As many of you know I have a beautiful German Shepherd/Husky cross dog called Poppy. Since the day I brought her to her forever home on Saturday 4 July 2015 she has been my life and my absolute world. She has seen me through some very dark times in my life and has always been there for me to comfort me and give me love whenever humans have failed me (unfortunately that has been on multiple occasions). My entire routine is based around her, and she is so resilient – she lives with a pancreatic illness called EPI that she has to have medicine in her food for every day as well as IVDD after she had  a burst disc in her back in September 2020. It is fair to say that I was close to losing Poppy more than once, but she is still here and living her best life at almost 10 years old.

In March 2023 the grooming parlour that I used to take her to closed down, which left me looking for another groomer for  Poppy. After undertaking some extensive research, I settled on Once Upon A Dog mobile grooming service in Worcester run by a lady called Alexia. What I loved about what I saw on their site was that everything contained within a large van, and Alexia comes to your house. Even better, it said on their website that the owner could go in the van with the dog while they are being groomed. This was a massive plus point as at our previous groomers we would have to leave her on her own with the groomer, and sometimes there were other dogs in there as well which wasn’t great as Poppy is okay with some dogs, but not others, and it is completely random as to which ones she is okay with and which ones she isn’t. We also had a very bad experience with a groomer a few years ago which was caught on video, therefore  it was extremely important to us that we chose the right groomer for Poppy moving forward. Alexia’s holistic approach and the fact that one of us could be in the van with Poppy was a huge tick in the box for me

I booked Alexia to come to our house to give Poppy a wash and groom on 1 June, but unfortunately the week before Poppy had a bad episode with her back and ended up in the emergency vets. She was on strict rest for 2 weeks while on medication, so I had to postpone her appointment. She was then rebooked for 20 July, but Alexia was very unwell so Poppy’s appointment had to be rescheduled to 10 August.

I was so impressed with the van when Alexia arrived and how everything was contained within it, and my husband was able to go in the unit with Poppy while Alexia gave Poppy a good wash, de-shed and groom – she really needed it! Alexia favours a holistic approach to dog grooming, so if your dog is nervous or doesn’t want to get on the table Alexia can groom them on the floor and you are allowed to stay in the van with your dog. I was also equally impressed with how soft and fluffy Poppy was when Alexia had finished, she also smelled sweeter than the perfume counter at Boots! Alexia was also able to clip Poppy’s nails while my husband distracted her with some of the special EPI friendly kibble treats that she can have.

The whole thing took around 1 hour and 15 minutes, and I think the time was cut down as my husband was able to go in with Poppy and help the process along by distracting her with her special EPI friendly kibble treats. Poppy even came out with a cute bandana on her, and I’ve already booked Alexia to give Poppy another wash and groom at the end of November, She is now Poppy’s new official groomer 😊

I can highly recommend Alexia if you are looking for a professional dog grooming service and for one that can come to your house to wash and groom your dog. All she needs when she comes to you is access to an electric point which we were able to easily provide through the window of our garage extension room.

For more information about Once Upon A Dog please visit www.onceuponadoguk.com, and to book an appointment contact Alexia on 07710 067235 or email her via info@onceuponadogltd.com. I promise you will not be disappointed.

Follow Once Upon A Dog on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/once_upon_a_dog_uk and Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/onceuponadogltd/ – and see if you can spot my Poppy on her pages 😊

 

Poppy Before

Poppy After

Poppy After