# Grooming Problems?



## MuffinsMom (Oct 9, 2007)

So this morning I took my dog into our local petco to be groomed. After she was done I came to pick her up and to my surprise she was bleeding and had a very large cut on her back. After examining her I noticed her skin on her back was very red and had more cuts. I immediately took her back in and demanded an explanation. The manager came to examine her and then went to find the groomer who was working on her. She stayed in the back room the whole time, which upset me, but the manager said she used a blade shedding brush. Apparently, this type of brush is used on a larger and much heavier dog such as a St. Bernard, instead of a lab, and the manager and three other groomers who were standing around told me she should not have used that tool on my dog. The manager said my dog had brush burn from using the wrong equipment, and he gave me a free grooming for the next time we come in. I am upset and irritated and I think groomers should be educated on what tools to use on which dogs, and most importantly, inform me on the burn/irritation that they caused instead of me having to find out on my own. In my eyes this is very irresponsible and I will be switching groomers immediately. Has anyone else had a problem with their groomers?


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## Dieselsmama (Apr 1, 2007)

speaking as a groomer myself, she was completely negligent. I would bring my dog in to the vets for a check to see if an antibiotic ointment for the burn was warranted and send the shop the bill. There's just no excuse for that. Brush burn on a long coated dog while trying to dematt or brush out over more sensitive areas is possible and does happen, although most groomers are aware of the pressure they're applying with a brush and are careful to avoid this. Find a different groomer, most are not this negligent.


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## 007Dogs (Aug 22, 2007)

I must say the most groomers who are any good, DO NOT WORK AT PETCO OR PETSMART. They pay the groomers a very low percentage of the work they do. So anyone with talent will more than likely be working in a private shop or there own shop. Those places will hire just about anyone with the plan to train them, but they do not get much in the way of guidance prior to being turned loose. Scarey!


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## Love's_Sophie (Sep 23, 2007)

So sorry your Lab got so brush burnt!! That is just not necessary; usually the most I use on a lab is a zoom groom if they need it at all after their blasting with the high velocity dryer; otherwise I just 'buff' them with a towel if they aren't shedding to give them a nice sleek finished look.


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## Shanette Peters (Jan 14, 2008)

MuffinsMom said:


> So this morning I took my dog into our local petco to be groomed. After she was done I came to pick her up and to my surprise she was bleeding and had a very large cut on her back. After examining her I noticed her skin on her back was very red and had more cuts. I immediately took her back in and demanded an explanation. The manager came to examine her and then went to find the groomer who was working on her. She stayed in the back room the whole time, which upset me, but the manager said she used a blade shedding brush. Apparently, this type of brush is used on a larger and much heavier dog such as a St. Bernard, instead of a lab, and the manager and three other groomers who were standing around told me she should not have used that tool on my dog. The manager said my dog had brush burn from using the wrong equipment, and he gave me a free grooming for the next time we come in. I am upset and irritated and I think groomers should be educated on what tools to use on which dogs, and most importantly, inform me on the burn/irritation that they caused instead of me having to find out on my own. In my eyes this is very irresponsible and I will be switching groomers immediately. Has anyone else had a problem with their groomers?


I work at home for myself i was originally trained thru petsmart,as well i have other training. I want to tell you yes there are certain tools to use for certain breeds. It wasn't right that you had to find out on your own what happend to your sweetie. The groomer should have been honest and tell you what happend. I hope you find a groomer who can be honest with you, or learn what is needed and take pride in the grooming process yourself.


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## Purplex15 (May 28, 2007)

007Dogs said:


> I must say the most groomers who are any good, DO NOT WORK AT PETCO OR PETSMART. They pay the groomers a very low percentage of the work they do. So anyone with talent will more than likely be working in a private shop or there own shop. Those places will hire just about anyone with the plan to train them, but they do not get much in the way of guidance prior to being turned loose. Scarey!


very wrong. petco and petsmart pay the same perecentage as most private groomers, which is 50-60%, considering the benefits at corporations, most full time groomers make a better lving then someone working privatly. there are also just as many bad groomers who own a private shop. discriminate against the particular store, not the chain. 

as far as the original psot. i highly recommend you report this to corporate. the person doing your dog was not even a groomer, it was a bather, more than likely. that person needfs to be retrained or demoted, or taken out of grooming in general. a lot of the reason these people remain working and hurting dogs is b/c no one reports it. and you have to report it to corporate, not just the store (corp will be more likely to deal with it). i would also contact the store manager just in case you need to take the dog to a vet for treatment. they should be paying for that. i hope your dog is ok.


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## justagirl21 (Jan 19, 2008)

I work as a professional groomer at a private salon and we hire only fully compitent, educated and skillful groomers. Anyway, during the christmas break we were looking for some extra groomers to cope with the rush. Some people came in with certificates from various grooming courses and some of them had more tools than you could poke a stick at! We decided to give some of them a test run so we could see how well they groomed and...well... most of them were terrible! They used the wrong tools on the wrong dogs, they couldn't use the clippers and their clipping skils were very basic. The problem I saw was the lack of enthusiasm and they just thought "oh, that'll do, thats good enough" and the majority of the time it wasnt good enough and the job was only half done! I don't know what grooming courses they did or what they taught but finding a good groomer these days seems to be half the job! The girl at this PET place should be demoted or given a job like cleaning the fishtanks!  as letting a dog leave in that condition is terrible. Groomers do occasionally make mistakes but the LEAST you do it let the customer know!
-I know its a bit off topic now but I'll share this with you..  -
One lady who came in to trial for a grooming position for us got given a Chow Chow. Well the result was a dog only half stripped out, a completely unbrushed tail, parts of the dog were still damp, the dogs pads were shaved with a #30 right up to the HOCKS and the face/neck hadn't been touched AT ALL!  
I'd hate to have been the poor owner of that dog as it was THE worst job i've seen! All I can say is I hope she's not grooming now


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