My dog pooped in the dog groomer's shower--on two occasions.

I’m hoping for advice from dog groomers and/or dog owners.

Background: My dog Buddy has gone to many dog groomers over the years. I’ve had him since about 2004 when he showed up at my house in the country. When I moved into the city 2.5 years ago, I started using a mobile dog groomer. They come to your house with a trailer and their own water supply-- all they need is a place to plug in for electricity. I usually have the two dogs groomed about every six weeks from April-ish to November-ish.

For about a year, the mobile grooming company sent one particular dog groomer-- let’s call her Mary Lou. She was fine with the dogs-- both dogs liked her-- no problem. As an employee, Mary Lou was less than reliable (showing up late, etc.) so the owner let her go. Also fine with me.

Late last fall, a new dog groomer came-- call him Bob. I liked Bob a lot. However, on this first visit with Bob, midway during Buddy’s grooming, Bob came staggering out of the trailer-- Buddy had pooped in the shower-- and the smell drove Bob out. I didn’t know what to make of it, as Buddy had never done this in all the years I’ve been taking him to groomers (unless someone just didn’t tell me). He never did it when Mary Lou groomed him. I gave Bob some plastic bags, and he hosed the place down, and that visit ended otherwise uneventfully. He did the other dog and she was fine.

Six weeks later, Bob comes again. He’s very prompt (unlike Mary Lou) and just a likeable guy. He takes Buddy to groom him, and AGAIN: Buddy pooped in the shower. WTF? I gave Bob plastic bags, etc., etc., rinse and repeat (as it were).

I’m not trying to place any blame, I just want to understand. Okay, maybe I should have taken Buddy for a long, long walk before handing him over to Bob. But this had never happened before, and now to happen TWICE??

Did Bob do something different from what Mary Lou had been doing? Water maybe too hot or too cold (sometimes you step into that shower and when the water is a certain temperature…it just makes everything relax)? I don’t know how to inquire about this without seeming like I’m accusing Bob or blaming him. I’m thinking he must have done SOMETHING different-- not bad, just something that prompted Buddy to let it all hang out. And whatever it was, I don’t want him to do it again. But I don’t even know what to suggest about it.

It’s time to get the grooming started again, and sure, I can take Buddy for a long, long walk before Bob comes-- Buddy has been known to produce a two-fer if the walk is long enough. But that’s no guarantee this might not happen again.

Any wisdom from groomers, vets, owners? I will also accept posts from dogs.

Seriously, it could be Buddy isn’t comfortable around Bob. My dog would make the stinkiest nervous poops at PetSmart. Was actually ‘disinvited’/expelled from obedience school there.

WAG: maybe Buddy was abused before he showed up at your place and maybe Bob reminds him of his abuser.

Interesting. Maybe I just need to request another groomer.

Well, Buddy has been with me for 11 years. Would he still remember someone from that long ago?

^ I’m not even going to pretend I have an answer for that. Two anecdotes will have to suffice:

  1. Our rescue Border collie, after two years, still recognizes her foster mom by voice at a fair distance. We’ve seen FM twice, so that could be just reinforcement (11 years? IDK);

  2. Our previous BC, on my 40th birthday, had a Mylar balloon tied to her collar by my wife and went insane trying to escape it–DEATH FROM ABOVE! When my wife tried it again on my 50th–thinking BC couldn’t possibly remember it–the same reaction occurred. Probably just an instinctual response as opposed to memory, but again, IDK.

Now the $64 question–how do dogs turn on the stink re: “nervous poops”? And then off again? Is this something I could learn? :smiley:

If I was going to guess, I would say the new guy is being more vigourous washing the dog’s stomach area. Massage in that spot can encourage peristasis.

Impossible to know absolutely, but trauma can stick for a long time. I had a cat for ten years. He’d been abandoned when I found him, and I suspect he’d been abused by his previous owner, too. He was terrified of brooms, and remained so until he passed away. He never had reason under MY roof to have a negative association with a broom, so it’s something that stuck with him from before I found him, for close to a decade.

It could be a dance, trying not to bring the broom out until he was in another room. I miss him.

In any case, it could be like the broom… not so much that he’s reminded of a specific abuser, but a sense memory that being intimately handled by a man (or a human with Bob’s body type) leads to getting hurt.

I’m a little surprised the the groomer appears to not have run into this before, and isn’t prepared for some poop.

But my mum had a long-haired cat who pre-emptively pooped on her groomer. Princess Kitty didn’t like the groomer, didn’t want to be groomed, and was not going to play nice. :rolleyes:

There clearly was something about Bob (was that a movie?) that triggered The Event. Either something about him personally or something about the way Bob handled Buddy, as CarnalK said. I’m inclined to think the former, since presumably Bob follows the same routine with all dogs, and he says this never happened before, and yet it happened with Buddy on two separate visits.

Bob might be a perfectly nice man, but your pup is frightened of him so you need a different groomer.

I always pay attention to how my animals respond to people and respect their opinions. My dogs are social butterflies and love almost everyone but there was one time out on a walk when we passed a man walking the other direction and my houndies, by their own volition, steered a wide circle away and around him. I don’t know what they picked up on, but that’s all I needed to not go near him either.

Yes exactly. I would make sure that when you request a new groomer you make sure that they know that it wasn’t anything Bob did, but just that he seems to remind Buddy of someone he was frightened of.

Another note about this concept of animal perceptions:

My (and many other) rescue group does home visits of potential adopters before we adopt a dog to them. We bring one or two of our own dogs with us to the home visit. If our dogs are comfortable in the person’s home and with the people there, that is one data point toward approving their application to adopt. If our dogs are uncomfortable, or if the applicant is uncomfortable with our dogs, that’s a red flag.

<Light bulb over Thelma’s head>

Buddy just showed up at my house in the country somewhere in 2004, and after I claimed him and found out he had heartworms and treated him for them, I found out he belonged to two Mexican-American guys who lived about a half mile from me on some acreage. They always had lots of dogs, and didn’t get them shots, or treat them for any medical problems.

When I named the groomer “Bob,” it would have been more accurate to name him “Roberto”-- a Hispanic guy with a heavy accent, but more than that, he probably talks to Buddy in Spanish while he’s working on him. When Roberto talks to his boss on his cell phone, it’s in Spanish (my point being that Spanish is apparently his default language). So maybe it’s the male voice speaking Spanish that is spooking Buddy.

As far as I know the brothers never abused their animals, but I don’t know what his life was like before he won the lottery and found me. He was about two when I adopted him, so he had a long time with the guys.

The previous groomer “Mary Lou” was just a white-bread Anglo chick like me.

I don’t buy that. Anyone who works with animals is well-versed in poop.

Or lives with them. :rolleyes: I feel like my whole life is about poop.

Anybody that works with animals or small children should be well prepared for pooping incidents in their line of work.

You shouldn’t feel compelled to feel sorry for Bob…it’s what he does.

Bingo.

Something, or lots of somethings, happened in those two years to make your Buddy very wary of Hispanic men. Ask for a different groomer, making it clear that Bob didn’t do anything wrong. Buddy will probably be very happy to see anyone else in the grooming shower.

My sister had a dog who was afraid of black men, especially black male teens. She was a rescue, and that’s who tormented her when she was left on a leash all day.

My liberal white sister found her dog’s behavior embarrassing.

Roberto is a wuss. My wife has a dog grooming shop, and I sometimes bathe dogs for her. Poop happens. Dogs need to go, older dogs can’t hold it, and some do it because of fear.

And it’s just dog crap, not nuclear waste.:dubious:

My last Yorkie loved everybody. We took him to a new groomer and as we approached the door, he started backing up and getting nervous. I picked him up and he was scrambling to get on my shoulder. Some 6th sense told him this was not the place for him and I trusted his judgement. The groomer was actually pissed that we didn’t leave him. shrug No regrets here.