Susan is the best groomer we have seen. She did a beautiful job on our Tina and was so thorough that she still looks good more than a month later. Quality work shows and this is wonderful. Thank you for doing such a great job on our fur-baby and I know that she will look forward to seeing you in a few months. When we picked her up, we could see that you had stripped her perfectly and she still loved you... Gentle and perfect."

We introduced her to a couple of new experiences lately. We had a picnic near the river in Stratford and she encounter ducks and swans for the first time. She wanted to play with them but they were smart enough to stay just out of her range. We took her to Lion's Head where our family cottage was and she got near waves and stony beaches. She handled the stony beach well but didn't like the idea of water rushing to meet her. She doesn't seem to like water much. She avoids getting in it and if it rains she refuses to get off the porch and exercises incredible bladder control until it stops. She will get into the occasional puddle but mostly avoids them too. Finicky! S. Mackellar

What an incredible difference in such as short time!  We have had such a wonderful experience boarding our 1 year old dog Koda with Sue.  We are confident that Koda receives endless amounts of love and attention when he stays there.  Sue has such a great connection to all the dogs under her care and goes over and above to help with any issues the dogs are having.  We had been struggling with getting him to walk appropriately without pulling and also how he would get overexcited when people came in the house.  After arriving home from our most recent vacation, we were eager to pick Koda up from Sue.  We were greeted with a much improved pup!  Sue worked with him throughout the week and we are amazed how he now walks directly beside us, without pulling!  He now waits for permission to go in and out a door and is remaining much calmer when people come to the house.  Sue spent time with us explaining the importance of consistency with everyone in our house and even our four kids got on board to maintain the hard work Sue put in with Koda.  We still have some work to do but with Sue’s guidance we are well on the way to having a very well behaved dog.  We are boarding him again next week for the fourth time and can hardly wait to see what miracle she will pull off this time!  We highly recommend Sue and thank her for all that she does! C&C Godbout

Kelso was born in a little village called Aigle in Switzerland. He was bred by Carine Petralia, breeder of, among others, the “de la Cocagne” pedigree. You can even see his name here! http://www.bt-database.be/managePerson.php?personId=14188

Kelso is now 12 years old, but when Susan finishes stripping him, he looks like a sweet puppy still! We love his gentlemanly nature. He moved over without any fuss when we decided to bring Molly, our 4 yo rescue, into our home. Even though she’s much bigger, and was aggressive toward him during her fearful first few weeks with us, he let her have her space and settle in, then slowly started to show her he still liked her.

Now stripping off all your hair is never a Border’s first choice for an afternoon in the country, and I’m sure Kelso would rather be sleeping in a patch of sun on the patio or chasing squirrels and skunks. But even so, he loves to see Susan, and she knows how to make him feel comfortable while she works. And I love taking him to her, since the region is very pretty, with trails nearby for walking. Jess for You cafe, and an awesome public library are nearby with excellent WiFi - I often stay for lunch and to work for the afternoon while I wait. L.Notley

 Living in Toronto, it was next to impossible to find a professional groomer who could hand strip my two border terriers after my previous groomer moved away. Those who are capable have a full client base or would rather take on dogs who require less work and turn over more quickly. While Susan is outside of the city, it has been worth my while to work out the logistics to get my dogs to her for grooming. When I pick them up, their coat is evenly worked to a lovely smooth finish with consistency across the body and legs and no strange half-worked patches or tufts of hair. One other important detail, Susan knows how to finish their faces according to the breed standard, so they always look great! D. Billes

Since moving to Toronto 6 years ago we have struggled to find a groomer for our now 13  year old Border Terrier, Brit.  In Vancouver, she had always been hand-stripped (twice a year) by a groomer who handles show dogs for major international dog shows.  We were extremely lucky to have had someone who knew how to properly hand-strip from Brit’s first grooming until we moved to Toronto.  Since being in Toronto we’ve approached several groomers and have been told (a) they don’t do hand-stripping (b) they’ve seen it done before and “could try to do it” (c) hand-stripping is a process and that it would take 4 or 5 sessions to fully hand-strip Brit. 

Out of sheer luck I was referred to Susan and was excited to find out that Susan has her own pack of border terriers.  After our first conversation,  I was confident that Brit would be in good hands.  For those new to hand-stripping I would highly recommend talking to Susan, she is very direct and is happy to chat and explain the process to you.  Although we are not new to hand-stripping she was able to reassure me about a few concerns I had.  Brit has had a couple of surgeries to repair torn cruciate ligaments in both her hind legs so we knew that she would likely be a bit more sensitive than she was in the past. After speaking with Susan about Brit’s surgeries, her age, & temperament I was confident in booking a grooming session with her.  Susan did mention that with age dogs do get less tolerant of the stripping process so we left it up to her to decide during the session whether she would clip or hand-strip Brit.  As is turned out Brit wasn’t tolerating the stripping so Susan made the decision to clip the majority of the body and hand-strip her head and neck area where Brit was more tolerant.  We obviously don’t want Brit to go through any unnecessary stress or anxiety so having Susan determine what is best for Brit based on how she is coping was a huge relief for us.  When we returned to pick Brit up she was happy and looked amazing – she still had that traditional border terrier look with the little beard and was as cute as ever.  We are so grateful to have found someone that cares about what is best for Brit and that we trust.  We know that Brit is in very good hands with Susan and will definitely be going back for Brit’s grooming. Angela, Jason and Brit.

Susan did a thorough and fantastic grooming job on our Border Terrier. Monty is not the friendliest dog and definitely has aggression issues but Susan was very quickly able to win him over and take control. By the time she finished he looked ready for Westminister dog show! Months later he continues to look great. We have no hesitation recommending Susan to someone with any breed of dog. Marie