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Update to the "show dog" poodle situation, whine
Ok, so she came in the day before Thanksgiving. She brought in two dogs, the show dog was supposed to be a standard, and was more like a large mini (who still had dew claws?) so I was sort of happy to see it wasn't poodlezilla. I gave her a quote before I got started on the dog, of about 3.5 - 4 shih tzus told her about our hourly rate and she said that around the 4 shih tzu rate would be good. She didn't look like she was made out of money, semi ****** car, plain clothes. Also mentioned to not worry about brushing out all the tangles if he had any (wtf?) that they brushed him daily, and agreed to shave all short areas (she said about 1/2 off because it will be cold...) trim all poms, and light tidying on the body.
I spent my time washing him, tried to do things right, took a good while. I had some issues following the lines that had been shaved, the poms on the butt were hard to follow, and there was a lot of second guessing involved, costing extra time. The owner did her own handy work at trying to follow the breeders lines, I'll include a picture of the front pom poms and how uneven they were. I ended up doing a #10 reverse on the body.
I spent WAY TOO MUCH time on this freaking dog. I am embarassed to say how many hours. I've been getting over a cold this past week and am not 100%, moving slower, second guessing myself making things take even longer.
In the early evening the owner called and was like "tell her to stop! I can't afford this anymore!" So I talked to her and told her I was just going to charge her the rate of the 4 Shih Tzus that we talked about, and said that I'm sure someone who is used to doing this all the time is probably faster at it, but technically by our hourly rate he should be much much more than what I am charging. I didn't feel right charging her appropriately because I knew the haircut wouldn't be up to par. I considered it a learning experience, and knew I would not be making as much as I should at this point. She said she needed to pick him up within the next hour, and I said he wouldn't be done. She said she would come in an hour and would just need to take him at whatever point I was at. oooooooooookkkkkkkkkkkk... At this point, I was tired. The dog was tired. I knew I would be making the same amount no matter what was completed, and I was annoyed because things didn't look right due to owner hacking so it didn't really matter anyway. I did a quick neaten outline on the body, and had enough. It wasn't like I could start in on something and have her pick up the dog with one section unfinished... oh wait, I kind of did..... bleh
I worked for about 30 more mins, and I did my cleaning for the day, was there about an hour 20 mins past when I last talked to the owner and they still wern't there. I work at a boarding kennel, so when we are done grooming we go home and the main office handles things. Closed up the grooming area, turned off the lights, grab my purse and now they show up. I was nice, went and talked to them, reopened grooming area to check them out so they wouldn't have to wait in the huge boarding line. The commented that the cost on their second dog was so low. And... no tip? It isn't like she didn't know about tipping, she used to tip me when I groomed her old puppy. She knew I was giving her a huuuge break on the price, I just can't believe it. I blocked off my entire day for this dog, and if I hadn't done that I probably would have made double my money.
I've learned my lesson though. I feel like I was completely taken advantage of. I've just got to be better about saying "no" and sticking to my guns. I didn't want to do this dog to begin with, and I should have never done it. But I feel really disappointed for the lack of acknowledgement for how much work I really did put into the dog (minus the last 1/2 hour where I gave up), frustrated that things never had a chance at looking right from the beginning due to owner hacking, and I'm mad at myself for not charging for my time! I haven't let that happen in a long time. Oh well.
I'm including some before and after pictures. Please no major critiques, I know things are off. I know the poms are shaped wrong. The body had very minimal trimming and is unfinished. I'm doing an adequate job of beating myself up over the whole thing already!
Anyway, that was that, and I refuse to ever do the dog again
ps- on a more positive note, we finally got our first eggs this week from our chickens we've been raising. That forum on here a few months ago about chickens helped push me to decide to get them, so thank you to all those chicken lovers out there!
I spent my time washing him, tried to do things right, took a good while. I had some issues following the lines that had been shaved, the poms on the butt were hard to follow, and there was a lot of second guessing involved, costing extra time. The owner did her own handy work at trying to follow the breeders lines, I'll include a picture of the front pom poms and how uneven they were. I ended up doing a #10 reverse on the body.
I spent WAY TOO MUCH time on this freaking dog. I am embarassed to say how many hours. I've been getting over a cold this past week and am not 100%, moving slower, second guessing myself making things take even longer.
In the early evening the owner called and was like "tell her to stop! I can't afford this anymore!" So I talked to her and told her I was just going to charge her the rate of the 4 Shih Tzus that we talked about, and said that I'm sure someone who is used to doing this all the time is probably faster at it, but technically by our hourly rate he should be much much more than what I am charging. I didn't feel right charging her appropriately because I knew the haircut wouldn't be up to par. I considered it a learning experience, and knew I would not be making as much as I should at this point. She said she needed to pick him up within the next hour, and I said he wouldn't be done. She said she would come in an hour and would just need to take him at whatever point I was at. oooooooooookkkkkkkkkkkk... At this point, I was tired. The dog was tired. I knew I would be making the same amount no matter what was completed, and I was annoyed because things didn't look right due to owner hacking so it didn't really matter anyway. I did a quick neaten outline on the body, and had enough. It wasn't like I could start in on something and have her pick up the dog with one section unfinished... oh wait, I kind of did..... bleh
I worked for about 30 more mins, and I did my cleaning for the day, was there about an hour 20 mins past when I last talked to the owner and they still wern't there. I work at a boarding kennel, so when we are done grooming we go home and the main office handles things. Closed up the grooming area, turned off the lights, grab my purse and now they show up. I was nice, went and talked to them, reopened grooming area to check them out so they wouldn't have to wait in the huge boarding line. The commented that the cost on their second dog was so low. And... no tip? It isn't like she didn't know about tipping, she used to tip me when I groomed her old puppy. She knew I was giving her a huuuge break on the price, I just can't believe it. I blocked off my entire day for this dog, and if I hadn't done that I probably would have made double my money.
I've learned my lesson though. I feel like I was completely taken advantage of. I've just got to be better about saying "no" and sticking to my guns. I didn't want to do this dog to begin with, and I should have never done it. But I feel really disappointed for the lack of acknowledgement for how much work I really did put into the dog (minus the last 1/2 hour where I gave up), frustrated that things never had a chance at looking right from the beginning due to owner hacking, and I'm mad at myself for not charging for my time! I haven't let that happen in a long time. Oh well.
I'm including some before and after pictures. Please no major critiques, I know things are off. I know the poms are shaped wrong. The body had very minimal trimming and is unfinished. I'm doing an adequate job of beating myself up over the whole thing already!
Anyway, that was that, and I refuse to ever do the dog again
ps- on a more positive note, we finally got our first eggs this week from our chickens we've been raising. That forum on here a few months ago about chickens helped push me to decide to get them, so thank you to all those chicken lovers out there!
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