Groomer Job: Petsmart or PetCo?

    • Gold Top Dog

    As for petsmart/petco which is worse...its really all depends on what store.  Im sorry, but im rather offended by the rude comments that "all petcos are horrible yada yada yada"..no there not.  LOCALLY for me, our petco groomers do a faar better job then petsmart..ive worked for both..so trust me, i know.  Even though i was a trainer, and not a groomer, I was aware of what all went on.  I know our local petsmart gets LOTS of complaints of the girls giving the dogs severe razor burn.  But your results will vary from local to local

    As for the "no experience necessary"  come on..lets be realistic.. Do you honestly think they just pull people off the street, hand them some clippers and let them after it?  Its no experience necessary, because they start as bathers, and get trained as they go to move up. 

    Congrats Shelterdogs on yoru interview.  Whatever direction you go in, I hope it works out for you.

    Oh and jennie about the show dog comment..i understand about the coat condition..but this was brought to my attention over clipping nails!! 

    • Gold Top Dog

    Beauceron.Akita.Golden

    Congrats Shelterdogs on yoru interview.  Whatever direction you go in, I hope it works out for you.

    Thanks, Beau. 

    I'm not sure I got the job.  She said that "I'd be making my decision by the end of the week."  Today is the last day of the week.  I think if someone REALLY wants to hire someone, wouldn't they have called me by now?  Interview was on Wednesday morning.

    • Gold Top Dog

    ShelterDogs

    I'm not sure I got the job.  She said that "I'd be making my decision by the end of the week."  Today is the last day of the week.  I think if someone REALLY wants to hire someone, wouldn't they have called me by now?  Interview was on Wednesday morning.

    Maybe its fate telling you that you can do better than PETCO? hehe

    If you want to be a groomer I say you go to a private grooming shop for training.

    If you want to be a trainer make sure to go to "school" for it and get certified and what not... most people do this then open their own businesses. From an opinion of the "average dog owner" I guess you could say... PETCO & PETSMART are my last resort for grooming & training.

    Maybe it is fate saying u deserve better ;o) 

    • Gold Top Dog
    Lets be nice, there are several members here who have said they groom/train at a petco/petsmart. They are nice people who do a good job. I have my two groomed from time to time and they have done a fine job and I have no complaints.
    • Gold Top Dog

    Pomeranian <3

    Maybe its fate telling you that you can do better than PETCO? hehe

    If you want to be a groomer I say you go to a private grooming shop for training.

    If you want to be a trainer make sure to go to "school" for it and get certified and what not... most people do this then open their own businesses. From an opinion of the "average dog owner" I guess you could say... PETCO & PETSMART are my last resort for grooming & training.

    Maybe it is fate saying u deserve better ;o) 

    I realize you are trying to be helpful here, but it is actually the complete opposite.  We need to start giving you negative punishment any time you reply.  I don't think the thread could have been anymore clear why PetCo and Petsmart are my only option.  I think the thread also explained that education does not end at said stores.  You obviously have an agenda, and it is against PetCo.  We get it already. 

    • Gold Top Dog

    Pomeranian <3
    I guess you could say... PETCO & PETSMART are my last resort for grooming & training.

    To be fair, I am not a regular shopper at Petsmart or Petco, simply because they do not carry the products that I want and/or need.  However, I do use the local Petsmart for grooming----I have a tzu in full coat, and my groomer does a beautiful job, not only that, but my guy just looooves his groomer.  On the whole, this Petsmart has a terrific grooming department--clean, well organized and all of the groomers are great--the groomer I go to happens to be on of the best around--she's in high demand and I need to make appointments well in advance.

    There are many smaller grooming shops available around here for me to go to (and I had checked out many), yet I elect to go to this Petsmart for grooming because my groomer is so terrific, as is the whole department.

     

    • Bronze

    shelterdogs- have they gotten back to you yet? usually the grooming manager will have the most say in who gets into the shop. i do hope you get and if you dont, you can always keep a relationship with the grooming manager and tell her you would still be interested if a position opened up in a few months (which it likely will).

     pomeranian <3, wow, how i wish i had been following this thread when you first started posting. first off i have to say that in your first post when you described your own petco experiance, you did something many pet owners do (and most pomeranian owners actually). there is no typical pomeranian trim. if you tell someone to do "whatever poms get" and leave the instructions at that, then yes you will probably get a short lion clip (which is im sure what you got) b/c that is usually what people want with these dogs. they dont get haircuts, so there is no style specifically for them. you can put full blame on the groomer when you didnt exactly tell her anything specific that you wanted.

     

    and also, until you have traveled to every petco, and ever petsmart store in the country, how can you even compare the 2? i understand maybe your store may not be run as well, but that certainly doesnt reflect the whole chain. im sure it shocks you to know that at my local petsmart, the whole grooming department was fired recently b/c they didnt have a dog properly secured to a table, he ran out the door, into oncoming traffic, got hit and died. not one of the groomers or bathers would say who was at fault, so they all were canned. should i boycott the whole company b/c one store slipped through the cracks? and i would say that experiance is a heck of a lot worse than your dog getting the wrong haircut.

     you also mentioned what the petsmart groomers said to you, and that is one hundred percent unprofessional and actually goes against any company like petsmarts guidelines.  why would you think anything good about a department that sits around and throws the competition under the bus? and of course they are going to agree with you, they want your business. personally i would find them catty and would not want to be around them long enough to explain what i wanted done to my dog. and maybe next time you post about that sign you keep talking about, you might want to actually read it. for i worked there for a year and saw that sign everyday, and it says no experiance necessary b/c if you want to be a bather, you get trained there (and you arent allowed to even touch scissors or clippers while being a bather), and if you have no experiance and want to be a groomer they automatically put you in as a bather for a few months until you are ready for school, then you are trained through their school (about 3 months of schooling), and only then you can groom (and the first few months of being paid as a groomer are spent doing shave downs, thats it). you have no idea how things are really run at each store. i highly doubt the petsmart employees you speak of went over policies with you, b/c that is also against corporate rules. i worked for petco, and i know many who work at petsmart, in grooming and in the store and i can tell you that policies are pretty much the same, especially for grooming.

     

    i understand you may have had a bad experiance at one particular store, but that really doesnt give you the expertise or information to say all petcos are bad. all it does is make you sound terribly ignorant and judgemental, especially in a situation i already explained as very minor, and kind of your own fault. as a person who worked in a petco grooming salon, and worked in a great store, i can tell you are 100 percent wrong

    • Bronze

     Hi Shelter Dogs,

    I currently own a grooming salon and have worked at 3 different PetSmarts as a groomer.  I can tell you that it depends almost entirely on the store.  Some stores have great working environments which translate into great environments for the pets.  I loved the first store I worked at and hated the next 2, hence I left and bought a shop of my own.  

     The best advice that I can give you as a grooming shop owner is to go by one afternoon and introduce yourself to the owner and take a resume.  We frequently get calls from well meaning folks with no experience and it's easier to just pass the buck on the phone.  Go in the afternoon, in the early part of the week as that is a less busy time.  You might not get a job right away but ask them if they know anyone who might need help.  Networking works in grooming as well as in any other business.

    As to PetSmart or PetCo, PetSmarts training again depends on where you go to school and which trainer you get.  I have heard different things from different groomers about their experiences in school.  Either way, once you get a job as a bather, you will get experience and can use that experience to check out other opportunities before you lock into a contract with either of them.  Talk to the groomers in the stores. 

    Good luck to you.  Grooming is a very rewarding career for the right people.
     

     

     

    • Gold Top Dog

    countrygroomer

     Hi Shelter Dogs,

    I currently own a grooming salon and have worked at 3 different PetSmarts as a groomer.  I can tell you that it depends almost entirely on the store.  Some stores have great working environments which translate into great environments for the pets.  I loved the first store I worked at and hated the next 2, hence I left and bought a shop of my own.  

    Good luck to you.  Grooming is a very rewarding career for the right people.

    Thanks countrygroomer.  After all this I did not get the job.  They never called. Maybe they wanted someone who didn't have any dog handling experience.  I'm also a guy too, and I notice it's mostly young women (like 18-20ish) working at this one and Petsmart. 

    • Gold Top Dog

    Go talk to the manager, again. Ask her if you found someone, and let her know that you're still interested. You have to bug people a little, sometimesWink 

    • Gold Top Dog

    Thanks countrygroomer. After all this I did not get the job. They never called. Maybe they wanted someone who didn't have any dog handling experience. I'm also a guy too, and I notice it's mostly young women (like 18-20ish) working at this one and Petsmart.

    Sadly, it's about 99% women no matter where you go.  We men are few and far between in this industry. Stick out tongue

    • Bronze

    Being a guy, shouldn't matter.  Some of the best groomers that I know are men.  However, in all honesty, it might make a difference for several reasons.  If the shop is all women, she might be intimidated by hiring a man.  She may not feel that you will be satisfied with the income.  At PetSmart, at least, you have to work as a bather for a certain length of time before they will consider sending you to school.

    I'm not sure where you are located, but another avenue that you might want to explore is professional dog show handlers.  It is a WHOLE different world at dog shows and there are more men who groom, show, etc.  The difficult part is finding one that is close to you.  You might check at some of the local boarding kennels or kennel clubs.  You might find that you like it better or you might not like it at all.  Either way, it would give you some experience.

    If this is something that you really feel that you want to do, keep trying.  It will happen eventually if you are motivated enough to not give up.

    Cheers! 

    • Gold Top Dog

    jennie_c_d

    Go talk to the manager, again. Ask her if you found someone, and let her know that you're still interested. You have to bug people a little, sometimesWink 

     

    Well, I just called and said "Good morning, Jane.  This is Jack Doe.  How are you doing?"  She quickly replied "Oh, good...  I still haven't made a decision yet."  I didn't get a chance to really say anything else as she seemed very busy.  So that was it... I said "Oh, okay... " And we said our goodbyes.  So maybe I called too early then?  She did tell me that she'd "make a decision by the end of the week" at the interview.  And this is over a week later now.  I wonder what her hesitation is. The next closest Petco is looking for bathers, so in the mean time I will try there.   

    • Gold Top Dog

    ShelterDogs
    The next closest Petco is looking for bathers, so in the mean time I will try there. 

    Good, don't give up!  Just be sure to check out that store and make sure it's an environment you are comfortable in.

    • Bronze

    definetely dont give up. if she hasnt made a decision yet, then your chances are probably good. and they susally want people with experiance so they dont have to teach how to handle dogs in general.

     

    honestly, at all the salons i worked at we hoped and prayed for men. even now, i work at a dog kennel and we are always excited when guys apply (if your in the southern california area, i may have a job for you actually). like you said, it is mostly women, and for a lot of us, we hate it. we hate the cattyness, we hate the gossip. we hate all the things that comes along with women being cooped up in close quarters for too long. having a guy around really helps the environment, and keeps the girls in check. so dont give up. when i started working at petco, one of the people in training with me was a guy and he did really well.