one dog at a time · wed–sat, by appointment · ring or WhatsApp 0161 941 0736 altrincham · four minutes from the tram

An elevation of the grooming room: the hydraulic table with its arm and a loosely hanging loop, a tool trolley with curved shears and brushes, a stand dryer on a tripod, and a single lead hook with one amber record tag. There is no cage anywhere in the room. worn loose, if at all one hook · one dog room-temperature dryer the trolley the table One dog standing on the grooming table, filling the frame. A single dog, drawn large and solid, standing on a grooming table. The table's arm rises beside it and the loop hangs loose on its line, nowhere near the dog. A clipper cord trails off the table. Nothing else is in the room.

one dog
at a time.

On the table —  teddy bear cuts, double-coat de-sheds, ten-minute nail trims — every service priced with its duration below.

Tables
One
Groomer
Wren · City & Guilds L3
Drying
Hand & stand, never a cage
Rebook
Every 4–6 weeks
Telephone
0161 941 0736

Before anything else

the promises, published

Nobody licenses dog groomers — anyone with a set of clippers can open tomorrow. So this is the card by the door, reproduced whole: six lines, signed, where you can hold us to them.

pinned by the door · in full

  • one dog at a time

    Yours is the only dog in the room, start to finish — no overlap, no crates, nowhere to be left waiting. Two dogs from the same house can come together.

  • hand and stand drying only

    Room-temperature air, one of us beside her the whole time. There is no cage or cabinet dryer here — not switched off in a corner, not at all.

  • the loop is worn loose, if at all

    The arm on the table is there to steady, never to hold a dog in place. If she stands well without it, it stays on its hook.

  • we ring before we change anything

    If we find matting, a lump, or anything under the coat, we photograph it and call you — and nothing happens until you’ve said yes out loud.

  • we stop when she needs to stop

    Breaks, a drink, a slower pace, or a split groom over two visits. A half-finished tidy and a calm dog beats a perfect finish and a shaken one, every single time.

  • the first visit is just a hello

    Fifteen minutes, some treats, a sniff around the room, no water and no noise. Free, always available, and the best thing you can do for a nervous dog.

Wren Halliday · one groomer, one table, eleven years of coats.
Reviewed and reprinted every January. Certificates are on the wall; ask and we’ll take them down.

qualification City & Guilds Level 3 dog grooming · 7863-03 first aid Canine first aid renewed every year cover Fully insured certificate by the door

You’ll know it’s working when he walks in on his own lead and doesn’t look back at you.

Coats & prices

priced by the coat, not the dog

Size is the wrong question — a whippet and a cockapoo weigh the same and take an hour apart. Behind the table there is a card for every coat: the tools, the guard, the hours and when she is due back. Pick yours and the card fills in.

Choose your dog’s coat

curly & wool

cockapoo · cavapoo · poodle · bichon · labradoodle

#4 guard · 10 mm left on the body

teddy bear — #4 on the body, the head scissored round

on the table for this coat

  • clipper
  • scissors
  • slicker
  • comb

the guard rail · blade length in mm

  1. #101.5
  2. #73
  3. #56
  4. #410 mm — the guard fitted for this coat
  5. #313
on the table
2 h 30
full groom
from £58
back in
4–6 weeksdoodles should not stretch

How a curly coat goes wrong: it felts at the skin, under the top curl, where you cannot see it — and a coat pelted to the skin cannot be brushed out kindly. We photograph it, ring you, and nothing comes off short until you have said yes.

double coat

golden retriever · german shepherd · husky · border collie

no guard fitted · coat left as grown

undercoat raked and blasted out; the guard coat is not shortened

on the table for this coat

  • clipper — not used on this coat
  • scissors — not used on this coat
  • slicker
  • comb

the guard rail · blade length in mm

  1. #101.5
  2. #73
  3. #56
  4. #410
  5. #313
on the table
2 h 15
de-shed groom
from £62
back in
8–10 weeksbetween the two big drops

How a double coat goes wrong: somebody clips it. It wrecks the way the coat insulates, it rarely grows back right, and it is the one job we will turn down. Anyone who offers to is telling you something.

silky & drop

shih tzu · yorkshire terrier · maltese · cocker spaniel

#7F blade · 3 mm left on the body

body clipped short, feathering and topknot scissored by hand

on the table for this coat

  • clipper
  • scissors
  • slicker — not used on this coat
  • comb

the guard rail · blade length in mm

  1. #101.5
  2. #73 mm — the guard fitted for this coat
  3. #56
  4. #410
  5. #313
on the table
2 h 00
full groom
from £52
back in
6–8 weekssooner if she swims

How a silky coat goes wrong: it is cut to a show length that needs twenty minutes of brushing a day. We cut to a pet length that survives a real walk — unless you have told us you will enjoy the brushing, in which case we will happily leave it long.

wire coat

border terrier · miniature schnauzer · westie · wire fox terrier

no guard fitted · dead coat pulled, not cut

hand-stripped and carded, split across two shorter visits

on the table for this coat

  • clipper — not used on this coat
  • scissors — not used on this coat
  • slicker — not used on this coat
  • comb

the guard rail · blade length in mm

  1. #101.5
  2. #73
  3. #56
  4. #410
  5. #313
on the table
2 h 00 × 2
full strip
from £70
back in
10–12 weeksa rolled coat sets its own clock

How a wire coat goes wrong: it gets quietly clipped, because clipping takes twenty minutes and stripping takes two hours. Clipping softens the texture and fades the colour, often for good. We will always tell you which your dog is getting, and why.

smooth

labrador · staffie · whippet · boxer · beagle

no guard fitted · nothing is taken off the length

rubber brush, de-shed bath, nails, ears and a hygiene tidy

on the table for this coat

  • clipper — not used on this coat
  • scissors — not used on this coat
  • slicker
  • comb — not used on this coat

the guard rail · blade length in mm

  1. #101.5
  2. #73
  3. #56
  4. #410
  5. #313
on the table
1 h 15
bath & tidy
from £38
back in
10–12 weeksmore often in the moult

How a smooth coat goes wrong: it does not, usually — the risk is being sold a groom she does not need. A smooth coat is the quickest table in the room and it is priced like it.

Every price is a from-price and here is why: the coat in front of us decides — condition, matting, and how she takes to the table. You’ll have the real number confirmed before we start, never after. Nails on their own are £12 and take about ten minutes; puppies under five months come for shorter, gentler intro visits at £28.

The decision record

what we watch, and what we decide

The whole worry about grooming is the closed door. So here is the record we keep behind it — one real morning, and every decision taken in it, with the time it was taken and who it was taken with.

  1. arrive 09:00
    arrival — what we read before we touch her

    Off the lead, one lap of the room, takes a treat. Tail low but loose, ears forward. That is a start. A tucked tail and a refused treat is not, and we say so rather than press on.

    start
  2. check 09:15
    the coat check, and the phone rule

    Matting behind both ears, tight to the skin. Photographed, sent, and nothing began until the reply came back. Not a voicemail. A yes.

    phone the owner
  3. bath 09:40
    warm water, two hands

    Tethered for safety in the tub, never left. Shampoo chosen for the coat, not the smell — though the smell is good too.

    continue
  4. dry 10:10
    the dryer, and the first thing that went wrong

    She braced and put her weight back. Room-temperature air, low speed, pointed away — then five minutes on the floor with a drink before we tried again.

    break
  5. arrive 10:45
    the second dog, from the same house

    Her housemate arrives for the 11:45 table. Same room, same people: one dog up, one on the floor with a chew. This is the only overlap we allow, and it is why we ask on the form whether they live together.

    same house
  6. style 11:15
    clip and scissor

    The cut we agreed, by name, with the blade number written on her card so next time matches this time. She stood for all of it.

    continue
  7. done 11:45
    handover, and the record

    Two hours forty-five on the table, inside the three-hour ceiling. Her card is filled in — what we did, what we noticed, when to come back — and her housemate steps up now, with her own three hours starting from here.

    complete

Worth knowing early

Your cockapoo’s coat is about to change — and nobody warns you.

Somewhere between seven and ten months the soft puppy fluff gives way to the adult coat — curlier, denser, and suddenly quick to mat, close to the skin where you can’t see it. Owners who’ve coasted for eight months hit a wall in a fortnight, and it isn’t their fault: a crossbreed has no breed club and no rulebook, so nobody ever tells them.

It always starts in the same four places, and the test beside this names them. A daily minute with a slicker brush there is worth more than anything we can do six weeks apart — and you can check it yourself tonight.

And if a coat does get away — it happens, life is busy — we follow the trade’s oldest rule: humanity before vanity. A pelted coat comes off short and comfortable rather than being ripped through for the look of it; that is what the Animal Welfare Act asks of us, and we’d do it anyway. It grows back. Trust doesn’t.

the comb test · how far it gets, in section

A coat in section at three stages, with a gauge on the left showing how far the comb gets. Brushed weekly it sinks to the skin and travels the length of the coat. A fortnight missed, it stops on a felted layer halfway down. Matted to the skin it barely enters at all, and the clip line runs under the pelt, at the skin.
Choose how long since the coat was brushed

The comb goes in at the skin and comes out the other side. That is the whole test, and it takes about sixty seconds a day in four places: behind the ears, the collar line, the armpits and elbows, and under the tail.The comb reaches halfway and stops. The top still looks perfect — the felt is underneath it, against the skin, where your hand never goes. This is the fortnight most owners never notice, and it is still brushable, gently, with time.The comb does not go in at all. The coat has become one sheet, welded to the skin, and the skin under it is moving every time she does. There is no kind way to brush this out, so we do not: the clippers go under the pelt, at the skin, and the whole sheet comes off in one piece. She goes home short and comfortable. It grows back.

At the table

the card, filled in

Every dog has one, and it is the reason the second groom looks like the first. This is what one of them says at the end of a morning.

coat cardsilky & drop

on the table
2 h 05
guard
#7F body
finish
face, feet and tail scissored
ears & nails
clear · clipped, no dremel
breaks
one, four minutes, after the dryer
back in
6–8 weeks

notes

Dryer on low and pointed away — she watches it rather than the door. Small mat behind the near ear, combed out, nothing cut. The loop stayed on its hook the whole morning.

W.H.

Scissor work on a silky coat, mid-groom · the loop worn loose on its hook, a hand never off her. The photograph is a working salon’s own, licensed and credited below — not our dogs, so not our dogs’ names.

The cycle, and saying hello

when to come, and how to start

A twelve-week coat calendar. Groom day at week zero, home brushing through the weeks, and a rebooking window that moves with the coat chosen above. week 0 · groom day week 4 · slicker, four zones week 12 curly & wool · back in weeks 4–6 a silky coat · back in weeks 6–8 a double coat · back in weeks 8–10 a wire coat · back in weeks 10–12 a smooth coat · back in weeks 10–12

A curly coat wants the table every four to six weeks — doodles should not stretch.A silky coat wants the table every six to eight weeks, sooner if she swims.A double coat wants the table every eight to ten weeks, between the two big drops.A wire coat rolls on for ten to twelve weeks — a stripped coat sets its own clock.A smooth coat wants the table every ten to twelve weeks, more often in the moult. We write the next window on her card at the end of the groom, so nobody has to remember — and if she comes back late, that is a longer, gentler appointment, not a telling-off.

The room

Opening days
MondayClosed
TuesdayClosed
WednesdayBy appointment · 09:00–16:00
ThursdayBy appointment · 09:00–16:00
FridayBy appointment · 09:00–16:00
SaturdayBy appointment · 09:00–16:00
SundayClosed

One dog at a time means the diary is honest: new clients usually wait two to three weeks for a first full groom. The hello visit never waits.

Bramble & Bone 14 Oakfield Road
Altrincham WA15 8DW
0161 941 0736

No car? We’re four minutes’ walk from Altrincham Metrolink, and there’s a water bowl by the door for anyone who trotted.

Tell us about your dog

Start with the hello visit — it’s free, it’s fifteen minutes, and it’s the single best predictor of a calm first groom. Tell us who’s coming.