will happen again. The rain fall as the earth’s temperature rises will increase by 7%, meaning more rain the hotter it gets. So, if we continue to pour concrete to try to correct an issue it will ultimately be burst by increasing levels of water.

Soft infrastructure. Long term solutions. Solutions that not only reduce the risk of flooding, but can actually fight climate change. This is what we need. It’s a very ape reaction to say we need barriers for water. It won’t work. It will move the problem somewhere else.

Please is there is a question of what can we do for the future of our town, county, country and planet, do not allow irrational fear based approaches waste our money, resources and potential so solve the problem on a large scale.

What is Natural Flood Management? - CaBA Natural Flood Management (NFM) involves implementing measures to protect, restore and emulate the natural functions of catchments.

Sorry for the silence on the phone the last few days! I’ll be back onto everyone tomorrow! Me and Aishling were away on our yearly pilgrimage to the IPDGA Championships “Madra Mania”
This year was especially exciting for me as two of the world’s leading groomers and that are so inspiring to me throughout my career were judges and holding seminars. I got to pick a few of my hero’s brains as they judged my dogs and that was priceless! Thanks to the other judges Sandra Mularska for her seminar that Aishling enjoyed and Monika Petras Icmg for your help and judging 💕

My own Scottish Terrier Sabhsaí helped me win this beautiful trophy for the Champion Handstrip Class 🏆🥇I’m so proud of her and have learned more on prep and technique from the critiques

Ruby was next, thanks so much to her family for letting me borrow her for the weekend, I tried a new class I have not done at madra mania, the Open Asian Fusion Scissored class. We came second! 🏆🥈couldn’t be prouder of Ruby for being the best girl on the table!

Toby the Scottish Terrier came for the Champion Clipped Class, I was with some very strong competition and I’m honoured to have come second 🥈🏆 Toby was like a statue for me and the sweetest boy, big thanks to Brendan and Sandra for letting me steal him again!

Congratulations to all the winners especially and .paws.enniscorthy for winning Irish Groomer of the year and reserve! Unreal grooms!

I’m missing a trophy and rosette in the pic that went home with toby for a photo op for his owners, they’ll be back in the shop when they are done showing them off 🤣

Thanks so much to the team that organised this excellent weekend. also thanks to aishling for her help over the weekend.

Only a pup and already in the “rescue” system

Back with a bang!!! Just a heads up to everyone that the phone is very busy due to our break and the sun finally showing up 😅 the book is filling up fast for the next few weeks, so if you are an existing customer please try to plan ahead for your grooming, shoot me a text and I’ll do my best to get ye sorted as soon as possible! 💁🏻‍♀️🐶💕🌞

Little Bella here showing off her haircut that won her a “Best Groomed” award at a show lately in Waterford! Her owners were only over the moon! 🌝

Ted the Wire Fox Terrier came in for his wash, carding and clip! 😍💕🐶

Heidi the Standard Schnauzer after her first strip in a year! A lot to come off but it’s always a pleasure doing a big blown coat! She was the best girl too! 😍💕🐶

Max the Miniature Schnauzer! 😍💕🐶

Séamus the Glen of Imaal Terrier! After his first handstrip 😍💕🐶

Pretty Standard Poodle Jasmine! 🥰💕🐩