Would love to have some pointers on what I can work on to make a difference in the quality/finish of my grooms. A lot of the time they feel a little messy but corporate time constraints force me to move on to the next dog (very much have ran into quantity over learning experience) and want to do my best to keep learning independently so i can progress!
Ive been a groomer for a year now, and am doing pretty okay for almost everything- the only area I struggle with is the dryer. At work we have two speed k9 dryers ( im not sure the exact line) and i have a 5speed standing dryer (once again, im not sure exaxt brand). I feel like most dogs I do are very freak by the dryer, so ill kennel dry when necessary. But the kennel dryer doesnt really work too well on getting the cheeks of dogs with floppy ears. How can i help these dogs settle down for the velocity dryer near their ears?
Usually I just brush the damp area and then tie their ears back with a scrunchy to let them dry out a bit.
Hoooowww do I make puppy coats not look like trash?
Ive been hand scissoring them more an i feel like they look kinda better but?? I feel like it still looks bad. I have so many people who love the cuts I do but this isnt good 😭😭 This was 1/2 cc on body an 3/4 cc / hand scissors legs +face pleeeaasee help
I'm about to fail Petco's stylist academy because I keep forgetting how they want me to position my scissors for the different steps of the teddy bear head, especially the dog's right side of the head.
Trying to watch a bunch of videos but I think I really need a visual reference for each scissoring step and how to position the scissors.
I really can't afford to be a permanent bather, and I think my new store's gsl said to make me a permanent bather if I fail for some reason.
In a week I start the technical tests where I do breed specific full body haircuts. But I am stuck on the head.
I pretty often get asked by clients to do those perfect, round teddy bear doodle faces like the first picture I put. (not my groom probs to whoever did that cuz it’s amazing) but I literally struggle so bad with it. The second picture is one of my grooms I attempted it on and it’s rlly not giving the same vibe. I’ve been working at a corporate salon so no one in my salon is great at it. Any tips or tricks on how to achieve this look would be greatly appreciated.
Mildly frustrated with this company as they used to offer wholesale to groomers on their website. Well they apparently have partnered with groomersmart and now Houndsly doesn’t offer wholesale on their website. So the $52 gallon (if you buy 5-12 gallons) of shampoo in like 15 different scents we used to get easily now we are being told by Houndsly to go to groomersmart. Groomersmart discount on gallons makes them $58.89 per gallon (if you buy 4) and they have 5 scent options and half are always sold out. So like who are we using for shampoo now that I have to go to multiple websites and I’m irritated.
How come dog groomers never get raises or benefits or job security not even a 401(k) most of the time. How come as time goes forward we have to fight for that 50% commission that used to come standard?
If you’re out here accepting a commission rate that is less than 50%, you are fucking it up for the rest of us. I don’t care if you’re a shitty groomer or amazing at what you do that 50% comes standard and no one should be accepting any less.
I didn’t spend 15 years pouring my life into this business just so hounds town USA or wherever the fuck could justify paying me 45% commission to offset their marketing costs.
Their costs, their overhead, their lifetime investment that they poured into the business is not our fucking problem. We get paid 50% commission for every dog that we groom.
We absolutely need a union. We absolutely need regulation. Motherfuck these business owners that have no idea how difficult the job is and wanna fucking gaslight us into agreeing to anything less than 50%. Commission.
This does not include mobile grooming because the pay scale and overhead are a little different
No one can accuse all toy poodles of being spoiled purse pups. I see this boy every 5 weeks and he always has half the garden with him. It's his best life ever
i work for a franchise mobile company, so it’s not my personal van, fyi. this is my first mobile company and i’ve only been with them for about 2 months.
yesterday i was trying to get to a client’s address. my GPS took me to a random daycare which obv wasn’t right. the daycare had one of those sort of pavilion overhang things in front of the entrance which shades the area, you drive under it. i had to loop around anyways to get back out, and it was so hot and my AC was struggling, so i decided to park under the pavilion while i contacted the pet parent to keep the van a bit cooler. i got underneath it just fine - there was a clearance sign that barely tapped my AC unit, but having driven tall vehicles through similar areas before, i assumed i would be able to get out just fine, because i got in just fine. idk maybe that was really stupid of me😭 pet parent got back to me and corrected the address (dispatch had put in the address incorrectly). i plugged that into my gps and began to drive forward, back towards the exit (for context, this wasn’t just a parking lot - the entrance looped around). i heard the loudest crash sound and my stomach immediately dropped😭 i got out of the van and saw the plastic casing and foam for the AC unit on the ground. at first i assumed it was just the casing that came off - i was really upset with myself but opted to just putting it in the passenger seat and continue. it was only when i got to my next location that i got out and saw how bad the damage was - the internals of the AC unit were mangled on top of the van. that client ended up cancelling on me anyways because she had booked for a bath but wanted a full haircut and I didn’t have time for that. Either way i wouldn’t have been able to do any appointment in this heat with no AC lol. im ngl started crying and panicking and called my boss and explained what happened; he instructed me to drive the van back to its spot. i apologized profusely and offered to pay the damages and said i understood if he had to fire me over this. he ended up calling me back a few mins later saying to come pick up a different van to finish my appointments - another groomer went home early due to being sick. so i guess it can’t be that bad if he wanted me to get in another van and drive it? 😭
i was beside myself. i just got this job and i really need it right now. this van whose AC unit i destroyed lives at this auto repair place. when i got there, the owner saw the pieces in the passenger seat and asked what happened and i burst into tears again lol. turns out he knows my boss well and he kept comforting me saying that’s what insurance was for and that “aw hell [boss name] ain’t gonna fire you!”, but i really don’t know and idk im just so upset with myself and just wanted to vent to other people who understand my situation i guess lol
First photo is the first time I stripped him, second is this time, third photo is all the hair I got off today. Shout out to his owners who have been very patient while I'm self teaching this 🩷 biogroom wire coat has been really helpful, hes a really gross boy and even after I bathe him his coat is still easy to work with
I left corporate and got hired at a small salon a few weeks ago. The bathers bathe and dry all the groomers dogs, as well as do nails and de-sheds on the designated bath dogs.
We have 4 bathers: 2 bathing and 2 drying, and when the ones bathing are done with the bath dogs they move to drying. I've been made a designated bather, and this salon usually has 30-45 dogs in a day. Yesterday I bathed 17 big dogs and dried 5 of them, and today I had 20 dogs and dried 5, half of which were huge and hairy. This is done in a 5-6 hour period. Is this normal??? It feels absolutely insane to bathe this many dogs. Im used to doing 6-8 of my own bath dogs in a shift.
I’m a bather right now, but I’m going to start training to become a groomer around the end of this month. I’m so excited, but genuinely nervous too. What’s some advice/tips/etc you wish you had in the beginning?Much appreciated!
Recently I’ve noticed I’ve had to make soooo many passes with my clippers to get the coat even BEFORE I start brushing up. I’ve changed my blade drive, blades are cleaned and oiled, prep work is the same as always (brush coat before /bathe/blow dry/brush). My blades are pretty new as well (bought 6 months ago) and I use separate blades for stripping dirty coats before the bath.
Hello so maybe a odd question but I’m starting T this year (I’m a trans man) and I have wondered if any other trans M groomers who started T while they were working at their current place noticed any differences with how dogs behaved or not?
I posted before about being terrified of doing sanis. Recently I did one on a male and it went fine, but on the next male I got completely tripped up because the anatomy was a bit different. I can’t even wrap my head around how to do a female sani safely! It’s really getting to me and this is literally my only obstacle.
I think I’m just too in my head but I don’t know what to do. It’s really discouraging because I tell myself, “Yeah, I got this!” and then once I’m faced with it I chicken out. What the hell? I guess this is just a little rant; I don’t think I’ll get much different advice from what I got on my first post. Feeling a little sad and defeated :(
I just finished grooming school (350 hours over 12 weeks in person not online) what are the steps to move forward and get hired? I have tried going into shops but groomers just seem annoyed by the distraction which I understand. I wanted to try via messenger or Instagram but my teacher said its rude so outside of just applying at pet smart I have no clue how to get my foot in the door to get any start in the field I would anyone have any advice or tips? Thanks in advance.
The salon I work at has terrible AC, and as far as I’m aware, no dehumidifier. And as we all know, with dryers running all day salons tend to get very humid. Combined with the terrible AC the building has and with the extreme heat we’re having this summer, I can’t take it.
To be completely honest I’m on medications that affect my ability to tolerate heat, I’m also a bigger person so that’s not doing me any favors.
But most of the days lately, especially in this heatwave, I’ve been so hot, sweat dripping down my face and whole body, and the heat affects me so much I start to feel sick (headache, light headed, nauseous). On top of that, it also makes me agitated and tremendously lowers my patience for dogs which isn’t fair.
The heat has NEVER bothered me like this. I’ve been at this salon for several years, I’ve always found it extremely hot but never to the point where I was sweating and felt sick.
Sometimes I feel crazy because my coworkers don’t complain about the heat like I do, or they say it’s not that bad. But some of my coworkers seem to be affected by it as well and also seem to sweat as much as me.
Idk.
Any tips for staying cool while working a physical labor job like grooming? I sip LOTS of water all day and it doesn’t seem to help
Edit: I said nine months, but I “graduated” my course in March! Forgot to mention that.
This is my second time posting here, maybe some of the pictures are even the same.
I’ve been grooming about nine months now, but because I have limited availability (I’m currently working 4/10 shifts, but with a three hour drive (1 1/2 hour each way) on top of that, and told my boss I won’t do Fridays because of that, and may even have to drop Thursday because my boyfriend might have to go back into the office soon, and my dogs need someone home that day of the week so they aren’t in their crates for 10-13 hours.
So to prepare for that a little, and I know I can improve on everything, but what specifically should I focus getting better at? I know my faces tend to be a bit long, but because I’m working completely alone, I have nobody to critique it at all. So it’s hard to guess what really needs to be done.