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June 16, 2026When is a picture worth FAR less than 1,000 words
Before we started inviting our clients to use the PawfectClip App, we tried several other possible solutions to meeting client expectations. Among those was telling our new clients to bring in a photograph of their desired haircut for their dog. We explained that we could then have a better understanding of what their expectations were for the result. We soon learned that a simple solution to a complex problem was not so simple.
We have one client who brought in her nine-month-old golden doodle, along with this picture. The problem? Her dog was 90% Golden Retriever, with curly ears being the only evidence of the poodle line. She asked what she needed to do to get her dog to look like the photograph, we explained her best option was to get a second dog who looked like that.
We revised what how we ask clients to bring in photographs to add “Please make sure the picture is of your dog or at least the same breed and coat type.
We explained this to a new client over the phone when we were setting up her dog’s first appointment. She said she knew exactly what she wanted her dog’s appearance to be after grooming and had a perfect photo to illustrate. When she arrived on the morning of her appointment, she handed me this cell phone picture and asked if we could make her dog look like this:
Yep, you are looking at a cartoon dog carefully cross-stitched on a couch pillow. I wanted to exclaim “No I cannot make your dog into a cartoon, with a head that is four times larger than its body can support!” Instead, I explained that while we would certainly leave the head and face full, we would need a photograph of an actual dog to better match her expectations.
We are thankful to have a tool that now allows the owner to use take photos of their dog, answer some simple prompts and send us this instead:
