One dog at a time
No second dog arrives while yours is still here, and no dog is ever left with another for company it did not ask for.
Inside the parlour
A salon built for one dog at a time
Most grooming salons are built to move a lot of dogs through a day. This one is built the other way round: one appointment in the diary at a time, and the whole room given over to whoever is in it.
One dog in the building
Tuesday to Saturday
Terriers stripped by hand
Nothing here is shared with another dog
The house rules
Four things that never change
They are not a style of grooming. They are the reason the diary looks the way it does.
One pair of hands
The same person washes, dries, clips and hands the dog back. Nobody has to get used to a stranger halfway through.
Nothing left running
Dryers, clippers and taps go on when they are needed and off the moment they are not. The default state of the room is quiet.
Home when it is finished
There is no holding pen, so there is no waiting around afterwards. We message you when the dog is nearly done.
At the dog's pace
The work goes as fast as the dog allows, and no faster
A groom is a long time to ask a dog to stand still. We break it up — wash, pause, dry, pause, clip the hard bits while the dog is fresh, leave the fiddly face until it has settled.
If a dog has had enough, we stop. A tidy that gets finished calmly next week is worth more than a perfect groom that teaches a dog to dread the door.
Breaks built into every appointment, not squeezed in
The dryer last and low, never straight at the face
Big dogs groomed on the floor if the table bothers them
The week
Tuesday to Saturday, and about a fortnight's wait
Five grooming days, a handful of appointments in each. That is the whole capacity of the place, which is why the book fills up roughly two weeks in advance.
It is worth booking the next groom while you are still standing here with a clean dog. Most owners settle into a rhythm — six weeks for a doodle, eight for a spaniel, longer for a shedder that only needs the undercoat out.
Tuesday
By appointment
Wednesday
By appointment
Thursday
By appointment
Friday
By appointment
Saturday
By appointment
Sunday & Monday
Closed
Why we cannot fit you in tomorrow
Because the slot you would be squeezed into belongs to a dog who is already here. Doubling up is the one thing that would break the promise on the front of this site.
If something is urgent — a matted coat that is pulling, or an ear that needs clearing — message us anyway. Occasionally a slot comes free, and we would rather give it to a dog that needs it.
Ask about the next slot
Hand stripping
Terriers are stripped, not clipped
A wire coat is two coats: a harsh outer jacket and a soft undercoat. Clippers cut through both and leave the soft one in charge, which is how a smart terrier ends up woolly, pale and itchy.
Stripping takes the dead jacket out between finger and thumb so the new one comes through hard and properly coloured. It takes longer, it costs more than a clip, and for a working coat it is the only thing that really works.
What hand stripping involves
Booking
Send us a photo of your dog and we will find you a slot
WhatsApp is the quickest way to reach us — we answer between dogs, and we can tell you the price and the length of the appointment from a photograph of the coat.
The Malvern Mutt Parlour
41 Church Street, Malvern WR14 2AA
Tuesday to Saturday, by appointment. The book runs about two weeks ahead, so plan a little before the coat needs it.