Barbara Lawlor, Gilpin County. Dallas is miserable in the summer.
In July, the heat becomes oppressive and dogs become lethargic, liking to dig out body-shaped holes in the dry soil and spread out in them, panting. Dallas is a St. Bernard and his long, feathered hair under his butt and down his back legs, and under his chin and ears and down his front legs becomes matted, glued together by dirt that cakes next to the skin. Feathers become dreads. They become dirtier and dreadier as the summer goes on.
This year I decided to become pro-active and instead of hacking the fur mats off with a scissors, I chose to have him groomed. I figured that even though he is large, he loves to be touched so it wouldn’t be a shaking, sudsy nightmare.
I had heard that Heide Morgan had started a grooming business in Gilpin County and, having known her since she was a teenager, I made an appointment. Bring him in, she said, and I did.
Heide and her husband Pete and daughter Maggie live on the highway south of Roy’s Last Shot, in a house with a ground floor that is Pete’s office and Heide’s salon, complete with big sinks, big enough for a St. Bernard, a trimming table, and a brushing and drying table.
Dallas, being an affable fellow, trotted in sniffing, looking at me with wonder. What were we here for?
Heide has a ramp up to the table, but Dallas’s bad hips couldn’t get him up the ramp without help, so Heide hefted him onto the table, gently, and attached to him a leash contraption which would keep him in a sitting position if not a standing position. She talked to him, calming him, even though he didn’t seem a bit upset.
She began with his nails, clipping them to a safe level with her dremel tool. She explained that when a dog’s nails are too long, it can hamper their ability to walk and run correctly. It would be like your own toenails growing so long they curl under your toes, rubbing against the ground. It would hurt and make walking difficult.
Adapting their walking or running to ease the pain of long nails makes their legs or feet sore. Long nails can catch on things, causing them to break or rip off, resulting in other injuries. The stress of adapting to long nails can result in joint pain or arthritis.
It is a simple thing to cut nails, to avoid the potential of more serious injuries and yet many people would rather have someone else do it. I’m one of those many people.
Cutting a dog’s toenails is part of the grooming process says Heide, which was a great relief to me, as Dallas doesn’t run around much anymore, wearing down the nails on his own.
Heidi has been working with animals most of her life. After attending Gilpin High School, she worked at Doc Joe Evans’ office, in Nederland, for six years and then with Sandy’s Bath House Mobile Grooming for two years and then with Sky Country Grooming.
After meeting Pete Morgan, it didn’t take long for him to propose to her in the middle of a Gilpin County Adult Co-ed Softball game. It may have disrupted the game, but she said yes. When her daughter Maggie was born, she stopped working to be with her baby.
“I began to go stir crazy and wanted something I could do at home. By this time, Heather had retired and I thought working from home would be perfect so I bought her equipment. Pete did the plumbing for me, Heather sent some clients my way and I was in business. It was good for my mental health. It isn’t good for someone to be cooped up in the house, and this is what I love. It is very satisfying to get a dirty dog and make him look good. Everyone ends up happy.”
Once the nails are done, Heide does a brush through, checking for bad mats that might need to be cut out. She also does a sanitary trim, trimming around his rear end.
Then it was time for the shampoo. Some dogs hate it, some dogs love it. Dallas loves to be touched anytime, any place. Heidi uses a special blend of blueing shampoo that makes white fur blindingly white. Mixed with cleaning shampoo and Glow Coat, which repels dirt, the lather is worked down to the skin, loosening the undercoat, smelling delicious and cleaning grit from the skin. By this time Dallas closed his eyes, relaxed his big head, and smiled. Actually smiled, letting go with a big sigh of happiness now and then. Heidi was his new love. The coconut detangling conditioner was worked into the now glistening fur.
All of Heide’s products are made in America and non-allergenic. The next part of the process was the labor intensive, the longest part of the grooming. With a high velocity hair dryer in one hand and a brush in the other, Heide began brushing out the undercoat, removing the mats. Her hands worked briskly, kind of like Edward Scissorshands, as Dallas’s fur ruffled and wisps of hair flew around all of us, landing in our mouths, eyes and nostrils. It was crazy how much hair was coming off that dog.
Soon Dallas was glowing, haloed in a soft, glowing white mass of hair. He looked larger than when he had come in.
“Some dogs don’t like the bath very much, but once they are in the tub, they settle down, don’t want to go anywhere. Only a couple of times did a dog try to throw himself out of the tub.”
A dog of Dallas’s size usually takes a minimum of an hour to brush and dry. An older dog like Dallas has coarse hair, easier to mat. Also, older dogs don’t keep up with their personal grooming as much as when they were younger.
While Heide brushes and blows, she runs her fingers through his coat, feeling for anything out of the ordinary. Sure enough, she finds a small lump on Dallas’s chest and when she digs through the hair, she finds an engorged tick, surrounded by a red, swollen area. She carefully plucks the fat gushy critter off the skin and then treats the wound left behind. It is the benefit of having a former vet tech work on the dog’s body.
“Most dogs don’t need baths often, maybe twice a year to detangle the undercoat and get rid of dandruff. A bath keeps the skin from being irritated. A bad mat tangled up next to the skin can become uncomfortable,” says Heidi.
She charges $65 for a dog Dallas’s size, which is considerably lower than most groomer prices, but Heide says she has known people to delay the grooming while saving up the money to do it. “By the time they come in, the dog is in pretty rough shape. I’d rather charge less that make the dog wait.”
Once the coat has been dried, Heidi hits some spots with the clipper, fluffs up the shiny coat a bit, rubs the hair off her face and helps Dallas walk down the ramp. He lays down on the floor, needing a bit of a rest, probably feeling a bit like someone just getting through with a massage, not quite ready to test their legs.
Heidi says she tries to put a cap on the number of grooms she does in a week, somewhere between seven and 10, depending on the size of the dog. It took about two and half hours to turn Dallas from a mop inside a mud puddle to a handsome, pedicured, shining white and brown dog of excellent maintenance and fine breeding.
He shook himself a couple of times, letting loose a cloud of leftover undercoat and trotted out of the grooming room, hoping someone would notice his shimmering coat, well-groomed ears and feathery sanitary clips. Don’t look for him in town. You won’t recognize him.
Sky Country Grooming is located at 15953 Highway 119 (mid Gilpin County) and Heide can be reached at (303) 815-5383.
