I have recently started offering tooth-brushing services (added to nail trimming) to a couple of my training clients. :P However, I consider it a training issue- it’s the regular old pet toothbrush + the nasty chicken toothpaste and while the initial goal is getting pets’ teeth some regular care, the longer term goal is getting them to allow their owners to do it.

I love it!

I am picturing them skulking around behind bushes. popping out occasionally to shriek in indignation at random intervals then scuttle off

Oops, pardon. That ought to be SHRIEK

What a coward.

I earlier compared having a groomer handle your pet’s medical care to having a hairdresser handle yours. In fact, I was wrong about that. Cosmetologists have to pass a state licensing test that requires a fair amount of knowledge of chemistry, sanitation and dermatology (as in, how to recognize skin cancer and suggest the client see a doctor ASAP). Pet groomers, on the other hand, require nothing. Now, the fact is that many of them are quite skilled at their jobs and knowledgeable in behavior and husbandry. That still does not make them veterinarians, and still does not in any way qualify them to practice medicine. So-called “non-anesthetic dentistries” are pushed to people who already fear anesthesia, and these practices are not only not good pet care, they also can be more damaging to a pet than doing nothing at all.

The sellers of this snake oil seems to engage in a great deal of cult-like behavior, including feeling a sense of persecution and entitlement. They have come in to MY HOUSE and called us “bitches,” “so-called women,” etc., etc. for us daring to educate pet-owners on this subject.

I figure budget and staffing issues keep regulators from cracking down on people practicing veterinary medicine without a license. As long as that situation continues, these folks will continue to offer false promises and false solutions to the scared, the gullible and the angry among the pet-owning population.

But they will no longer be spewing their crap in my house. Here, you advance a discussion with science and facts, or you step off, even if I have to push you.