Welcome to our web site

Please have a look around and give us a call or drop us an email to make an appointment.  We cater for most breeds and sizes, but unfortunately not large/heavy dogs any longer, or hand stripped dogs.

If your dog has been splashing around and got in a mess, call us and your dog can have an invigorating shower in one of our hydro-massage baths to get cleaned up.

Please note that we are closed until further notice from Monday 23th March 2020 under the direction of Scottish Governements Covid-19 measures.

Call us on

01875-812648

Appointments are available Monday to Thursday.

First appointment from 9am, last appointment to finish by 7pm (6pm Thursdays)

Please note if calling late in the day we may have already closed depending on when our last dog of the day was finished.

We are closed Friday to Sunday (we are running an experiment to see if Monday opening is something our customers want as announced on the News Page & copied further down this page)

We are happy to accept payments by cash, debit and credit cards

Please note we no longer accept payment by cheque.

As an email spam reduction measure, please type the following contact address to email us:

But wait, before you email, remember it is ALWAYS quicker to phone for appointment enquiries, as we can tell you right away what slots we have available and offer one to suit you.  It's so MUCH easier than playing email, text or FaceBook message ping-pong!

Please note that it is advisable to make your appointment well ahead of the date you wish, as we are often fully booked several weeks in advance.  Avoid future disappointment and get peace of mind your dog is regularly maintained by block booking regular appointments. To assist with this, you can download an MS Excel® spreadsheet here which you can save and modify before emailing it back to us.

If you are a new or existing customer, please provide comments and rate our service on our Facebook page.  You can also upload a photo of your dog if you wish.

We are very easy to find, once you realise that the main road through Cockenzie & Port Seton is NOT the High Street but Edinburgh Road/Gosford Road/Links Road.  The High Street links Cockenzie Harbour in the west to Port Seton Harbour in the east.  See the map below:

Click on the map for an interactive Google Map

Follow us on Facebook for up to the minute news by clicking on this icon

Latest Website News:

Monday 1st June 2020.  Covid-19 Update.

It's now week 11 and we are expecting the final delivery of our PPE orders this week at long last - it's taken ages to source everything we need. We are currently preparing the Studio for re-opening to comply with social distancing and our industry advised safety measures after carrying out the necessary risk assessments to keep us and our customers as safe as possible. We put the following notice on the Studio door this afternoon:

Advance notice of re-opening

Between Wednesday 10th and Friday 12th June, WE WILL BE TAKING BOOKINGS FOR GROOMING BY PHONE ONLY, for appointments starting on Monday 15th June. Please DO NOT leave an answerphone message before these dates.
Initially, bookings from Monday 15th June will ONLY be allocated for WELFARE grooms first – this means SHAVE OFF’S for matted, heavy coated, or distressed dogs due to their coat condition and the hot weather, age, or illness.

The walk-in, on-demand nail clipping service is SUSPENDED until further notice, but you may make a NAIL appointment or a NON-WELFARE grooming appointment from the lifting of restrictions date for “phase 2”, once the Scottish Government announces it.

To comply with the safety measures imposed by the government and trade guidance, we are unable to carry out as many grooms in the working day owing to the extra cleaning time imposed between grooms and restrictions on the number of dogs being safely handled at the same time to minimise the risk of cross contamination between dogs, ourselves and customer households. We will, however, be temporarily opening for more days to allow as many dogs to be groomed initially as we possibly can.

Our new temporary extended hours will be:
Monday to Friday 9am to 6pm
Saturday 9am to 3pm
Times are first dog to start and last dog to be finished

When booking, you will be asked to confirm whether you or anyone in your household are showing Covid-19 symptoms or are isolating or have been in close contact with anyone who is. We cannot give you an appointment if any of this is a “yes” until 14 days have passed from the contact date. If “no” you will be given an appointment and will be asked to confirm again when you arrive. Please be honest about this otherwise everyone’s safety is put at risk - THANK YOU!

Please be aware that all appointments from 24th March that have been cancelled will NOT be contacted to rebook or be automatically rebooked. As mentioned in an earlier post, we have now had to cancel over 80 appointments and cannot possibly contact everyone in such a short space of time prior to opening, plus it's worth repeating again - we can only perform WELFARE GROOMS until the phase 2 start date is announced.

Thursday 28th May 2020.  Covid-19 Update.

As we enter Phase 1 and may be meeting with families and friends from other households please remember to keep your dogs socially distanced. Do not allow anyone from outside your household to pet your dogs. As with all surfaces; hands, door handles, etc., your dogs coat can also carry the virus.

In line with Scottish Government instructions we will reopen in Phase 2, no date has been announced for this as yet but we are hoping it won’t be too long. In the meantime we are servicing all equipment, installing sneeze screens and sourcing PPE to keep ourselves, our staff and our customers as safe as possible.

Wednesday 13th May 2020.  Covid-19 Update.

The Canine and Feline Sector Group within PIF have updated their guidance which is at this link.

It covers all aspects of the pet industry, and the Groomers section is on page 4 of 9. There are a couple of modifications to the previous advice and this document is not a replacement to the earlier documents and should be read in conjunction with the earlier version to observe the changes. Please be aware the updated advice is specifically for England, so dogs being brought in a car for grooming are NOT currently allowed in Scotland under the continuing restrictions. To summarise the changes which will eventually be applicable here as well:

Multiple dogs may be taken in at a time where a grooming salon has sufficient space to separate them and for groomers to maintain social distancing whilst working. Before, the advice was only one at a time.

Dogs from infected or self-isolating households should be collected individually and separately from other dogs in different journeys and after pets from other non-infected households. However, there is a contradiction as they have also advised that: Dogs from self-isolating or infected households should not be admitted until the household is clear.

The cleaning/disinfecting regimes advice has not changed, but the hand-over protocol advice is currently being updated and not currently available via the links. It is up to individual grooming establishments to ascertain what is the safest way to implement all the advice for them. To that end, we are in the process of documenting the physical and procedural changes we need to keep us, our staff, our premises and therefore our customers as safe as possible when we do get the go-ahead to open.

We are aware from enquiries from some of our customers that there are groomers operating in the County and appreciate that dogs with thick coats are starting to struggle in the heat. Obviously you have to consider the safety concerns and restrictions and assess whether you want to visit one of these groomers. If you are satisfied that they have implemented the PIF advice, you should be ok. That is not to be taken as advice from us that you should, as under the Scottish lockdown restrictions they shouldn't be open and you will make a non-essential journey. If they haven't implemented the advice and your dog is in a distressed state, the fall-back advice is to contact your vet for help. Keep Safe!

Monday 11th May 2020.  Covid-19 Update.

Well here we are on week 8 of lockdown, at least 3 more to go with a new "Stay Alert" (ambiguous?) slogan from the UK Government with a continuation of the "Stay Home" message from the Scottish and other devolved Governments over the weekend. Not surprised to be receiving enquiries today asking when we will be opening, but the position in Scotland is clear and has NOT CHANGED. As a non-essential business we were instructed to close on 23rd March until advised otherwise. Therefore, we do not expect to open until June at the EARLIEST and wouldn't rule it out that may change to July. The list of businesses told to close on the Scottish Government site is at the following link, and groomers are under "all retail" with the ONLY ones closest to us being exempted are vets and pet shops. This list has not changed following the weekend’s announcements.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-business-and-physical-distancing-guidance/pages/businesses-and-premises-which-must-close/

But presumably as dog grooming is not specifically listed, we have been aware of various social media discussions and comments in the County over recent weeks around groomers being allowed to open, even being told they can open from Council officials who have no authority to make that decision which has caused a lot of confusion with the wider dog owning public. The question is not actually whether groomers SHOULD be allowed to open, it is whether they are ABLE to open from a legal standpoint contrary to this list, and it's slightly different for mobile verses premises based groomers. But being able to open is not straightforward as there are many things to consider and implement. Our associative industry, the Pet Industry Federation, issued guidance to groomers on 23rd April which you can see at the following link:

http://www.petcare.org.uk/index.php/latest-coronavirus-news/2095-advice-for-pet-groomers-during-lockdown

The information in this is going to be updated over the next few days as they are having discussions on the advice following the UK Government's easing plans for England announced yesterday. It has been requested to make the guidance appropriately clear for groomers operating under the devolved Governments continuing policies. Within the existing guidance, there are further links for consideration. Three in particular: the hygiene and social distancing protocols, Groomers Spotlight Guidance and Government advice on cleaning in non-healthcare settings.

http://www.petcare.org.uk/index.php/latest-coronavirus-news/2089-pifbdga-advice-on-pet-grooming
 

http://www.petcare.org.uk/images/Images_2018/Guidance-For-Grooming-Services.pdf
 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-decontamination-in-non-healthcare-settings/covid-19-decontamination-in-non-healthcare-settings

A quick glance over the first main link of the four, shows that:
- it is permissible for businesses to travel as part of their work and so mobile groomers may operate and for premises-based groomers that the groomer can travel to collect and return dogs for grooming.
- also, a client may walk their dog to be groomed as part of the client’s daily exercise. Once the dog has been groomed either the dog may be walked home, or the groomer may return the dog by walking or driving.
- only one dog may be groomed at a time and the premises disinfected in between.
- a journey by car made by a pet owner to the grooming salon is therefore not considered essential and is not permissible.

Looking further into the advice, it becomes clearer that the need for PPE, cleaning, defined handover and distancing protocols and employee safety are all ESSENTIAL and need to be in place and strictly adhered to be able to open and operate - regardless of being mobile or premises based.

For us, collect and return of dogs is out. We don't have business insurance cover for this and even if we had, the isolation PPE needs and cleaning regime for EACH journey via a private car is not workable. Why would I want to have a dog in relatively close proximity in my vehicle for 10-30min from a household that I have no way of confirming the viral infection status?? It also must be cleaned before the return journey and possibly needs cleaned again before collecting the next dog to reduce any risk of cross contamination or if a previous dog has a toilet accident en-route. It is accepted that there is a potential risk of virus transmission being possible via a pet's coat from an infected person, being the owner or other person in contact, but it is a risk nonetheless that has to be dealt with and minimised. There is then the risk of acquiring and spreading infection to consider with every journey undertaken, for ourselves, our families (including shielding members) and the wider community.

Around 90% of our client base are NOT within walking distance to us so the number of dogs we would be able to do just being walked to us is uneconomical to open for. In numbers, it would equate to maybe only 1 or 2 dogs per day on our proposed initial 6 day week, compared to our pre-Covid 10 dogs a day average in a 3 day week.

In conclusion, a mobile or premises based grooming business is theoretically able to operate legally under lockdown, however the overriding instruction from the Scottish Government is that we are ALL NON-ESSENTIAL BUSINESSES and should remain CLOSED until advised otherwise.

If we decided to go against this and open, the costs of implementing the PIF advice under the restrictions as it CURRENTLY STANDS is considerable and economically unsustainable. For instance, we have recently started to build stocks of PPE and other items for sanitising, cleaning, screening, maintaining social distancing and have spent almost £700 in the last week alone. Prices for everything have gone through the roof compared to last year. Some items are available for delivery within in a few days to a week, but others are nearly five weeks away. Gloves and masks are particularly hard to source as many suppliers have (rightly) ring-fenced all their stock for front line health workers. Where they do have them available you are restricted to one box or just a few items. By masks, I do not mean face coverings or even FFP1 (dust) grade masks which are no longer appropriate in our "new" environment, but masks which need to be FFP2 or FFP3 graded which give airborne viral protection indoors within a close circulating air environment caused by our dryers. Hairdressers take note.

If we were able to open on the basis we were hoping for in our "lockdown week 4" post on 17th April, we would run out of the disposable items we have just managed to secure in ONLY 3 WEEKS. This is an ever-changing situation and although we have tried to get ahead of the game, we simply can't continue operating after opening without being able to get further supplies quicker at more affordable prices. We expect the situation is only going to get worse when more businesses start to open that need the same items. The higher operating costs for business and the knock-on effect for customers is going to be an inevitable consequence of the "new normal". For example; only being able to have one dog in at any time would reduce our available bookings by 60%, which would mean laying off staff for longer (but only sustainable if furlough support remains available), we couldn't have drop in nail clipping on demand anymore either. Earned income reduces drastically but we are not able to compensate by reducing operating costs. As you've read, the current operating caveats are significant, may not change much and have wide ranging practical, physical and financial challenges.

To this end we are constructing new operating methods and policies to counter these effects for when we do finally open, that can be quickly adapted to changing circumstances as they are announced and publicised over the coming weeks. When and exactly how we will be able to operate will wholly depend on what we will be required to adhere to at that time, to safely comply with new or eased restrictions to the best of our ability.

Until then - stay well and keep safe, keep your dogs and yourselves well exercised complying with the advice and restrictions applicable in YOUR area until advised otherwise!!!

Friday 17th April 2020.  Covid-19 Update.

We're now 4 weeks into lockdown with another 3 weeks announced yesterday, which means that it will actually be 4 weeks before there is any chance of even thinking about reopening again. At the outset of this, the Government financial assistance measures, plus vulnerable/shielding restrictions put in place indicated that preperations were allowing for around 12 weeks before we might be open again. I thought it would be useful to let you know what our thoughts and plans are for opening when we are allowed to.

But a few important points first:
1. We absolutely CANNOT make ANY bookings under ANY circumstances UNTIL we reopen. We have been contacted quite a lot recently for help but it is illegal under the current emergency legislation for us, or any groomer, to open. We can't open the Studio and we can't do it at our home. Please do not ask.

2. We know many owners are "having a go" at grooming themselves and have concerns about that for good reason. They are unlikely to have the right equipment, safety restraints or knowledge to do this effectively and risk seriously injuring their dog - skin flaps, legs, ears, eyes, skin tags, warts and nails in particular. NEVER try to remove mats in pads or difficult areas with scissors or clean ears with cotton buds. If your dog gets hurt it may cause a psychological reaction to being groomed in future, making it more difficult for us when it comes in again. Another few weeks is unlikely to cause more than mild discomfort to your dog if it had been regularly groomed before the shutdown. If you have specific concerns such as mats, irritation, cuts, infestations, infections or some other observation, you should contact your vet.

3. Business viability. We are strong financially with a very large active customer base and we fully expect to still be around when the announcement is made to open, however many weeks that is. Others may not be able to survive this period and we feel for them.

When we reopen:
We are expecting a large amount of booking requests and are going to open Monday to Friday 9am to 7pm plus Saturday 9am to 4pm to allow as many dogs to be done as soon as practically possible. We only intend to make this a temporary change for the first few weeks. Also, many dogs are going to be partial or total shave offs by necessity, but we will be WAIVERING our additional "pre-cut" fee of £5 for small/medium dogs and £10 for the larger ones. With the expected volume of bookings, we will NOT be able to accomodate time intensive dematting/brushouts to achieve your dogs usual style. Please understand it is quicker, kinder and less stressful for your dog to have a shave off and it will grow back in again in a few weeks. If the summer is as warm as the last couple of years your dog will be happy with a short coat anyway and you will have less routine maintanance to do. Don't be too surprised if you grow to like it as well, you won't be the first!

From the shutdown on the 23rd March to the end of May (if it goes on 'till then), we will have cancelled over 80 pre-booked appointments. We simply won't have the time to sit on the phone calling everyone to rebook these to find days and times suitable. EVERYONE WILL NEED TO PHONE US TO BOOK. Please DON'T message or SMS text us to make a booking enquiry or assume we will automatically rebook, even if you've asked us to. YOU MUST PHONE US as it is much quicker to check availability for when it suits you best.

Our plan is to prepare and carry out necessary equipment maintenance at the Studio the week before we announce we will be open for grooming. We will be in a better position to take as many calls as we can that week, as we won't be trying to work on dogs at the same time. We will quickly be able to book as many dogs in as possible for the following weeks.

Once open, we will ONLY BE TAKING CARD PAYMENTS for goods and services - NO CASH!

More information nearer the time, along with how we will be organising appointments and dog handovers to maintain any social distancing. Until then, keep safe and stay healthy!

Monday 23rd March 2020.  Covid-19 Closure.

We are now closing until further notice, as advised in today’s announcement from the Scottish Government and all future bookings are now cancelled.

We are unable to take ANY bookings under ANY circumstances until we get the go ahead to reopen again. When we do, whenever that is, we are intending to open extra days to cope with the expected demand for a few weeks.

Please check our website, Facebook page for updates. We hope all our customers stay safe and we look forward to grooming your four legged friends again as soon as it’s safe to do so.

 

G R O O M I N G Good for your dog's well-being Rover will love you even more Odour's eliminated Old and infirm dogs catered for Mats all gone Incredible but true Nails trimmed and Gorgeous to go!

Custom Services We can also provide a custom service to fit your needs. If there is anything you would like which is not part of our standard services, please discuss this with us and we will do our best to accommodate.