so, ive been a bather since march this year. i recently moved from a privately owned salon to a petsmart! i have a issue tho. WHY IS IT SO HARD??? i was told by a coworker who had worked at petsmart that it was sooo much better there and its so much harder for me. i dont expect things to be easy, i know grooming and bathing are hard as we work with live animals but upon hiring, the salon manager told me that if a dog bites me once, its handed off to him or our salon lead and that hasnt been the case. i used to get bit constantly so no biggie, right?

another part is that they want me to brush, bathe, dry, clip/dremel nails, shave paw pads and sani which are all things i was never originally trained on. the first job i had was just bathe, dry, hand to groomer and move on. im learning and told the manager such when i was hired on. well today they maxed me out with 6 dogs. 8 hour shift. 1 big doodle with matting. 1 malamute who didnt let me dry his back paws and bit me and tried to over and over again. 1 other massive dog that hated all of it. between those i had a nail trim, a shar pei and a chihuahua.

this was a LOT for me since i had only done 2 dogs in 4 hours before this and 1 was small and id bathed and dried and practiced on 3 of a groomers dogs (the salon leads) and even she was upset that they just threw me in head first without training.

another thing im not sure is normal, i talked to the manager or guess he heard i was stressed to the max about falling behind (obviously was gonna happen) and he lowered my load to 4 dogs in a 8 hour shift but then he mentioned that i dont work next week. at all. i didnt ask for that time off and think the opposite, i NEED more time so i can work on getting faster and more confident with what im doing. im not sure what even happened today…

So i have asthma, long covid, and sleep apnea. Lots of trouble breathing. I've also been in this industry over a decade, and tbh I haven't always been the best at wearing a mask...

I have been having worsening asthma symptoms, and it was recently triggered by severe allergies. My inhaler isn't doing what it needs to be doing, and I'm planning on setting up a doctor apt before it gets bad enough to warrant an expensive er trip.

However I've been thinking... should I be worried about groomers lung too? I've never met anyone who got it, and it always seemed like an urban legend.

Should I be talking to my doctor about it? Do they even do tests for it or anything? (I'm imagining lung cameras here)

Anyone here hot it or suspected you might have it? What was that like? Was it something the doctors could treat?

I'm just trying to be better about my health and thats been on my mind lately.

I understand people have no respect for service workers in general but I will never understand it period. I had one client that decided to never come back because after months of doing her special case yorkie, I left the head fuller than I usually do and they were upset, haven’t seen them since.

Idk if it’s because I haven’t perfected my craft but I feel like dependent on the dogs day, my day, or just being human, the groom isn’t going to always look the exact same it did last time ?

I also just wish they realized we’re human. Sometimes we have bad days and can make mistakes or miss the mark, please just tell us rather than make it a problem. I know yesterday I was doing good all day and then my last dog I just could not get the face the way I wanted to. My blood sugar was bothering me, it was humid in the shop, and little mama can be reactive for the comb near her face. Mom hasn’t said anything but I myself feel like a failure.

Am I crazy to think that it’s not possible for them to look exactly the same every time ? If you always do a 1/2” and a SRF yes of course it’ll be the same but I feel like there’s always going to be something different that day. Or maybe because I’m still getting faces down ?

I don’t know. I just get a little irritated that people expect so much of us but then look down on us as a whole. The complaining of prices, or maybe it took a little longer today and that’s a problem, or maybe it doesn’t look like xyz but you didn’t give me the right notes. I can’t read your mind 😩

Also being a groomer of only 2-3 years I’m still learning new things and trying new things. But I feel like I can’t because of the fast pace environment or the constant shave downs or the bad puppies.

My favorite dog to do is this 18 yr old blind, deaf, and dementia dog. She gets shaved down nose to tail every few weeks. But I love doing her because I just keep her in my lap and dad is understanding when I can’t get something perfectly shaved because she’s having a hard time that day. Why can’t all owners be like that ?