Talking Breeds: What to Say
What do you say to a client when their pet isn’t the breed they think it is?
Oftentimes, I see one of two responses to this. The first is to say nothing. “They can call their toy poodle a great dane for all I care; I’m getting paid for the groom either way.” The second is to matter-of-factly correct them. My favorite example of this comes from a real-life conversation Bullet had with a former client:
A new lady comes in with her “Yorkie” who is clearly a mixed-breed pup of some sort. Cute as a button, but definitely not 100% Yorkie. Now, in Bullet’s defense, this lady did ask for her opinion, so Bullet gave her an honest answer that there was no way this little dog, cute and sweet as he is, was a full-blooded Yorkie.
Client: “But I paid $300 for him!”
Bullet: “Well, you got $300 worth of Yorkie, ma’am. A well-bred Yorkie is going to cost you a lot more than that.”
So that’s one way to do it!
I tend to fall somewhere in the middle with my responses. Is it the worst thing in the world for someone to think their mixed breed cat is near-identical to a show Persian? Not really. The main reason I want to inform clients about a more accurate breed identity for their pets is so they can manage their expectations. If someone comes to see us with a puppy they think is a purebred toy poodle that is actually mixed with a drop-coat breed, they may be envisioning their pup in a continental groom one day, right? Or, they have a Yorkie that’s really a Silkie so the coat is never going to grow down to the floor. I don’t want them to think that anything is “wrong” with their pet, rather they just have a different genetic makeup than the breed the owner had in mind.
Keeping that in mind, I almost always highlight the way a pet deviates from the expected breed standard in a positive light. Notice how even in this blog post, I didn’t refer to breed “faults” because while that terminology is technically correct, it can give the impression that you’re saying those differences are bad. That, to me, is the key: no one wants to be made to feel that something is wrong with their pet.
For example, a new client arrives with a young dog, Fluffy, that they think is 100% Bichon, but Fluffy has features of a drop-coat breed present. While feeling over the coat, I mention to the owner that Fluffy’s coat is a little thinner than you would see Bichons in the show ring so we may not be able to achieve that exact groom style, but the good news is that her coat will be easier to keep maintained since it’s not so thick.
The exception to this is when a pet owner naively purchases a dog from a backyard breeder. In those cases, they do deserve to know the truth. However, that is a more delicate subject, so I may not mention it immediately at the first appointment, especially if it will be more hurtful than helpful. Imagine your excitement to bring your new puppy or kitten to the groomer only to be told that 1) your pet is not what you thought it was and 2) you were ripped off by an unscrupulous breeder. What an awful damper on your spirits! Instead, I may ask for information about the breeder at different appointments that eventually leads me and the owner together to realize this person shouldn’t be calling themselves a breeder. “Thank goodness you went to them or you wouldn’t have Fluffy, but now that you know, you know not to go back to them or refer anyone else that way.”
What experiences have you had with owners being mistaken about their pet’s breed?