Wizard of Paws

Not that I’ve been to that many dog groomers before, only one other, in fact. But Carol and her crew did such a beautiful job on my reluctant mutt, Stanley. He’s sliky, clean, smells nice,
and the best thing is his haircut really seems to uniquely suited to his face. He looks so cute!
We’ll be back.

I took my medium/​small labradoodle here for the first professional haircut I’ve ever purchased for her. They were nice, asking me what I wanted and asking whether I wanted her eyelashes cut (I did). They clipped her nails, though she wears them pretty low, and did a nice job on the hair. She seemed happy and curious when I picked her up. It was nice that I dropped her off in the morning and they called me when she was done, about 11am, instead of keeping her all day, which was something I wanted to avoid. They washed and dryed her and she smelled good for days after! Also, she was so soft, she felt like a plush toy! They must have blowed her hair dry because it was funny (to me) and straight, but later curled back up with some humidity. It has been a few months since her haircut and it’s growing out great! I’ll probably go back for the half price touch up to get her face and paws trimmed at some point. Total cost was $ 100.

I had a very questionable experience with this groomer that will lead me to never return. When I dropped of my dog in the morning, I was told that their rate was $ 80 for the grooming session. When I picked up my dog in the afternoon, I was told that his rate would be $ 150 for the session. The heavily tattooed owner explained that my dog (a very small dog) had matted hair which had taken them extra ‘hours’ to untangle. First of all, I comb out my dog on a weekly basis and know that any matting was minimal. Second, they ended up shaving most of his body (against breed standard). The owner explained that the extra work was billed at $ 20 /​hour. So, they took over three hours to work out the mats in his hair which they ended up shaving anyway?
I cannot recommend this establishment, and will never return.

Love this place! I have been bringing my cockapoo here since he was a puppy. The staff treats him so well that he whimpers with excitement every time I drop him off. Highly recommend!

wizard paws is fantastic! The atmosphere is clean and friendly. I’ve brought my cesar here twice and each time his fur was extremely matted. (yeah I know) I will do better! but they always manage to get him back looking like his handsome self. They work extremely hard on him. shout out to the owner thanks for your time and hard work. I’ve taken him to other groomers where they will just cut his fur completely off.
Wizard Paws your the best!

I just brought our dog here today for the first time — she’s a Cavachon is about a year and a half old. Everyone at the salon was kind and loving towards her, her grooming/​cut turned out to be exactly like I asked (and so cute), and I’ll definitely be taking her there again! I could tell she had a lot of fun, too — she’s been sleeping on the couch ever since we got home. I was very happy with the whole experience!

I love Wizard of Paws! I have a blind 12-​lb poodle who gets the royal treatment from the groomers there. He always comes out looking like a million bucks. The place is bright and clean and everyone is so friendly and nice. They are very flexible too so pick up times can change according to your schedule. 5 stars!

I’ve updated my review here as my puppy’s hair has grown out and she’s actually cuter after her relative shave. They treated my little havanese with care and respect and got rid of her nappy dreads. Now she’s a happy well maintained pup!

I wouldn’t dream of going anywhere else. Carol and her staff are talented and professional. I started going to wizard of paws when I first moved to CA in the early 90s. It was a bit out of the way for me back then so I tried a couple of other local groomers. That was a mistake!
The care provided shows when I pick up my dogs at the end of the day. They are beautiful AND they are happy. They love it at Wizard

We have a brussels griffon and man, it’s hard to find a groomer that can give a Griffon a good cut. When we moved to North Berkeley and took Becky Mae (our Brussels) to Wizard of Paws, we were elated when she returned to us looking like her best self. The cut wasn’t too short but enough of a trim to be noticeable, perfectly shaved tummy, didn’t cut her beard to much but got all of the gnarls out, she smelled great and most importantly seemed happy! We’ve been back 2 times and the result has always been the same. We’re so happy we finally found our long-​term groomer!

Wizard of Paws was my first experience with taking my dog to be groomed. It’s close to home and a number of my friends have used them, so I felt comfortable going there. It’s has a nice area for the dogs to hang out while they wait. The first couple times it was OK. And then they nicked him and said they didn’t. It’s pretty hard to hide a bloody wound on a white dog. They were also really unpleasant about it when I was so surprised that I was something of a doormat. My dog deserves better and so does yours. My earlier similar review was deleted for some reason.

Carol and her staff are extremely accommodating and understand pet parents with special requests about how their doggie is groomed. Were always happy with how Pippi looked after grooming but even more than that, she was happy to drive up to WOP (she had previously been traumatized by another local male groomer). We took Pippi in after her first series of chemotherapy treatments and Carol’s staff did what they could with her remaining hair. .. We had to let Pippi go about a month ago as lymphoma finally took over her small body but we want folks to know how much we valued the care she received at WOP.

Wizard of Paws does a reasonably good job (I’ve used them several times), but there are better, more user-​friendly and slightly less expensive places around Berkeley. In my experience, it’s hard to reach them on the phone during business hours, they rarely return messages re: appointments, aren’t particularly pleasant when you do reach them, and then it takes a week to get an appointment. An on-​line booking system would serve them better. In person, they’re better.

I brought Charlie back and Carol asked me about my previous review. She explained that he had some issue on the edge of his ears that caused the last problem. This time, they took extra care around the area and there are no problems.
I also requested the use of not-​so-​heavily scented grooming products, and that was nice, too.
Charlie was groomed exactly the way I asked, and the best part is that he was feeling happy as soon as I picked him up. So, I made another appointment right away, as they are booked at least 3 weeks out.

I have been taking my doggies to Wizard of Paws for the last two years and they always do an amazing job!
They are pricy, but well worth it in my opinion.

I really wanted to like these guys. They’re super sweet. The facility is lovely. My dog seemed happy to go there. But they were supposed to do a simple, easy puppy first grooming. Instead, they made my adorable labradoodle look like a escapee from a mental institution for poodles. They claimed her face was «matted» but didn’t comb out the mats. Instead they shaved her face. I might have been resigned to it, but then a friend told me that they’d made the same claim about her labradoodle after butchering her, and my friend was in the habit of using a mat comb every single day, so she knew it wasn’t true. Mats or no mats, it made no sense to shave her so brutally. At the very least, they should have called and asked if that’s what we wanted. I can’t help but wonder if they didn’t just screw up completely and then search desperately for an excuse.
At any rate, not a good place to take a labradoodle. We’re going back to our lovely old standby, Donna’s Mobile Pet Grooming. She’s the bomb. This place? A bomb.

Best name for a dog groomer ever? Why not. We love the wizard. While I don’t love their early Saturday AM (by 9AM — that’s not so early for some of you) drop off time, Pants is always ready by early afternoon and, if you need your pup done by a certain time, they’ll make sure it happens.
There’s a little play yard so Pants has a chance to make friends in his free time. When we pick him up, he’s smelling better than ever, softer than anything, donning a fancy bandana, and tail-​wagging-​happy.

After a decade of poodle rescue, I have found that a good groomer is worth their weight in gold. Carol is awesome, her place is clean, her staff is professional and conscientious, she’s done free grooms on rescues for me over the years, but I never felt the need to Unilocal her place. So why now?
I placed a poodle puppy with a wonderful woman about four years ago. My last rescue. He’s a mini boy, barky, not well socialized, hates men. Kind of a pain in the butt personality, ‘though he’s pretty good to groom and generally a happy guy. Her regular groomer nicked him with her clipper — then charged her extra for the stitch he needed as a result! I was incensed!
I referred her to Wizard of Paws, assuring her she would be pleased with the grooming and warning her that they wouldn’t want her bark-​a-​holic dog left there for the whole day.
The owner called me a couple of weeks ago just gleaming over the phone. She said her dog had never been so beautiful and couldn’t wait for me to see him. In fact, this was true. He was beautiful — and she was happy! Her experience at the Wizard of Paws was excellent, as I knew it would be, and she is just thrilled with her new groomer.
(Now, I know that her dog is a pain in the butt, but she didn’t get any negative feedback about him. They were happy to have him and happy to groom him. And his owner — she is just thrilled beyond the pale! That is what I like to hear!!)

First, I have to preface this by letting you know up front that my dog is an asshole. Not to me, of course. To me, he is sweet as pie and a tiny, fluffy cuddle bug. To everyone else, however, he is an asshole.
That did not deter the wonderful staff at Wizard of Paws, who took him in and got him prettier than he’s ever been before in his little tiny life, despite the fact that he was a total asshole throughout the entire process.
Want to give particular kudos to whoever trimmed up his «area.» He got what we have since described as the «doggie Brazilian,» and it did the trick beautifully.

For the first time in her ENTIRE life, Mochi was acting NORMAL when she returned home from the groomer! Usually, she’s running around hiding from everyone, pissed off that we chopped off all her hair. And sometimes it took up to 2 days before she would return to her normal — yet wonderfully weird — self.
But we noticed an incredible difference in her attitude and comfort level after taking her to Wizard of Paws.
It’s as simple as this: Carol and the rest of the Wizard of Paws staff did an absolutely amazing job on the fluffy puppy’s hair (:
[No she’s not a puppy anymore, and no I will not stop calling her one.]
I’ve heard tons of great things about this place but we got fairly comfortable at Dogs by Dianne on the Arlington and Mo doesn’t really deal with change that well.
But…after a year or two of taking her to Dianne, we decided to take her somewhere else. Things just didn’t work out over there and we started taking her to Petsmart instead.
We were fairly happy with the grooming results at Petmsart as there was 1 groomer who Mochi trusted and liked. But the atmosphere at Petsmart was very stressful for her and she hated walking in there. To top it off, the groomer she usually saw left for a few months and I thought… maybe it was time to find something a little better for her.
I guess you could say Mochi was the foster dog of grooming salons in the bay area.
Wizard of Paws was exactly what my family and I have been looking for. The staff is SO friendly and they took excellent care of Mochi. She always comes home from the groomer absolutely pissed that someone shaved off all her hair.
But this time, she was happy, excited, and in a great mood… and not terrified, horrified, or itchy from razor bumps!
Carol called me 15 minutes before Mochi was ready to be picked up and let me know that they were absolutely in love with the haircut she received… and I am too!
She looked so so cute and everyone we ran into on our way home seemed to agree (: Even my dad — who is usually the one apologizing to Mochi that her hair looks bad (ha) — loved it.
Thank God I don’t have to hear «Mochi, what did Kristi do to your hair???» anymore!
I believe his exact words were, «Wow, Mochi looks real good!!»
Shocked.
Wizard of Paws is super clean and I love that the dogs get some outside time in that cute little front yard! As I was walking in they were so excited to bring Mochi out to show me her cut… and she was just melt-​your-​heart cute.
Don’t believe me? Just take a look at the uploaded pictures!
Oh and this one is cute too (: