We expect every good dog owner to be able to groom their dog when it is necessary. It’s one of those things that just goes along with being a good pet owner, whether it’s brushing them to get rid of knots, or going for the full monty at a fancy professional place.
But what if the fix goes beyond that? Is there a point where grooming your dog can become excessive or harsh?
I’m not entirely sure what the answer is, but some of the photos in photographer Paul Nathan’s book, Fixed, definitely test the limits for me. On the one hand, your puppy will be dipped in a flea bath and brushed so the dog doesn’t have nasty gnats on their fur. On the other hand, someone is dying and eating their fur until the dog looks like Pluto from the Walt Disney cartoons with Donald Duck’s face on his arms.
Nathan went to Intergroom, an international conference of dog and cat groomers, and photographed their work. The most colorful examples are from the “Creative Grooming” category, where dogs are not simply cleaned and groomed, but remade into something else. The dog literally becomes a work of art.
Nathan said in an interview with Feature Shoot that although many people immediately think that the process is cruel to dogs, it is not. The dyes used are non-toxic and last anywhere from a few washes to several months, depending on the dye and the dog, according to Nathan. (I have to wonder what these dogs look like after a few weeks. Do the dyes get muddy and clump together?)
It’s also not something every dog can do, he says. This requires a great capacity for patience on the part of the dog as well as the owner.
“Like child stars, some are born with patience and the will to please that helps them face the long process involved in creating a creative part of the arrangement,” he said. “In most cases the colors are done in stages on different days, usually in sessions of no more than three hours with plenty of rest for the animal. Every dog is different, and only the trainer -the groomer knows how long to work with a dog. Keeping the dog happy and comfortable is key.”
The comparison to child stars is unfortunate, because it kind of plays into the suspicion that the process isn’t good for the dog. Raise child stars, and you’ll evoke Jackie Coogan’s exploitation by her parents, Judy Garland’s descent into drug addiction and early death, and the conflicts between Macauly Culkin’s parents.
But honestly, it’s hard to see any harm actually coming to the dogs, or at least any dangers that one wouldn’t find in any other dog competition. All my web searches have not turned up any reports of any of these dogs developing speed habits or killing themselves while they long for their glory days of being dyed day-glo colors. Certainly none of them wrote tell-all books. Yet. Is doggie equal to Mommie Dearest coming soon? For now, all danger seems to fall on the dignity of dogs.
What I find really missing from Nathan’s photos are the owners. He said that “when dogs are presented, the groomer is often dressed to match the animal and there is a set or backdrop against which the animal is presented.” I would love to see some of the photos of the owners and their pets side by side. If nothing else, it shows that the owners are willing to go through the same things that the dogs are, and that the dogs don’t have to look outrageous themselves.
What do you think? Is it silly, playful art that bonds owners and pets? Or is it just too much maintenance?
Via Feature Shoot
Learn more about dogs with Dogster:
Featured Image Credit: MarcusVDT, Shutterstock
