Some grooming salons empty a dogs anal glands as part of the service, while others feel its better left to a vet, but many dogs will empty their glands themselves - often when least expected, and sometimes all over the groomer. Its hard to put across the smell of this discharge to someone who has never experienced it. Often people will ask if it compares to sewage or sulphur, when in fact that is like comparing a flower to a turd. The smell of expressed anal gland is akin to a dead fish that has been left in the sun for a month, which is then blended into a liquid and mixed with diarrhoea. Times ten.