One dog today. Koda. That is the entire schedule, and honestly, Koda made sure it was enough of an event to fill it.
Koda has opinions and a routine
Koda is a husky: a black coat with tan markings and a face that is unfairly handsome. He arrived with a full kiss agenda. I did not request the kisses. I received them anyway, mostly across the face, until I had to point out that I cannot see what I am doing while he is kissing me. He was not deterred. I told him he was the best boy there ever was, and that he wanted all the kisses, and that he did want them all. He agreed on both counts.
He is a hefty boy and deceptively strong — the kind of strong that does not look like anything until he leans, at which point you find out. His sister Siri was on the books too, but she is resting up, so she will get her turn next time. Koda came alone, which did not stop him from acting as though he were hosting the whole thing.
The nails, the sit, and the wiggle worm
His nails were long — not tragically so, but long enough that we were not leaving them like that. He handled it the way a husky handles anything: cooperating fully while making it very clear that this was a personal favor to me.
At one point I asked him to sit, and he sat beautifully. Then I needed him to stand, and suddenly sitting was his favorite thing in the world and he could not possibly do anything else. If you have ever negotiated with a dog who has decided the current position is the only position, you know how this went. The good news is that kind of hesitation is not fear. He was comfortable the entire time — he simply preferred things exactly as they were.
He is also a wiggle worm, which is the official term for a dog who wiggles in a full spiral the moment you try to work on him. Twice, the appointment briefly became a rodeo.
The bathtub betrayal
Koda walked into the bathtub himself, because he is a good boy, and then immediately began pushing against me to use me as a lever to get back out of the bathtub he had voluntarily entered. I want to be clear that nobody made him get in. He got in. He then filed a formal complaint about being in.
“Where are your listening ears? Did you bring your listening ears today, Koda?” He had not. Then he put his entire head directly under the water stream, discovered what water does, and looked personally wronged. “What do you think that was gonna do, you silly boy?” No answer was offered.
He is a boof, and he is my favorite kind of boof: the complaining is loud, and underneath it the actual behavior is completely fine.
Now the part that matters: the coat
Koda is a double-coated breed, and that changes what a groom even is. His coat is two layers working as one system: a longer, harsher outer layer that sheds dirt and water, and a soft, dense undercoat underneath that insulates him in both directions — warm in the cold, cooler in the heat, and protected from the sun. That undercoat is not an accessory. It is climate control.
Here is the part most people get wrong. Dog hair does not grow forever. Every follicle runs a cycle: a growth phase, a transition phase, a resting phase, and then the old hair releases and sheds. That is true of a husky, and it is true of human hair too. What makes a husky different is that huge numbers of those follicles synchronize, so instead of losing a few hairs a day they release a small blizzard of undercoat all at once, roughly twice a year. That is what people mean by a coat blow.
So the job is not to cut the coat off. The job is to lift the old undercoat out before it packs into felt against the skin. A shedding blade or an undercoat rake, worked down to the skin in sections, does the actual work. Skimming the surface just rearranges the top layer and leaves the dead undercoat exactly where it was.
And this is a coat you do not shave. Removing it does not cool the dog down — it removes the insulation that keeps them cool, along with the sun protection, and it can come back patchy or wrong. A husky in summer is not improved by a buzz cut. A husky in summer is improved by getting the blown undercoat out.
Today Koda had less loose fur than usual, which is genuinely good news — that usually means regular brushing is happening at home, and with a double coat that is the whole ballgame.
And then the fur on the floor
By the end there was a genuinely impressive amount of black fur on the floor. Not clumps of coat, just the accumulated evidence of an hour of work. I held it up to the camera. That is the closest thing this job has to a trophy.
We finished with a dental spray, a tearless wash on the face, and a picture. I told him we needed a beautiful face, and he delivered one, because he knows. Then he went up in the air for the photo, which he tolerated with enormous dignity for a dog who had spent the morning filing complaints.
His mom got the pictures, and he got to go home. His sister gets her turn next time.
Until next time, my furry friends!
Catch the Action Live! Want to see these grooming transformations happen in real time? Tune into the solo live stream over on Twitch at DogGroomerNicole. Whether we are tackling tricky coat conditions, working with different breeds and weight classes, or just enjoying some puppy cuddles, you can watch it all unfold straight from the van.
While you are watching from your laptop or desktop, please take a moment to click the link below the stream to learn more about Folds of Honor, a phenomenal charity we are incredibly proud to support.
See you all on the road!
About the Author
Nicole is the owner and certified groomer behind Vroom Grooms LLC, a mobile dog grooming service serving Northwest Ohio. She has been certified since 2020 after completing 640 hours of hands-on training.
This post was drafted with help from Nagini 🐍, her digital assistant, who keeps the blog running, handles the tech side of the website, and makes sure Nicole spends more time with dogs and less time wrestling with WordPress.