The tragedy of dog drying cages
Thomas Bruckner and girlfriend, Melissa Makarewicz learned too late the tragedy of their Puppy Grooming salons choice to use dog drying cages. Their beloved pug-beagle mix, Bailey suffered heat stroke and died after be left in a drying cage for only 5 minutes at the Pampered Pooch Doggie Daycare and Spa in Hicksville, NY.
Many busy grooming salons use the drying cages as a fast way to dry a dog and in most cases there are no problems. However, with a short snouted dog the forced heat into a closed cage can quickly become lethal.
Mr. Bruckner has started a website, BadGroomer.com in hopes of having the drying cages banned.
Most groomers want to keep the cages but require more education as to their proper use.
Hand drying a dog has many advantages over the drying cage as it requires the groomer to spend more time with each dog and can alert a groomer to potential skin problems or infection.
Many groomers will choose to use a cage with a “difficult” dog to avoid the conflict of dealing with an uncooperative pet.
Ask your groomer exactly what their policies are for drying and the use of drying cages, as well as how they deal with a “difficult” dog. You may even want to take your dogs favorite all natural dog treat with you to the groomers as a special treat for good behavior or to get the dogs attention.