Owner present for groom?
Hey everyone, I work at a dog boarding/daycare business and the owners wanted to offer grooming so they offered to put me through grooming school. I'm still going through school, I've only been grooming for about 5 months now. I'm a little frustrated with the owners because they are constantly questioning what I do even though they know nothing about dog grooming. They have a mentor that runs a large grooming facility about an hour away from that they get a lot of their advice from.
Long story short, we had a dog in a couple of weeks ago that was majorly stressed out and very, very reactive and difficult to handle. He ended up having a seizure on the table (the owners had him checked out by a vet and turns out they gave him THREE different anxiety meds he's never had before all within less than 12 hours of the groom), and I obviously stopped the groom and contacted the owners to come and get him.
When they picked him up the owners of the business were there and offered (without consulting me) to try the groom again, this time with the owners present while I did the groom. They said that their mentor said that with some difficult dogs they allow the owners to be there for the groom to see if it helps the dogs' behavior.
I've never heard of this before, and I'm worried. While I'm a baby groomer, I've worked with dogs for a long time and in my experience they are always much more difficult when their owners are present. I'm also worried that I nay have to handle the dog a little firmly considering how aggressive he is and the owners will freak out. Plus.....who wants someone breathing over their shoulder the whole time they're working???
I'm just not sure how normal this is or how to address this. If it was my choice, I'd fire this client and let them be someone else's problem but unfortunately since we are new the owners don't want to turn anyone away. The dog shouldn't even be shaved in the first place, it's a pom/chihuahua mix. 🙃