Dog left unattended, wet & shivering for over 15 minutes during grooming session, salon apologises

A pet owner who sent her dog to be groomed was shocked to see it whimpering and shivering on a live stream.

The owner had left her dog, Latte, in the hands of the newly-opened grooming salon Pawky Pawly.

She saw that the store was live on TikTok and tuned in.

Much to her surprise, she saw Latte, drenched and shivering in the cold.

This went on for almost 18 minutes, shared the owner in a now-removed Facebook post.

She wrote: "Sent my dog for grooming at this place, and they left my dog on TikTok live [for] almost 18 minutes, without informing me of [the] TikTok live video, wet and whining. Unethical."

Seeing her dog shivering and whimpering, the owner tried to alert the groomer via the chat function on TikTok.

Faint laughter and chatter could be heard in the video.

Messaged shop to alert them

Latte's owner said that it was "upsetting" that her dog was only attended to after she sent a message to the groomers asking why Latte was alone in the live stream.

Noting that it was very "careless" of the shop to have left the pooch alone, the owner wrote: "What if the dog jumps out and die[s] hanging?"

Salon takes "full responsibility"

Speaking to Mothership, the founder of Pawky Pawly, who shared his name as "Zack", said that they were taking the incident "very seriously" and are "implementing measures to ensure such lapses do not happen again".

Pawky Pawly has also publicly apologised in a series of posts across its social media pages on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.

"As the owner of Pawky Pawly, me and my groomer take full responsibility for the carelessness and negligence in handling the situation," said Zack.

"Latte’s first grooming session with me should have been a positive and comfortable experience, and we are truly sorry for falling short of the standard of care she deserved."

Latte's groomer had gone to make a "supposedly fast handover" of a previously groomed dog to its owner, explained Zack.

However, as the customer had inquiries, the conversation "dragged on", hence the "delayed attention" to Latte. 

While the groomer was "a few steps from Latte", Zack admitted that the incident could have been avoided if there had been other employees around. 

Coining this as a "humbling and important lesson" for a new business, Zack acknowledged the significant lapse, and "will be hiring an assistant" to avoid a recurrence. 

"We have also personally apologised to Latte’s owner and taken steps to rectify the situation. Once again, we are truly sorry. Every pet’s safety, comfort, and happiness are our top priorities, and we will work tirelessly to ensure we uphold these values.”

Words of encouragement pour in

Some of Pawky Pawly's customers have come forward to encourage Pawky Pawly in comments on its social media posts, and acknowledged the company's efforts to promptly address the matter.

A customer said the practice of "live grooming" of pets shows that the business valued transparency, though another pointed out that featuring pets on social media and public livestreams should only be done with the pet owners' consent.

Mothership reached out to Latte's owner on Nov. 29 for more information and will update this article if she responds.

Pet groomers don't require licenses, but should uphold higher standards: MND

While there is currently no licensing regime for pet groomers, all individuals working in animal-related businesses, including pet groomers, are expected to uphold higher standards of animal welfare, said Minister for National Development Desmond Lee in parliament on Sep. 9, 2024.

If these standards are not upheld, individuals or businesses that are convicted of an animal welfare offence could also be issued a disqualification order.

Failure to meet the minimum standards stipulated in the Code of Animal Welfare (for the Pet Industry) may also be used as evidence for enforcement action.

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Top image from Dogs Singapore/Facebook and Pawky Pawly/TikTok