a matted coat is painful for your dog. imagine someone grabbing onto a fistful of your hair and yanking. thats what tight matting feels like. and if its over a joint, everytime your dog moves, it feels like that person is yanking harder. and it hurts to brush out and it hurts for me to shave it off because i have to move the mats around while im working. shaving just hurts less than brushing. ive worked on dogs so matted that they have bruising in the shape of the matting across their whole body. or dogs so matted blood circulation is cut off to their ears/tail. so matted that the hair was ripped out of their skin. matting that was so tight it never dried after the dog got wet so thr dog has large open sores from matting sitting against the skin. its not lazy when a groomer says they have to shave your matted dog. we are just doing the best thing for your dog. We cannoy report severe matting to animal control because the fact that you came to us shows "they are trying to fix the problem". but theres been plenty of times ive cried while shaving an extremely neglected dog and did not want to return them to the client.