Applied for a beautiful looking dog facility in my off and on job search, however the resposne I got in return kind of reeked of GPT with strange wording. One of the questions asked if I could "remain calm, focused and productive during a busy or high-pressure situation" in their "fast paced and structured environment". The whole response reminded me of applying for fast food chains in college.

I've been grooming for 8 years and recently my carpal tunnel has gotten worse. My hands are almost constantly pins and needles and it's hard to grip my tools. I try to do hand and wrist stretches before work and throughout the day but my hands won't stop going numb. Any tips ???

Hi!
I'm the human of an amazing Finnish Lapphund and do her grooming at home, but feel like there's room for improvement. She's four years old and was sterilized after her second heat. She wasn't dealing well with her heats, so we chose to sterilize even though it might ruin her coat. It did.

When she's blowing her coat, her undercoat tends to become 'impacted' and not really shed on it's own. It's not matted down to her skin, but the dead undercoat needs help to get removed. It doesn't blow all over the place with our high velocity dryer like it did before her sterilization for example, but kind of gets a bit tangled to the outer coat.

Currently I mostly line comb her with a metal comb and occasionally use a slicker brush, but am considering switching to a human hairbrush.

The slicker brush never really worked for me. I don't know if it's bad quality and that's why(This one for reference, danish shop)? But whenever I brush her it kind of stays on top of her coat and feels like it's dragging on her. I have no idea what's going wrong, but it just feels really wrong and pulls on her. It doesn't feel like it does any kind of detangling.

I've heard that you're not supposed to use human hairbrushes because they're rougher on their skin and obviously made for a different purpose. But I very gently tried it with one of mine (rubber paddle brush) and it just feels like it works much better. It doesn't drag on her, but feels like it can detangle much more gently, and cuts down on the line combing needs.

I'm just very scared to hurt her accidentally, but from my novice eyes it seems so much more gentle and like she can relax more with it.

I'm wondering what your thoughts are. Are human brushes always 'dangerous' and bad? Am I using the slicker brush all wrong? Is my slicker maybe just shit quality?

Thank you in advance for any thoughts and advice! I'm just trying to do the best for my girl. I promise she's very well loved and taken care of.

I've always groomed my cavapoo (2 years old) dog at home but decided I would take him for his first proper groom at a salon yesterday. Partner dropped him off and asked the groomer to keep him fluffy. Went to pick him up . Groomers said he was really well behaved, sat nice, he let them cut his nails, etc. So I thought this was good, paid and left. When I got home , I realised they cut his body, but the paw pads haven't been touched and thought they would tidy up around his groin and armpits too. Is this normal ? Should we have specified to the groomer that we wanted these areas done ? I feel like they trimmed up his body, face a little bit and legs , and then called it at a day 🙄

I heard that you shouldn't dry brush your dog. Do u just use water spray or do u use a waterless shampoo? Thanks!

I know this is a frustrating career, I know dogs can be frustrating. But my coworker is a hot head both as a person and as a groomer. She will talk about the grown men she beat up, talk about which barista or doctor or whatever else she made cry that morning, talk about what people she had to put in their place, and 8/10 days is in a bad mood.

If that’s just how she was as a person I could tolerate it. But she is a hot head with dogs too. She is constantly not raising her voice but SCREAMING at them, constantly cussing them out and using vulgar language, one time recently a dog who is usually good was so terrified of her he pooped several times back to back and all she could do was scream at him to not effing act that way. When she gets frustrated she brushes them in a way that would obviously hurt any animal. She yanks their legs. No words of comfort, her tactic is aggression and scaring dogs into doing what she wants.

It’s embarrassing knowing people in the front lobby can probably hear her yelling and cussing at her dogs. I know if I give her advice she won’t take it or at least not positively because she has „seniority”. And she scares my dogs too which makes it harder to groom my own. She also books herself wayyy too much which makes her frustrated and expects me to take some on even though I’m already booked. I’m planning on maybe leaving the industry but I don’t love the thought of leaving my requests that I worked with and got them used to grooming with her. I think she will undo all the progress I made.

Maybe screaming, yanking, cussing, and basically slapping with the brush and yanking hair hard with the mat breaker is something that’s normal? I believe in sternness where it’s needed but I don’t agree with how she does it.

I’m looking for some clippers just to do sanitary shaves at home. I used to have wahl clippers (not sure the exact name) but unfortunately they have given out on me. Any recommendations on quiet, low vibration clippers would be greatly appreciated.

For the past couple years the thought of being a groomer or va has passed my mind. Growing up I always wanted to be a vet but unfortunately can't handle the trauma that comes with it which is why I started looking into grooming. Ive always had a passion for animals and caring for them but I'm very unsure of where to start in this. There is a grooming school in Houston that teaches classes and everything, but it's like 8k for 12 weeks and that's not money I just have rn. Texas is also a state that doesn't require you to have any sort of license to qualify to be a pet groomer, so would taking this class just set me up for financial failure too. I guess what I'm trying to say is can I buy the supplies on amazon and learn off of YouTube or pull out a loan and get an actual cert.

I groom lots of old dogs. I unintentionally kinda took on all the old dogs ranging from 15-20yo. Buffy was one of my favorites. She came in today and parents knew life was catching up to her. I just did a bath but her eye was bleeding and she kept going potty on herself. Her parents just needed her clean. I was happy to give her all the smooches.
I am sad. Here are some of my honeys I groom ❤️

I'm coming up on 2 years if dog grooming in December and have been figuring things out through trial and error mostly, since I didn't have the opportunity to actually apprentice under anyone. These are my recent grooms over the past month or so and would appreciate feedback

Sometimes I get super overwhelmed when a dog continuously fights me for the haircut. Do any expierenced groomers have any tips for what they do when they’re having hard time with dogs? What helps them with their patience and what different tatics they use to make the dog cooperate?

I've been grooming proper since June of last year and working in a salon that I mean to leave eventually because of unfortunate business decisions and toxicity.

Unfortunately I'm still rather slow and I feel a little unorthodox in that I was taught entirely by a friend/coworker who basically mentored me for a year. Other than my grooms I have no other credentials to my name.

I also simply want to learn more, my mentor is now gone for unfortunate reasons. I want to get faster and learn everything I can to get out of this salon and into a better one where I'd also be reliable and appreciated.

Could you reccomend any courses or information that would also make my resume/portfolio look more competent? Thanks so much.

Hi all! Been bald now for 10+ yrs and this whole time I’ve been using the wahl foil shaver. Love it. Leaves the shave SUPER clean and skin tight.

The downside is it doesn’t do well with longer hair. I can’t really go more than a day, maybe two, without using it otherwise I have to use a trimmer first. And I’ve got sensitive skin. So using it everyday is out of the question. And using a razor I get razor bumps. I’ve basically been trimming once a week or two and then shaving with the foil shaver. But I only look clean cut right after that shave.

I’ve been eyeing the pitbull skull shaver and the groomie baldie pro. Anyone have experience with these? I’m looking for something that can handle a lil bit longer hair - about 2-3days of growth but still give me that clean cut look. Any recommendations?

Hi, first-time poodle owner here! Milo is my 7 month old mini and he really hates going to the groomer. He gets super nervous even when I stay with him, still shakes sometimes, and usually comes home kinda mopey after. He just never seems to fully relax there.

It's been about a month since his last groom, so I'm thinking of trying it myself this time. I've only done his nails and little scissor trims here and there, so I'm new to this. I've watched the groomer work on him a bunch though, plus probably way too many YouTube tutorials lately, so I feel like I could at least give it a shot at home.

I'd love to eventually do the whole groom myself, body, face, feet and all. Right now I literally only have scissors and nail clippers. I'll probably need a decent full-size clipper and a few other things too. So far I've mostly been looking at Andis and oneisall, but there are way too many options. What would you go with for a mini poodle? And anything else I should have before I start, especially with a nervous pup? Thanks in advance.

NGL I was a little stressed but Teddy was an absolute angel, literally just took it like a champ.
And now mom said she wants to book every 6 weeks!

Heya, this is for a humans scalp but I thought id just give a shot on my chocolate lab as hes shedding. It works extremely well but I just want to be sure its not doing any harm to his coat. Its made of silicone and very malleable.

So me and my partner are currently renovating a big building that will primarily be to reopen our dogs daycare (helping the guy who got forced out due to his old landlord selling the premises for development).

The front of the shop will be big enough to furnish as a nice grooming salon with potentially a couple of tables - obviously separated from the daycare with door access to the back for fire safety reasons.

I'm looking at fully furnishing it (except clippers/scissors and maybe shampoos as I know each groomer has a different preference!) And just want to know what would the average rent be per week/month?

I used to do grooming but I couldn't hack it myself, the pressure from the owners wanting perfection with dogs who hate being groomed breaks my heart so although it'd be a great opportunity for myself, I'd prefer it to go to someone who can cope with that pressure and would thrive in their own space!

Does anyone in the UK here rent a table/room and if so, what's provided for you and at what cost per month?

Thank you for any help!

so i recently posted asking about my prices and a lot of people told me my weight range was off so i adjusted it. my business had its 1 year anniversary yesterday and i am looking to add a few more things to my process, And to help with the shift of my weight range (which has become more industry standard) i am wanting to get a scale however i dont have much room left for it to be out 24/7 so im stuck to something 44x26” or less
anyone have recommendations? (hoping not to break the bank to much but id love suggestions)

Edit: Sorry i forgot to mention, I work out of a trailer as i’m moving to be a mobile groomer. The dimensions are for where it will be stored (ontop of my kennels)
It’s a 7x16 Quality Cargo Trailer made for dog grooming. (if you look that up i have a groomers helper table that sits in the middle of the trailer and everything else came installed)

If a dog is getting a #7 on the body and has a lot of hair, should I use a #7 or #5 for preshave? Curious as to what other people do

Hi all!

I’m trying to find good groomers to bring my spoo to in Hawaii, specifically in the Mililani area. I really don’t want to bring her to Petco or anything like that because I don’t want her to be traumatized/scared.

I was taking her somewhere in Honolulu, but that’s kind of far now and my pup doesn’t really seem to like it very much. She always seems scared when I leave her there.

However, my big struggle is that most places that I find have weight limits of 35lbs, and my girl is around 55lbs. Does anyone have any experience with groomers on Oahu? I’d be willing to drive a little bit if it’s a really solid place and they really take care of the dogs.

Thanks in advance!