Does anyone know what might cause my dog to panic every time we take him to the groomer?

My wife and I have a shih-tzu named Capone who we love very much and until recently he has been very good about getting Groomed. We used to take him about once a month, he has always been groomed by the same person, and both my wife and I have been generally very happy with the level of quality from our groomer. Over the last 6 months we have slowly increased the amount of time between visits due to Capone’s increasingly strange behavior when we take him.

It used to be when we went that Capone would walk into the Groomers shop with little to no coaxing and when we picked him up he would be his usual self. Now when we drop him off he fights as hard as he can to keep from going into the little shop and once we actually make it in he hides behind our legs and starts to shake as if he were frightened. He also seems a little down when we pick him up but that seems to pass fairly quick.

I don’t know if I should be worried? Is the groomer abusing our dog? Is it normal for a dogs behavior to change so drastically? What is your advice Flutherverse?