Toilettage: it'll grow back, right?

It was a year ago today that we drove to Orange to pick a puppy and brought home an adorable little dog we named Crousti. Looking back, as I’ve written before, it wasn’t a piece of cake having a puppy in the house but I think I just had no clue what was in store for me. Specifically, I recall that first morning when my husband woke up at 5am (who am I kidding, we never really slept that first night as Crousti cried non-stop) to take him out for a pee, and it hit me that we would never be able to sleep in again for the rest of our lives because we have a dog. As my husband often reminds me, it’s all black and white with me! Here we are twelve months down the road and Crousti has a bladder the size of France – after 11 hours of sleeping, we have to wake him up in the morning to go outside. My perfect pooch.

When thinking about a possible breed, one thing I didn’t give too much thought to was grooming. Fortunately my husband combs and brushes the dog every other day to keep those knots at bay, but Cotons need frequent cutting. If we were going to show our dog, we’d not be allowed to cut his poil as it’s prohibited for this race in competition. But the only competition Crousti faces is who gives him more attention, his mom or dad. There’s also the issue of a white furred dog. We shower him once a week to rid him of “Prom Paws” but it’s not the same as a proper visit to the Toilettage. I'm convinced that Crousti also likes feeling clean and fresh – just look at the smile on his face after a visit to the hairdresser.

There are nearly 130 of these doggie hairdressers in the 06 department alone. Where we live, there seems to be one on every second block. When the dog was 5 months, my husband said it was time because he was getting too scruffy. Well, I didn’t want to leave my baby in the hands of anyone – so how to choose? The advice I was given was to go into the shop and if there was a peculiar smell or odour, than best to try somewhere else. I asked around, too, and had a few suggestions. The first haircut (pictured below) the woman asked me to leave as the dog would be calmer (what was she implying??) and to come back in two hours. After 30 minutes, she called me to pick up the dog as she couldn’t do a proper cut, he was crying too much. She actually informed that he had an ear infection – which I completely panicked about. Thankfully Dr Gittins in Antibes sorted him out with a two-week treatment. Toilettage No. 1 soon closed up and I wasn’t sad about it, although its locations was convenient.



I was relieved from Toilettage Duty at this point. My husband took over, and to his credit, my reactions to the dog’s cuts are a lot worse than a dog’s bark (if he did bark). Toilettage No. 2 was in the summer and even though the coiffeuse was very, very nice, the cut was abominable. What should it matter right? The fur will grow back… but it bugged me. So I bought a pair of proper scissors and thought I’d do it myself.
I would clip a little here and there around the eyes, and I thought I was doing a good job – and saving us a ton of money. Until my husband told me truth, that the fur was sticking out all over the place as I was cutting randomly, and that he was taking the dog to get cleaned up.

Toilettage No. 3 – After going in person three times to this place, we gave up as no one was ever there, even though the sign said open and the shutters were open.

Toilettage No. 4 – This new place was okay but I still wasn’t happy with the summer cut, even though my husband followed my exact instructions. He just looked odd, like they ran out of steam when it came to cutting around his face. I'm not alone in thinking this, am I?


We went back to the same place though this last time and it was perfect. Not only was it a great cut, but the woman knows Crousti and is very affectionate to him. What more could I want?  


You really need to factor the expense of grooming into your budget. We won’t take the dog every month, but every two to three months can add up. And it’s a necessity – no, I’m not talking about putting ribbons in his hair, but they clean they ears properly and cut nails. I’m not about to tackle that. Sure it's a tad strange that our dog requires higher grooming maintenance than his sporty mom and dad combined, but I refuse to let Crousti turn into "Crusty", one of those grey dogs you see who once upon a time had white fur and a normal looking bum hole.