Bobby's Bath Day

You can usually tell what kind of day it's going to be the moment a familiar wagging shape appears at the salon door. Some dogs arrive clean, ready to be photographed. Bobby is not one of those dogs. He lives just up the road from us, and his partner-in-crime Callie — also a Cocker, also a regular here, and equally fond of a muddy field — is always by his side on long country walks. On grooming days, the walk ends at our door. Both are impeccable on the lead — the mud is simply what happens when a Cocker's long ears and belly feathers meet a wet April field. By the time they reach us, Bobby is wearing what we now affectionately call his pre-groom finish: a generous topcoat of Shropshire mud!

First, A Bath. Then Another Bath.

There's washing a dog, and then there's negotiating with a Cocker in gloomy April. The first rinse came off the colour of weak tea. The second was barely better. By the third we were finally seeing actual Bobby underneath — that giveaway red-and-white that had been hiding under the field he'd been rolling in.

You don't really wash a muddy Cocker... it's more of a negotiation. And the mud drives a hard bargain!

From there it's the ordinary rhythm of the table — a slow dry, a careful brush-through to find any tangles the field had decided to leave us, a tidy of the ear feathering and feet, a nail check, and a final blow-out. Cocker ears are their best feature and their nemesis: long, soft, lined with feathering that catches every twig, bramble and thorn bush around. We trim and tidy rather than reshape — that signature drop ear is half of what makes a Cocker look like a Cocker.

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The Reveal

There's a particular face owners pull when they see their dog post-groom — a half-second of "hello, who are you?" before recognition kicks in. We probably shouldn't admit how much we enjoy that moment, but we do!

By the end of his hour-and-a-bit on the table, Bobby looked like a wholly different dog: clean white blaze down his chest, ginger ear feathering bouncing as he wagged, and a slightly indignant expression that suggested we'd ruined all his hard work. Callie, who'd been waiting her turn, got one whiff of shampoo as Bobby came off the table — she seemed mildly betrayed. She's up next.