Hello all, I am new here and absolutely love this forum already. I have been reading and reading and doing some more reading of all new and old threads these past couple days because everything seems to interest me so much! I never thought I'd find such a helpful sight like this!
Anywho.. Sorry if this has been bought up already.. I have been working at a vet clinic for about a year now. I am the only groomer there, and at first everything seemed ok.. But as time has gone by, things just seem to get worse and worse. Has anyone else who grooms at a clinic, or had in the past, share/d these problems?
1. My first issue is.. The table at the clinic is not electric, and it doesn't go up or down. My arms are pretty pueny and I have been getting stronger but not strong enough for some dogs yet. The tub is also higher than the table. So seeing as I am the only groomer, when I have a huge horse-like dog to groom or bathe or both, I am left to fend for myself. I ask the vet assistants for help, but I can tell they seem to detest doing it. One girl told another girl who works there that she doesn't like doing it because she doesn't get paid to help ME. But of course she is, half of what I charge goes straight to the clinic and the vet! Who do they work for? The vet! There have been days where I have waited an hour for some one to help me! I also have a lot of dogs that come in who are very bad for their nails, there are some who actually need two people to hold them down for it! Once again.. I am left waiting for help.
2. My second issue is that I was told during my interview if there was something that I needed that the vet would buy it or help pay for it. Well I have needed a stand/fluff dryer the entire time I have worked there and asked a few times if he could help me buy one and got a no every time. I can not afford such a thing. Especially with how slow it is there. There is also only two cage dryers there.. and one is really, really noisey, and just plain cheap. But for some reason there are like five force air dryers. So when I have a dog or a cat is too crazy or frigid for being forced aired my only resort is sticking it in a cage and waiting forever for it to dry after towel drying. I bought like a human blow dryer I saw in PetEdge but it really doesn't do the trick. I used a fliuff dryer in school pretty much daily and not working with one really, really sucks.
3. Onto the next issue, lol.. When I am not working, some dogs may get a surgery or dental bath, so the assistants do them. I was told a few times when I started that I need to keep the room clean and when they use it, they will also keep it clean. Well a few months into working, I found that not happening. I'd come in some mornings to find the tub full of hair and a dirty towel just laying there. It takes only a minute or less to rinse out a tub.. There is no excuse for them not to clean it out!! It's gross how the hair just sits there until whenever I come in. I work as an assistant there one or two days a week for extra money, and one day when I came in there I had a note saying I needed to clean the grooming room and that it needed to be done on MY time from now on and not the clinic's time. So I go in there, and the tub is all dirty from one of the assistants!!! I was so, so pissed that day, it was so hard to hold it in. I put up a note that day on the wall next to the tub saying to please clean up after yourselves. Well next week rolls around and I come in and my signs completely gone, not even in the trash can, and of course, its messy in the tub... I was so fustrated.. I went and told the vet tech about it and she tried telling me that a few days they found hair in the tub from me so they must feel they might not have to clean.. Yeah right.. I am always so thurough with my cleaning! She said she'd try and find out who did it and talk to them. So I made another sign which of course was thrown away once again, despite all the tape I used to make sure that didn't happen. But it really didn't happen again after that. Thank God!
4. In order to be groomed at the clinic, the pet needs to be up to date on it's Rabies and Bordetella. No matter what.. I didn't make the rules. Well originally, the clients were just getting charged for the vaccine and a waste disposal fee. As the time went on, now the vet charges them the vaccine, disposal fee, tech time, and soemtimes even an exam fee! Some clients were paying almost $100 or more just to get their pet groomed!! And believe me.. they were not happy about it...! They know it only takes a few seconds to give a dog a shot. I had people telling me they were not coming back because of it since they can go down the street without needing bordetella. I had more than one person walk out on me while they were dropping their pet off to be groomed when they found out they needed to get the bordetella... Since the assistants forget to tell them on the phone.
Now the last thing (there are some more little things that happen like assistants scheduling appointments without writing down the time or the client's phone number, me getting accused of telling a client they couldn't come in for grooming, which was totally untrue, etc.) is that it is so damn slow. For a while I was doing dogs everyday.. not a lot of dogs, but was grooming daily. Now, I'm only doing one or two a week. Maybe three. It's horrible and they made me cut down on working for the clinic time so I'd be more available for grooming. So my income is pretty low and pathetic if you ask me. I have advertised that place more than you could imagine and am still working on new ways to do so.
I have tried finding new jobs plenty of times but unfortunatly I seem to suck at job interviews.. And everytime I think one goes good, I never get hired. Only one place had me groom a dog for an interview and it was a dog I had just groomed not even two weeks prior. I check everyday for groomer job openings in my area online on multiple sights and there hasn't been anything for a long time.. So I am pretty much stuck at the clinic if I want to keep grooming for a living...
I am sorry for this beign so long.. I tend to say too many details I guess..
Anywho.. Sorry if this has been bought up already.. I have been working at a vet clinic for about a year now. I am the only groomer there, and at first everything seemed ok.. But as time has gone by, things just seem to get worse and worse. Has anyone else who grooms at a clinic, or had in the past, share/d these problems?
1. My first issue is.. The table at the clinic is not electric, and it doesn't go up or down. My arms are pretty pueny and I have been getting stronger but not strong enough for some dogs yet. The tub is also higher than the table. So seeing as I am the only groomer, when I have a huge horse-like dog to groom or bathe or both, I am left to fend for myself. I ask the vet assistants for help, but I can tell they seem to detest doing it. One girl told another girl who works there that she doesn't like doing it because she doesn't get paid to help ME. But of course she is, half of what I charge goes straight to the clinic and the vet! Who do they work for? The vet! There have been days where I have waited an hour for some one to help me! I also have a lot of dogs that come in who are very bad for their nails, there are some who actually need two people to hold them down for it! Once again.. I am left waiting for help.
2. My second issue is that I was told during my interview if there was something that I needed that the vet would buy it or help pay for it. Well I have needed a stand/fluff dryer the entire time I have worked there and asked a few times if he could help me buy one and got a no every time. I can not afford such a thing. Especially with how slow it is there. There is also only two cage dryers there.. and one is really, really noisey, and just plain cheap. But for some reason there are like five force air dryers. So when I have a dog or a cat is too crazy or frigid for being forced aired my only resort is sticking it in a cage and waiting forever for it to dry after towel drying. I bought like a human blow dryer I saw in PetEdge but it really doesn't do the trick. I used a fliuff dryer in school pretty much daily and not working with one really, really sucks.
3. Onto the next issue, lol.. When I am not working, some dogs may get a surgery or dental bath, so the assistants do them. I was told a few times when I started that I need to keep the room clean and when they use it, they will also keep it clean. Well a few months into working, I found that not happening. I'd come in some mornings to find the tub full of hair and a dirty towel just laying there. It takes only a minute or less to rinse out a tub.. There is no excuse for them not to clean it out!! It's gross how the hair just sits there until whenever I come in. I work as an assistant there one or two days a week for extra money, and one day when I came in there I had a note saying I needed to clean the grooming room and that it needed to be done on MY time from now on and not the clinic's time. So I go in there, and the tub is all dirty from one of the assistants!!! I was so, so pissed that day, it was so hard to hold it in. I put up a note that day on the wall next to the tub saying to please clean up after yourselves. Well next week rolls around and I come in and my signs completely gone, not even in the trash can, and of course, its messy in the tub... I was so fustrated.. I went and told the vet tech about it and she tried telling me that a few days they found hair in the tub from me so they must feel they might not have to clean.. Yeah right.. I am always so thurough with my cleaning! She said she'd try and find out who did it and talk to them. So I made another sign which of course was thrown away once again, despite all the tape I used to make sure that didn't happen. But it really didn't happen again after that. Thank God!
4. In order to be groomed at the clinic, the pet needs to be up to date on it's Rabies and Bordetella. No matter what.. I didn't make the rules. Well originally, the clients were just getting charged for the vaccine and a waste disposal fee. As the time went on, now the vet charges them the vaccine, disposal fee, tech time, and soemtimes even an exam fee! Some clients were paying almost $100 or more just to get their pet groomed!! And believe me.. they were not happy about it...! They know it only takes a few seconds to give a dog a shot. I had people telling me they were not coming back because of it since they can go down the street without needing bordetella. I had more than one person walk out on me while they were dropping their pet off to be groomed when they found out they needed to get the bordetella... Since the assistants forget to tell them on the phone.
Now the last thing (there are some more little things that happen like assistants scheduling appointments without writing down the time or the client's phone number, me getting accused of telling a client they couldn't come in for grooming, which was totally untrue, etc.) is that it is so damn slow. For a while I was doing dogs everyday.. not a lot of dogs, but was grooming daily. Now, I'm only doing one or two a week. Maybe three. It's horrible and they made me cut down on working for the clinic time so I'd be more available for grooming. So my income is pretty low and pathetic if you ask me. I have advertised that place more than you could imagine and am still working on new ways to do so.
I have tried finding new jobs plenty of times but unfortunatly I seem to suck at job interviews.. And everytime I think one goes good, I never get hired. Only one place had me groom a dog for an interview and it was a dog I had just groomed not even two weeks prior. I check everyday for groomer job openings in my area online on multiple sights and there hasn't been anything for a long time.. So I am pretty much stuck at the clinic if I want to keep grooming for a living...
I am sorry for this beign so long.. I tend to say too many details I guess..
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