Must Read!!!

[AmysJrGroomer]

For years I was a corporate CEO, then an educator. I have been disappointed in my dealings with people over the years and have grown very cynical. I never knew the love that i had for dogs, I stumbled in to a position as a bather...A man with a college degree...A man who use to make lots of money and yet my life felt empty. Then one day a special person introduce me to this world of grooming and for me it has struck a chord. dogs are beautiful, the dogs i have bathed and assisted grooming with by and large can tell if your a good person. Dogs know character and they know gentleness, and i have found that if you show them love, respect and gentleness they generally respond so positively. What a life, I don't think i could ever go back to the corporate world or to the field of education. I was hooked on the first kiss by my furry friends. We are most fortunate because there is an entire world that does not "get it" when it comes to dogs. so when your tired, or that customer is running late or the occassional uncooperative dog, know that we are blessed, know that our work matters and know that this is a wonderfully noble field and one i am, and you should be to very proud to be a small part of! I won't make a million dollars but I feel a million times luckier to be in this field!!!

Buzzy the Bear

[plushpuppy]

Welcome to the world of Corporate drop outs. I too had a corporate job good pay crummy hours and no life. I started breeding Shih Tzus 5 years ago and decided that I did not want to be in the corporate world for the rest of my life. I started persuing grooming schools 2 months after my 50th birthday. EVERYBODY thought I was nuts. I needed to follow my heart and do what I wanted. I went to school and opened a shop in my home it was the BEST choice that I have ever mad. I also feel truly blessed to be a groomer

[ldoonan]

You may not make millions of dollars, but if you take the money you were previously spending on therapy and prozac, and put it into investments -- hee hee .. just joking here, I'm still in the corporate world and working my way over to the groooming one, and figure working with dogs is better than working with, as the commercial says, monkeys.

[Helly]

I'm another one who left a very lucrative field to go back to my first love; grooming.

I was a medical insurance billing specialist in a doctor's office. The hours weren't all that bad, I only worked 4 days a week. The pay was great, and so were the bennies. But I was pulling my hair out, couldn't sleep, dreaded getting up in the morning. In short, I was miserable.

Now I sleep like a baby most nights. I don't dread mornings, don't dread going to work. I'm happy. And I have hair.

[SpikeyTheYorkie]

Me too...not corporate by any means, but I do have a college degree, one that I've not used for that specific field (social work) and one I really wished I'd not majored in. I'd rather work with animals that work with people.

In social work, you're not allowed to point out to people that their problems are created by the person who is having the problems---you're technically supposed to skate around the problem while giving them free gov't and non-gov't resources. It's so wrong.

But I love pet grooming, I love the response of the clients, I love learning new things and there is always more to learn with grooming. You're never good enough---and sometimes that's hard, but it always keeps a goal in mind.

Tammy in Utah

[toomuchfunbnme]

So True!

It's so nice to hear that other mature people have successfully made a career change to grooming! Like I have said before, My heart has always been in grooming, now I am finally getting the rest of my organs there too. Ha Ha.

[stacie-gotg]

Hey Buzz its nice to hear your a nicer guy. I meet so many people who hate the life they have created. Grooming and working with animals is so very special. We are all special people cause we devote time of ourselves that might not be paid by the buck. The inner glow we feel keeps us going.

[barepaws]

Amen

AMEN .........Brothers and Sisters.........AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!

I spend my 30min lunches at "work" (will be pulling my hair out until april 21 when I leave corporate america and attend 6 weeks practical gooming) thinking of a name for my future grooming salon/ boarding kennel. I now work 10-12 hour days and some how find the time to do my on-line gooming school classes. Before I made the decision to leave this crazy world and do what I'm here on this earth to do, I would come home and fall into bed. Couldn't find the energy to eat most days. Now somehow I find the energy to put an hour or two into class. June 30, graduation day, will be the first day of the rest of my life and I will never look back. I know more people who have no idea what they are doing on this earth and I am not going to be one of them.
Do the rest of you have any "friends' who when they found out what you were going to do try to weed you out of their life? You didn't fit there idea of what kind of people they wanted to associate with anymore?

Congrats to us all and good luck in 2007!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Chicken]

Interesting thread. I have a Masters in Abnormal Psych. Some days I giggle about needing it to deal with customers, but everyone always thinks I'm crazy for "not using my degrees" and grooming dogs instead. Nice to see there are others like that here!!

[Shell]

I was going through my closet this past week and found all my old suits, dresspants, and skirts in the way back covered in dust and it made me smile - I may have a spent a small fortune on that stuff, but I'm so much happier now. Even as I sit here in my jeans and sweatshirt covered in dog hair life is so much better.

barepaws - my family was actually where I got the negative feedback from. Grooming isn't a 'real' job they told me and I won't be successful. Then one day they were out running errands and ran into a family friend who is also my customer and this customer raved about me and how I treat their dog and how thrilled they are to have found me. Now my family even carries around a stack of my business cards and they are 'claiming' me again.

[doggiegroomer]

I think its great to hear how many of us have college degrees. I started grooming before I even graduated high school. I groomed while in college, grooming actually put me threw college, I have NO student loans to pay off. I got my degree in Wildlife Biology and have never used it. I have had a few offers from Ag. companies as well as State Ag agency. But I love grooming. But at least I know I have a degree to fall back on!

[caninedesigns1]

It's a good life!

I can't tell you how many of my friends were skeptics when I told them what I was going to do.

I was a Corporate Interior Designer (w/ a degree) making lots of $$$ BUT I was not happy (working 12 hour days + weekends). I was doing volunteer work woth dogs on some weekends and I can not tell you how many people told me that I was a much happier person on the weekends. Then FATE stepped in and I got laid off in 2002 I went for it....

Now all those skeptics are amazed at the thought I am making more now than I was then (an more than most of them too) and a MUCH happier person for it w/ better hours! I know I have learned so much from my furry friends. Life is good!!!

[Helly]

Interesting thread. I have a Masters in Abnormal Psych. Some days I giggle about needing it to deal with customers, but everyone always thinks I'm crazy for "not using my degrees" and grooming dogs instead. Nice to see there are others like that here!!

Well, I don't have any experience in abnormal psych (other than my own, lol) but my partner has her degree in behavioral psych, and we talk behavoir a lot. I use a lot of what she's taught me in dealing with animals and their owners.

So, do you find it helpful in any way, either with the animals or their owners? If so, wouldn't you say you are using your degree? Just not in the way people might expect?

[diamienono]

I have an Associate degree in Electronic Engineering. Now I groom dogs. My real passion.

[KarlaSnyder]

Dogs have always been my passion, and I've never looked back. Not in 55 years. Doesn't it feel good to do what you were meant to do?! Riches can be measured in more than just dollars. I think we're all extremely wealthy!!!