(apparently I'm not allowed to use a picture of their logo)
When I was at the vet’s, I noticed that they charge 14$ to clip nails. I will admit that price doesn’t seem high but for a job that would take all of 5 minutes, it is a little costly. I was going to look into how much a groomer would charge, when I found myself on the Mondou (pet store) website and one of the services they offer is free nail trimmings.
I noticed that the store near my house, the one on Victoria in Greenfield Park, was having a nail-trimming event one Saturday. It was supposed to run from 10:00am to 3:30pm, so I planned to show up in the afternoon. We were a little late getting there, showing up around 2:50. I walked around the store first for a couple minutes because we were going to get food while there. At 3:00pm we ask where they did the nail trimming since we hadn’t seen the table at the back, only to be told that the event had just ended. Someone else had shown up and asked the person doing the nails if they could get in line and was told yes, since she thought she had another half hour left. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get the same answer because by then a store employee had wised up to this and did not let anyone else in line.
The website clearly said until 3:30pm and the person doing the trimming had thought it was until then also, but apparently the store manager (or owner) never lets it go past 3:00pm. While we were at the cash, another dog owner came with their dog and was turned away. She looked at the employee and said but the website said 3:30pm before leaving, clearly unhappy about it. I found this to be a little unprofessional on the part of Mondou. I think that if the website says specific times then the event should go to that time.
When we got home, I checked the website again and found out that another Mondou store in the area, the one on Chambly Blvd. in Longueuil, was having the same event the next day and called to confirm the hours. We got up early and showed up around 11:00am and there were about 8-10 dogs already in line. Since the person doing the trimmings takes a lunch break, we were told to come back in the afternoon but asked if we could squeeze in since we live 35 minutes away and the Greenfield Park store turned us away the day before. Thankfully they let us, which was highly appreciated.
The people doing the trimmings are experienced, usually, students that are studying to be animal technicians or vets. The first time I took Finley I didn’t know how she would act since she had been with us for only a month at that time, thankfully she was cooperative and didn’t give the girl any trouble. That wasn’t the case with all the dogs but the girl that day was very patient and I was impressed by how professional she acted. She handled the dogs very well and from what I could tell, never hurt any of them nor did she get their quick by cutting too much of the nails, even when some of the dogs clearly didn’t want their nails trimmed and fought it. Dogs do get a treat at the end from the person trimming their nails, a move I endorse. I did forgo the store treat and gave Finley one of her favourites that I had brought with me.
One last thing, while the service is free, owners can give a donation to the MIRA Foundation when they get their dogs nails trimmed by putting money into a box on the table in the nail trimming area. For upcoming nail trimming events please consult Mondou’s event page.
Update: Please check this blog post to see what I have to say about the changes that they made to this service. In short form, you know to make an appointment ahead of time to get your pet's nails trimmed now.