A woman decided to use a mobile grooming service for convenience, only to be “stunned” when she saw her dog’s new haircut.
Erin Argo, 42 and from Arkansas, is the adoring owner of tiny five-pound Pomeranian dog, Fritz, and recently hit a common dog-owner conundrum: getting regular professional grooming.
“Our pup is very small at only five pounds, because of this, we get nervous taking him to groomers where there are big boys and girls getting haircuts,” Argo told Newsweek. “We are also very busy, my husband and I both work full time, we have two kids, and I have my content creator work, so dropping off at a groomer and then picking up an hour later is time in the day we don’t always have.”
But Argo thought she had an ideal solution: a mobile groomer. The practice is popular with pet owners and sees a groomer come to the person’s house, where they will either work on the dog in the comfort of their own home, or in a grooming salon attached to their own vehicle.
Unfortunately for Argo and Fritz, their first experience with a mobile groomer didn’t quite go to plan, as proven by a now-viral video.
In a clip shared to her Instagram account @atypical.erin on January 2, she showed Fritz—tiny and extremely fluffy, with a tan and blond coat, sitting on her bed.
She wrote over the video: “The first time we used a mobile groomer for a less traumatic at-home experience. And the last.”
The video then switched to show Fritz after his haircut—and while his head and ears still kept the adorable fluff, the rest of his fur had been cut extremely short, almost appearing totally shorn at first glance, giving a bobblehead effect.
She wrote in the caption: “And it cost me so much money. Bless his heart they did him dirty!”
Argo explained in a comment that they had asked the groomer for a “shaved booty, and I think it got away from them.”
Recalling seeing Fritz for the first time after his shave, Argo admitted being “stunned, I think in shock almost.” But, “after a few minutes we were all laughing hysterically at the ridiculousness of the whole thing.”
She explained that her mother was the one in touch with the groomer while Argo was at work, so can’t know exactly how her mother described the cut they wanted, and didn’t show a photo, but “I knew she didn’t say ‘shave him’.”
Her video got a big reaction, with close to 3,000 likes, with many commenters simply writing: “Nooooo!”
Another wrote: “Poor buddy! That happened to my terrier. We called the outcome his prison cut.”
And one said: “I’m so sorry on behalf of the mobile grooming community! Ugh we charge so so so much because of convenience and this is just notttttt it. I hope it grows back okay!”
Argo told Newsweek she paid the groomer, as she’s a “people pleaser” and couldn’t know for sure what went wrong, and had to assume it was a small business “doing their best.”
“I’m somebody who can laugh at the ridiculousness of it all, and pet hair grows back after all,” she said. “Was I a little worried the pom hair might not fully recover, yes—but we did some research on brushing and shampoos to help and he’s already back to normal.”
And, she added that while they’ve gone back to a regular groomer’s for now, “I could definitely see us using mobile again.”
“The biggest lesson I learned isn’t where to go or not go, it’s that I need to be the one to communicate what I want so there’s no question about what was communicated. Lesson learned,” she said.
If you have a similar family dilemma, let us know via [email protected]. We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured on Newsweek.