Creative Grooming: When an Animal Is Your Canvas [Warning Inside!]

We may earn commission from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. Learn more

Keeping your dog groomed does not just make him look good, it’s often better for his health. Without regular grooming, dogs with hair that continuously grows can end up with matted hair that can block their eyes, nose and mouth. Responsible owners keep a grooming schedule that keeps their pet looking neat and feeling good but do they indulge in creative grooming?

For competitions like the Westminster Dog Show, making the dogs’ coats gleam takes a lot of time and effort, with groomers that labor over their tasks. But way beyond such traditional grooming is a newer way to style your pet called creative grooming.

Creative Dog grooming probably started in the mid-1980s as simple dye jobs that turned white dogs into moving patches of a single color, but that turned out to just be the starting point. Fashion-conscious dog owners began experimenting with multiple dyes to create pictures or scenes on their pets and since then things have really taken off!

Various companies offer dyes formulated just for animals’ more sensitive skin. You can apply dye with an airbrush gun, a spray bottle or a creme chalk pen. There is pet glitter, hair glitz strands, feather extensions, crimping beads, stencils, nail polish and designer blades and clippers for sculpting hair and fur into waves, angles and shapes.

For years there was no oversight to make sure all these products were safe for animals, but in 2009 The National Association of Professional Creative Groomers formed. The NAPCG provides guidelines for creative groomers and has some oversight with companies that produce grooming products, but they lack the power to actually regulate. There is still no official body that can ban unsafe products or impose penalties on companies that sell them.

For this reason, dog owners who take their pet to a professional must make sure of the kinds of dyes and materials the groomer uses. Unlike the beauty industry for humans, there is no mandatory training, certification or license required for someone to be a groomer, creative or not. Dog skin is actually thinner and more vulnerable than human skin, so owners must be very careful to question a groomer before they trust her with their dog. For instance, human hair dye is very toxic to animals. It will burn their skin, cause extreme allergic reactions, and can even kill them. Never use human hair coloring formulas on animals.

But most creative groomers are dog lovers who make sure they use non-toxic coloring. They talk about expressing the personality of the owner through their dog and call the grooming process a way to personalize pets in a unique way. This is nothing new. Many pet owners choose the breed they feel best suits their personality and lifestyle. Creative grooming simply takes this a bit farther with semi-permanent dyes that might form bows, insects, faces, or other flora and fauna on the body of their pet.

Creative grooming competitions take things to the farthest extreme. In the past several decades they have cropped up all over the world and although some include cats, they mostly feature poodles since they have the hair that lends itself most easily to landscaping. The groomers spend months preparing their pets, as a more conventional artist might prepare her canvass. They know their work will be judged not only on technique and professionalism, but on the theme they choose and how well the different parts of the image fit together. A groomer might be capable of making an excellent Ernie the Muppet and a stunning koi pond, but if they put them together and it doesn’t make sense, that will be points against them.

At these competitions, the dogs must stand for hours without moving. Groomers lose themselves in dyes and clippers, angles and shapes, tirelessly coaxing their vision out of the hair. An audience watches the images emerge and judges prepare to honor a winner. It takes all day.

Critics wonder about the impact of creative grooming on the dogs. Besides the possible toxicity of the materials, is it in a dog’s best interest to spend hours being treated like a painting surface? Groomers say that the dogs enjoy the attention, both of the grooming and of the admiration they get later as they walk around with the designs. That makes sense as long as the grooming takes an hour or so. But when it takes all day, does the dog still enjoy it? Does the groomer? Or does she just envision going home with the top award?

When interviewed, some competitive creative groomers talk about the difficulties of working with a living canvas. They admit that part of what drives them is rising to the challenge of shaping art from a breathing, moving animal. An in-depth conversation with such a groomer shows that they choose their projects based on the skills they want to master, the recognition they hope to earn, the creative design that will receive the most attention and, of course, earning first prize. Neither the character of the dog nor the nature of the groomer’s relationship with the dog seem to figure into such projects.

At this point the furry friend seems to disappear as the art takes over.

And what are the risks to the living canvases? Is even the most modest creative grooming an exploitation of the animal? We know dogs will do anything to please their owners, but is it fair to ask them change color or wear pictures on their bodies? There are risks to dyeing a dog’s fur, especially since self-licking means the dyes can also be ingested, and there have been no studies on the long-term effect of these dyes. We are trusting groomers to come clean about any negative effects of creative grooming, whether physical or psychological.

Then again, groomers insist that there is nothing at all exploitative about creative grooming. The competitions only happen once a year, so a dog withstanding the process for just one day is not a problem. They are extremely careful about the substances used on the dogs so that no toxins touch them. And as long as pet owners are equally careful about what groomers they hire to creatively groom their pets, there is no risk.

If you have your dog creatively groomed, ask the groomer the following questions:

How long have you been a creative groomer?
What kind of training did you have?
What brand of dye(s) do you use?
What kinds of symptoms do you look for to make sure the dog isn’t having an allergic reaction?
What kind of professional grooming tools do you use?

Return to pick up your dog at the time agreed upon, whether or not you’ve heard from the groomer. Not hearing from the groomer by the time agreed upon can be a sign that things haven’t gone as the groomer planned.

When it comes to dye, it’s mostly dogs with white fur that can be creatively groomed. Animal dyes are formulated to bond with fur, at least temporarily, and you can get a long-term, temporary color job with white fur. Dark fur cannot be colored the same way. In order for the dye to take, the fur must be colorless and it would be extremely hazardous to bleach a dog’s fur.

A human can bleach her hair because the chemicals only go on the scalp, our skin is thicker and more protected, and there is little chance of a human ingesting the chemicals, unlike dogs that lick themselves. Dogs have had terrible reactions to the ingredients in human coloring formulas, such as hydrogen peroxide and ammonia.

The danger is just as bad if not worse for cats. A cat’s liver lacks the ability to metabolize chemicals, so toxins can build in the cat’s body and cause health problems and poisoning. Please don’t use human coloring chemicals on your pets.

But even dyes developed just for animals can cause an allergic reaction. Having such chemicals on a dog’s body can cause itching which leads to scratching or shaking of the head. Excessive scratching or head shaking can cause sores, hematomas and blisters. If the dog experiences extreme discomfort or if it lasts long enough, it can cause behavioral changes.

Dyeing uses a lot of water and dyeing a dog’s head can get water in their ears. Dog ears are differently shaped than humans’ and it’s harder to get the water back out. If it stays in there, it can lead to infection.

And then there’s the argument that changing a dog’s color has a psychological effect. Dyeing changes the way a dog smells. This can be confusing to other dogs and to the dog itself. Maybe being green or pink brings attention the dog doesn’t want or makes people laugh at it. Can a dog tell when it’s being ridiculed? If it can, this is another risk of creative grooming.

Because of all these hazards, dyeing animals has been outlawed in Florida and Colorado. Floridians and Coloradans who feel the need to make their dog’s ears or paws blue and purple pay fines for breaking the law.

It’s a tricky thing to criticize someone who clearly adores her dog. The same creative grooming that one person says is an expression of love looks to someone else like abuse.

Paula Boyden is a veterinary director at Dogs Trust, the UK’s largest dog welfare charity. She says “It’s important that dog owners, and groomers, remember that dogs are not fashion accessories to have the latest trend tried out on them, grooming is for the dog’s needs rather than for the owner’s entertainment.” Grooming was supposed to be a way to keep your dog’s fur untangled and neat. It kept coat, nails and teeth healthy. But creative grooming seems to cross the line into simple human vanity at the dog’s expense. Putting together two things you love – dogs and fashion – doesn’t always result in a net win.

Creative Grooming: When an Animal Is Your Canvas

See Also:

Disclaimer