Dogs Who Wished Their Owners Would’ve Just Taken Them To A Groomer

By Asad
October 13, 2020
5 minutes read

With covid locking everyone down into their homes, we have had to deal with problems we didn’t know could be problems. For example, haircuts. There was such a huge problem with people getting their hair all messy and unruly, that there were protests upon protests trying to get the government to open up barbers and hair salons so that people can get their hair done. It’s such a significant part of their appearance that they look nothing like themselves if they don’t keep it maintained.

It’s the same way with dogs, and they also suffered from being unable to go to the groomers due to covid. As a result, their owners, their moms and dads, they tried their own hand at trying to get the dog groomed. For the readers out there who groom dogs themselves, you know how that might have ended. If you aren’t a groomer and have not trimmed an animal’s hair before, read on, because it’s nothing like you imagine.

#1 Trim the dog

The Washington Post wrote something interesting;

It’s at least worth thinking about that what on the surface appears to be something in our dogs that people are happy to call love might — might — not have deserved that name. It could have been that our dogs were in some sense just faking it to get better treats. Ultimately, this is, to me, about trying to understand the secret of dogs’ success and what makes dogs unique. Scientists in the first decade of the 21st century were mainly concerned with the idea that dogs have special forms of intelligence and social cognition that were unique in the animal kingdom. From the point of view of those of us that are in the science of studying dogs, the idea that it’s affection and not intelligence that’s the secret ingredient that makes dogs successful is quite a radical idea.

#2 Before and after

#3 Covid Cut

#4 Regrettable hair

I avoid using the L-word (love) in my scientific writing. We talk about exceptional gregariousness. We talk about hypersociability. When we’re doing science, we have to find terms that can be operationalized, or things that can be measured. We can measure whether a dog chooses to go for a bowl of food or its owner when it’s separated from both food and its owner for many hours. We can measure how hormonal levels go up in both dogs and their owners when they look into each other’s eyes. At the end of the day, an overarching, multidimensional phenomenon like love has to be broken down into small, measurable pieces. But I think if one were to just do science on the small, measurable pieces and resist the attempt to synthesize all those observations into a picture, that would be a disservice.

#5 The boss

View this post on Instagram

Take it from @bossmash and wait until the professionals are back 🤣🤣✂️

A post shared by HERMIONE OLIVIA. (@hermioneolivia) on Apr 13, 2020 at 3:54am PDT

#6 Coin

NOOOOOO pic.twitter.com/I0e2f5l4k1

— ming (@earringhoarder) April 23, 2020

#7 Expectations

For the first time ever, I gave my dog a haircut. It went about how you would have expected. pic.twitter.com/C06kvg4OZO

— David Slack (@slack2thefuture) April 9, 2020

#8 Anger

ion think my dog likes his haircut.. pic.twitter.com/WCtwLw3afJ

— Jaqueline Renee Woodbine (@MinGzDaKing) April 24, 2020

#9 Not happy

Dog got a quarantine haircut. He’s not happy!! pic.twitter.com/wyunvwEku7

— stillhaventfoundit 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (@withnailandaye) April 26, 2020

I’m a reluctant convert. I was somebody who was resistant to the idea that what appeared to be affection radiating from our dogs could really be that. But ultimately, a combination of getting this dog into my life — who’s lying down next to me now, Xephos — and the overwhelming evidence of the studies that my students and I did, and the studies that so many other people have done, it really all adds up to an irresistible picture. I know that sometimes Xephos just wants dinner. But I’m pretty convinced that that’s not the whole picture. She really does feel a bond, a connection toward me that’s as real as any other connection that any other individual in my life might feel toward me.

#10 Jeff

the groomer closed but he needed a haircut….. jeff i’m so sorry… pic.twitter.com/uZVu1tTlYR

— rocky🌻 IG: roxdoesart (@tequilacowgirl) March 23, 2020

#11 First pass

@juliemason So – as you would surmise, my dog groomer is closed. So I had to give my dog a trim. My first pass did not go great 😂. pic.twitter.com/1BkpdmiETh

— She’s Speaking! 😠 (@DeniseTut) April 7, 2020

#12 Street cred

Tried to “home groom” Barret…was told his new look gives him “street cred”…implying Barret was in some sort of Museum District dog fight…not the look I was aiming for. pic.twitter.com/wRWUfkPlcI

— Sarah Davis (@SarahforHD134) April 15, 2020

#13 Three days

With pet places closed, my wife decided to trim my dog’s hair.

It has taken 3 days.

The poor pup is now an absolute mess. 🐶 pic.twitter.com/EvRtNNtHqq

— Austin Kellerman (@AustinKellerman) March 26, 2020

I’m on record as one of the vehemently anti-anthropomorphic animal behavior scientists. Anthropomorphism means ascribing human qualities to animals. And certainly love is something we know first through human experience. But I think that different species can have different forms of love. Dogs fall in love much more easily than people do, and they also seem to be able to move on much more easily than people can. A lot of people have anxiety about the idea of adopting an adult dog. Wouldn’t the dog be pining for its original human family? But what evidence we have indicates that dogs can form new loving relationships much more easily and don’t seem to have the same level of trauma from being taken away from preexisting loving relationships.