Our Editor takes her anxious dog Bear to be groomed at the One Garden Dog Grooming Studio which reaped transformational results for both her and her furry friend.
Words by Samantha Harman
When my dog was a puppy, he was attacked in a popular park in Brighton by a much larger, adult dog. Since then he’s been extremely anxious, and always on high alert with acute separation anxiety from me.
Bear is a Tibetan Terrier and therefore needs regular grooming as his coat gets long and matted unless proper care is executed. We have tried many dog groomers over the years and all of them were absolutely lovely and always did a professional job, and to be clear I am not throwing shade on anyone else’s work in this review.
It was always our journey to the various grooming appointments that was the issue, it’s almost as though he psychically knew where we were going and that’s when his nerves would kick in. Leaving him was always quite an upsetting process for us both as he would spread his paws out and need to be dragged into the grooming studio.
On a recent visit to One Garden at Stanmer Park I was surprised and delighted to see they had a grooming studio and in a lightbulb moment knew this would be the perfect place to book him in. On the day of the appointment we walked the whole length of Stanmer Park. At 8.30am the green stretches were virtually empty and we walked peacefully joined only by birdsong, sunshine and only the odd passerby.
We reached the Studio on time for our 9am appointment and were greeted by Megan (?) who spent a few minutes with Bear as we discussed previous anxiety issues. I must also admit it had been far too long since his last groom, so the girls really did have their work cut out for them.
The grooming space is absolutely spotless with state of the art equipment and no other dogs at that point. I felt happy to leave him and wandered off to One Kitchen for a latte and some breakfast while I waited.
Less than two hours later and subsequent to some casual shopping in One Market, (what bottle of wine in handbag?) I received a call to tell me Bear was ready. I walked back to the studio to be greeted by an extremely handsome well groomed boy who was so happy he needed more than one tail to wag. The team did an excellent job and now have a customer for life.
