Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2026!

What’s happening in January?

As we mentioned in December’s Newsletter, effective immediately all credit/debit transactions will now incur a 3% convenience fee, including cards on file. We appreciate your understanding!  Our new neighbor, Phoenix Rising Yoga is opening this month! We aren’t into “New year, new you” culture because we think you’re pretty great just the way you are. However, if you’re looking for new ways or a new place to move your body, definitely check them out. We hear they have a cute dog!  Phoenix Rising | Yoga, Aerial & Cycling in Smithfield, RI

Winter weather is here!

Some dogs love the snow; digging, rolling around and gleefully zooming through clouds of white powder. Others... maybe not so much. They’d prefer to snuggle up on the couch with you, wearing a cozy sweater, and who could blame them? When temperatures drop, it may be tempting to let their fur grow out a little to help protect against the elements, and we know our clients consider their pet’s comfort top priority. However, the first thing to know is that most dogs handle cold temperatures much better than heat. Their natural resting body temperature is around 101° Fahrenheit, which gives them a leg up. But their coats and coat types do make a difference. If you have a dog that is bred for the cold (think Siberian Husky, Samoyed, Bernese Mountain Dogs, Great Pyrenees), we wish you the best of luck keeping them inside. Their soft wooly undercoats insulate their bodies while their thicker, shiny guard hairs repel snow helping to keep them dry like a really great parka.  

If your dog is smooth coated like our pit bull mascot, Reina, a jacket or sweater isn’t a bad idea when heading out for a walk, especially if they’re under 20 lbs. or over 8 years old. Small and senior dogs are more sensitive to the cold, and it can become dangerous for them much faster, so try to keep their outside time to a minimum.  For the curly/soft/drop coat breeds, when it comes time to decide on a haircut length it is important to consider more than just temperature because your dog will likely spend far more time inside than out. When they do go out, longer hair collects snow and gets wet. Imagine coming inside from the cold and your once cozy wool socks are soaked through, except they can’t take them off. Now they are dragging that soggy mess all over your house while they are drying off, and, during this time, their curly hair is shrinking up just like the fibers in your wet wool socks, creating a tangly, damp uncomfortable trap for bacteria to grow and, ah yes, disperse that wet dog smell all around your home.

Toweling your dog off is a great start. Also, if they let you do a little blow drying on the lowest heat setting, that’s even better, but it is most important to BRUSH AND COMB those curls out once they are dry. Brushing curly coats when wet can damage the hairs when at their most delicate state, and it’s very easy to accidentally scrape the skin underneath causing brush burn or hot spots. Using a light mist of a detangling leave-in conditioner as you work in sections is the way!  If that sounds like too much work, we are granting you full permission to leave your dog’s hair in their regular low maintenance ‘do! Sweaters & jackets work great, and we love the “Sweater Weather” cut. It’s shorter on their bodies so the friction of the sweater doesn’t cause their coats to tangle while we leave the hair on the legs a little longer.  

One concern for all dogs, however, is salty sidewalks. Even the “pet safe” variety can cause discomfort for sensitive toe beans. Boots are a sufficient option for short term use like a quick potty run, but unless the boots are high quality and fit perfectly, they can affect your dog’s natural gait and prioreceptive abilities increasing the risk of injury from a slip and fall. After any trip outside where they’ve been exposed to salt, it is good practice to wipe their paws when they come inside. This obviously removes any residue on their paws and keeps it from being tracked into your home but also reduces the risk of them licking their paws and ingesting the salt. There are wipes made specifically for dogs that are easy to keep next to the door. We like EarthBath’s Fragrance Free, available pretty much anywhere pet products are sold.

Included with every groom here, we apply a seasonally appropriate paw balm. During these harsh winter months, we use Musher’s Wax as it helps moisturize and provide an extra layer of protection against the elements. However, applying once every 4-8 weeks won’t offer sustained protection. Following up with your own application of paw protection is most effective. Musher’s Wax and Warren London are our favorites, but even a little coconut oil helps! Dry, cracked pads are itchy and painful, causing them to lick/chew on their feet, which fosters a perfect environment for yeast and other bacterial infections. A little prevention goes a long way!

We want to hear from you!

We are considering hosting educational seminars right here at Underdogs, (and maybe online?) where you could learn a variety of topics like proper brushing techniques or nail care directly from the experts. One of our core values at Underdogs is our commitment to continuing our own education which allows us to provide the most well-informed care possible, and we would love an opportunity to pass our knowledge along to you! We have created a survey here to see what topics, if any, might be of interest, and would really appreciate it if you could take a minute to answer just a few questions.  

Follow this link to take a quick 5 question survey! Educational Seminars.

As a reminder, effective immediately all credit/debit transactions will now incur a 3% convenience fee, including cards on file. We appreciate your understanding!  

Now for the moment you’ve been waiting for: our first Employee of The Month for 2026!  

Everyone has been working so hard that it was very difficult to choose just one standout staff member. Then we remembered that we don’t have to choose just one, so we chose two!

Hildegard & Aethelflaed, aka Hildy and Aethel (rhymes with “apple”) are named after strong, powerful women and we think their namesakes would be very proud of their dedication to their work at Underdogs. As soon as they get into the car, they begin their vocal warm-ups so that by the time they arrive in the parking lot, all of Lincoln Shopping Center quickly becomes aware of their presence.

Hildy’s and Aethel’s pure, raw talent at reaching incredibly high decibels with their signature “AWOOOS” are impressive even by Basset Hound standards. When they are in the building, we are able to truly test all of our personal ear protection gear. Standard foam earplugs are blasted into dust in seconds. Ear protection designed for use by hunters makes for a more formidable opponent against their thunderous baying, but ultimately the only way to bring the decibel level down to OSHA standards are the combined powers of Loop Earplugs and Bose noise canceling headphones. Few are aware of this but the hexagonal tiles on our walls are actually acoustic sound-absorbing tiles strategically placed in an effort to minimize any disturbance to our neighbors. Hilde and Aethel had quite the laugh when we told them about this. They laughed so loud that it echoed throughout the entire shopping center. Rumor has it the washers and dryers at the laundromat stopped working, nail polish bottles at Magic Nail fell off the walls, the Himalayan salt caves in Saltitude collapsed, bottles shattered right off the shelves in the liquor store, and all of the hard-shell tacos at Oz wilted back into soft shell tortillas. Even the most delicious cakes baking at Gingersnaps fell, ruining at least 4 weddings and a funeral and then all the mightiest cookies crumbled to the ground unable to withstand the resounding roars of our celebrated pair of hounds.  

After that day, we learned our lesson and offered Hildy and Aethel no more jokes, saving the funny bits for you now, because these ladies are serious when it comes to the business of barking and we dared not tempt fate again. We attempted to catch it on video and will post it on our socials soon, but in good conscience we must advise that you remove your headphones and adjust the volume of your devices to prevent potentially permanent hearing damage.  OK, we might be exaggerating a tiny bit, but what can we say? We are so grateful for their dedication to ensuring our noise protection equipment is adequate that we want to shout it from the rooftops! But we will leave the shouting to the professionals and just make sure they look and smell as great as they sound!  Once again, we thank you all for not only a wonderful year but want to send a shout out to the MVPs who provided us with snacks and other thoughtful, wonderful gifts for the holidays. We truly have the best clients, and we look forward to seeing what 2026 has in store for us!