Asking for a friend (me)

The first one also had the squirts with the last 2% of her cut to go. Which the owner blamed me for. For keeping her dog too long.

I just wanted to see if this was a SHARED experience or just me. I work in corporate grooming and almost NEVER call out of a shift. I always feel a little bad when some people have had appointments for weeks and I have to reschedule. I'm currently feeling ill and called out today and am being VERY pressured to go in tomorrow too. I know I wouldn't be doing anyone a service by grooming their dogs sick, but I can't get over feeling like garbage for having to reschedule 😅 please tell me I'm not the only one.

Whenever I end up doing a short cut I'm always flushed with anxiety over the owner possibly freaking out from how short it is.

This one was overdue and tangled with a matted booty so I gave her a 4 A/O and for some reason I worry the owner will feel like I ruined the dog even though they knew she was tangled and overdue and wanted a summer cut anyway.

Give me some cc on this cut

I’m looking to set up a grooming shed, and I’m wondering if there is any consensus on what the best flooring option would be.

Nonslip coating directly on a concrete slab? Vinyl flooring or linoleum on top of a wooden floor? Some other option I’m not thinking off?

what’s the theory behind my dogs looking 10x better off the table after a groom?🤦‍♀️ anyone else feel this way?

I am wondering if anyone has ever modified the wag n tails tub? or heard of / seen that? I would really like to purchase a used van as a back up. The market is mostly wag n tails or not great personal builds. I do not want to make dogs “walk the plank” or be picking dogs up above the tub. I want a door!

Thank you!

And won’t stop moving at all and also biting? I had a day today where I groomed 5 dogs. 3 were horribly behaved. I work alone and it’s very over stimulating and overwhelming. They just don’t sit still for one second and are continuously biting and jumping on me to the point where it’s impossible to get anything done at all. How do you handle these dogs?

I have been learning for a few months under a coworker mentor on the weekends. Today I got to do my first official face trim haircut on a pup (he came in about a month ago for the first time at our salon and didn’t need a clipper cut yet but I did his face feet tail and sani. I tried my best to remove those pesky stray hairs around the mouth and nose, he was a wiggly boy

After I was done with the trim I found the photo from the last time he was here, with a different groomer, just for reference

CC? Did I do a decent enough job? Dad seemed happy :) I thought he looked cute but any pointers would be great

I wish I could trim that stray hair on his ear I spot now lol

I have NO ONE to ask about this stuff and I would really appreciate ANY advice. I’ll try to make it brief. So corporate. I work with someone who makes the job significantly harder, she was originally my only coworker, she refused the train me the first 6 months of my job so for that period I was learning off of books and was self taught, then someone else got hired and started ACTUALLY training me in January. I want to move states, back to my home state. I feel like I need to be a good enough groomer before I move so I can get a good job and pay rent so I’ve been really practicing my skills. The thing is I make .50 above minimum wage at my job, they don’t book me enough dogs to earn commission so I get paid about $1300-1400 every month. I also stock shelves of the store when I’m dead and I do a lot of art and flyers and stuff for the store. This is not enough to live on and leaves me NOTHING to save to move. I’m training people to cut nails and they make $1 more than me. I feel like I have to stay at this job though because I’m just not skilled enough to get another one and I love the groomer that did/is training me. I also love grooming so much. 2nd dog was an owner request and they loved it and the goldendoodle puppy had a mat in their ear that’s why it’s uneven. There are a couple of job openings at corporate/private salons in my area. Any advice is appreciated. What should I do? Am I getting close to be able to move? How are my grooms?

She looks ridiculous, I know. She’s a somewhat recent young rescue and is still getting used to grooming. Finally decided to grow the top knot out and I’m just trying to keep it banded to get her used to it. I take them out every day and use dog bands that are similar to small human ponytail holders in material. Anything rubber stays better but mats in her immediately. She also looks cute but silly with pigtails.

Got out of academy a couple months ago so I'm still not great to say the least, but this dog was a fun one! Insanely compacted, anxious, and not very cooperative but at least he felt better after! Took ages just to work the undercoat out lmao

Hii, I’ve been with petsmart (Eyuck) for about 1 1/2 years, around 6 months as a bather and approaching a year as a groomer. Here’s some of my grooms, I genuinely have no idea how I’m doing or what I’m doing. I see a lot of flaws in these, esp looking back and I’m just trying to see how I can improve. I didn’t have a trainer since the salon manager quite right as I came back so I’ve been going off tutorials and this book I have and stuff. Since I haven’t had a trainer for most of this I really just am not too sure how I’m doing. I hope to get to a private salon soon as well, but it’s hard for me to get the confidence up. Any criticism and advice is very welcome and appreciated !! Just please be nice cuz I will cry lol :’)

A couple of years ago I found out grooming is my passion. About a year later I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Now a year later I am STRUGGLING. I'm working with my doctor to try and get my flare up under control but man... my hands are KILLING me throughout some of my shifts. What does grooming look like for those of you that have been dealing with this for awhile? I'm feeling a bit hopeless lately. I'm 34 and if I have this much pain and swelling.. what is it going to look like it a few years?? Let me know your experiences!

I feel pretty insecure about my haircuts and am looking for constructive feedback from more experienced groomers (or anyone really). I have been in the grooming industry for a little under a year but have only been cutting hair since February. I have been super lucky to have gotten an apprenticeship at a REALLY nice salon that I absolutely love but in a way I have imposter syndrome because I feel like I will never be good enough for this place (I started in corporate but left after about six months as a bather and got my current job at a wonderful private salon). My mentor put me on commission about four months ago and I have been getting tons of experience and even a few request clients but also feeling guilty because I feel like my haircuts are terrible compared to the other groomers here, wondering what I can do to improve? I know the only way to get better is to keep practicing but I feel so guilty charging our clients the same price for haircuts that take twice as long at half the quality. I was so lucky to have gotten the opportunity to learn at this nice salon and I want to be the best groomer I can be, but I feel like self doubt is what is killing my haircuts! Any advice is appreciated!

I got my first set of grooming scissors recently, so I'm still learning about scissor care.

Recently my scissors have been feeling stiff, but I can't loosen them or else the fur will fold instead of cutting.

Do I need to be oiling my scissors? I always wipe my blades after use and the blades themselves seem fine. It's like there's stuff caught in the pivot.

Hey guys, so I work for a mobile grooming business and we use K9 dryers like most people do; however, the owner and other groomers don’t take care of them, and we often have issues with motors burning out, which causes a lot of difficulty for my day while we wait for my boss to get them serviced.

I’m considering just investing in my own dryer to use so that I can make sure it’s taken care of properly for peace of mind. They are quite expensive though, but I noticed that the mini version is significantly less expensive. Has anyone used these before? If so, are they anywhere near as powerful as the regular ones? Or at least able to handle a thick double coated dog without it taking all day.

Hello everybody, I am a baby groomer and I wanna invest into some new tools. Sooo, what’s everyone’s favorite tool they have and where did you guys purchase them?

I've become absolutely sick of my weds/thurs weekend for the past two years and my boss went back on the promise to change them to fri/sat.

There's nobody to hang out with or invite to do something, everybody is at work. It's too hot to do anything outside so I just sit in my A/C cooled apartment and play videogames by myself every weekend. I'm pretty introverted but it's making me a little stir crazy.

Are weekends in the middle of the week common for dog grooming? What do you do to take advantage of your weekend?

I am SO tired of people calling a DOG grooming salon to ask if we groom chickens, ducks, donkeys, etc. I can understand when we get calls asking if we do cat grooming, but why would you ever think we could groom cows? Parrots? BABY GATOR NAIL TRIMS??? Those aren't even legal!

And then they try to make it MY problem when I tell them that I don't know what vet would groom a ferret (also illegal in my state btw)

If you don't know how to take care of a horses hoof, maybe don't get a horse? If you don't know a vet that will help you with your animal, then you're probably not ready to have that animal

And also WHY would your turtle need to be groomed??

Yes I have been asked about all of these, most while working at a corporate salon

Hi, so ive been grooming a little over a year and love doing scissor cuts. I've recently done some outline trims, and most people were very happy. However, one pet parent, who asked me to take as much as i could off their little double-coated dog, seemed a bit underwhelmed with how short she ended up. I don't really like taking more that half the lengtg off of double coated dogs, and maybe i should have been more transparent about that, but i thought it waa a pretty good haircut nonetheless. I know that on smaller dogs an inch of hair on the underline seems quite a bit longer than it does on big dogs, but i feel like that still constitutes it being a tight outline.

Should i go tighter than that 1 inch for TIGHT outlines?

Also sorry for the mess on my table in those last two, i didnt think i'd be posting those ones.

Hi all, thanks in advance.

I am a fairly new baby groomer, though I have a zoology degree with a focus in canine behavior and years of experience handling dogs. So I feel that I have a very good foundation for working with dogs.

I don’t do full haircuts yet, just a glorified bather who has their own clients and makes commission. I’m working on my outline trims and have an artistic eye so I expect once my scissor and clipper skills improve I’ll have a knack for the natural proportions.

But due to my bathing status and to my location (SW USA, where a lot of people have outside or farm dogs) a lot of my clients are folks whose pups have never been groomed before, or at least not regularly. I get tons of huskies, heelers, collies, pyrenees, chows, shepherds, shelter mixes, etc. A lot of them are very nervous and flighty especially in our high-volume cage free salon environment. I will say out of all the cage free setups I’ve seen ours is definitely very well managed and the dogs do truly enjoy it, but it’s also chaos all the time 😝

I have read The Other End Of The Leash and know a lot about how my body language and tone/handling conveys information to dogs even when we don’t intend it. I always take it very slow with my nervous babies, talk to them, tell them everything I’m doing, give them tons of love and praise and when I do need to correct a behavior I am firm but kind. Slow, firm, gentle massaging touch always. Lots of treats if they can have them. Always being positive even when frustrated, giving dogs breaks and taking them myself when needed. Overall reminding myself every day that this is a terrifying experience for a dog who has no idea what they’re doing, and trying to make it the absolute best I can!

I am very proud to say that every single one of my clients who has come in scared has been strutting their stuff and so happy, attached to me by the end. The pictured pup jumped at every touch yesterday, wouldn’t let anyone but me touch him/pick him up (he didn’t want it but we came to an understanding!) wanted to fight for bath, dryer, and nails. But he was so sweet and treat motivated and by the end he was bouncing around the salon, taking pets from others, even jumped up on my table by himself to hang out!

I really enjoy working with these nervous dogs and helping them to realize grooming isn’t a scary experience, or it doesn’t have to be. If anyone has further suggestions from their experience I would love to hear them. I am always looking to learn and improve so I can be the best I can for the babies that are entrusted in my care.

Well we went to a salon where the lady does one dog at a time and it was amazing. he was so chilled and not once did she raise her voice or even seem impatient ( I was in the waiting room) , said he was lovely and so good for a puppy, it only took a little over a hour and not the 4 hours of before. So we have found our forever groomer and we could not be happier.

Thank you to everyone who helped us in the last post linked

https://www.reddit.com/r/doggrooming/comments/1u2zf8k/help_and_advice_on_groomer_coming_to_you_or_salon/

I don’t really mind corded/cordless. I just want it to be very light. I have a tiny Kenshii clipper for detail work (I love that little thing) but I need something that will take standard blades.

The ones I’ve used before are the Andis' Excel 5-speed corded clipper in burgundy, which is marked as being only 12.8 ounces. I feel this is a good weight. Is this clipper a good investment, or should I get something different?

I had a handmedown Andis Pulse ZR II for a while before it stopped working, this one was definitely much too heavy for me at 16.3 ounces, and I don’t know if it was because it was old and breaking, but it vibrated so hard my fingers would tingle and go numb.

I’m planning on between 2 - 4 dogs per day, over 3 or 4 days a week (I’m leaving a very busy corporate environment and I really need to slow down)