What an amazing career pet grooming can be! You can embrace your creative side and passion for animals. Every job has its cons, but if you love what you do it the pros outweigh the cons. As long as you trained properly and maintain your physical and mental health – you can have a successful and fulfilling career.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that grooming is fast and easy to learn. There is more to grooming than just learning how to hold a pair of clippers and use a pair of scissors. There are technicalities when it comes to grooming. Just as humans, makeup or hairstyles can compliment a person’s look – or make them look worse. It’s exactly the same with dogs. Although, we do get strange requests sometimes to do a funky style – and that is okay.
What else is there to grooming aside from using clippers and scissors? Ill give you a brief introduction of what you will learn when becoming a groomer.
- Tools; brushes, scissors, combs, blades – but wait, there are different types of each.
- Shampoo & Conditioner – no, not every pet needs the same product. Can you imagine if we (people) all used the same shampoo?!
- Breeds – different coat types, haircut styles, and temperaments. They are making a hybrid of everything! Some that shouldn’t be combined, but that’s another story. i.e. Poodle & Labrador Retriever = Labradoodle
- Common health issues – although you are not treating the dogs, you need to know what to look out for or how to handle pets with health issues.
- Anatomy – this comes in handy when learning where to place lines of haircuts.
- Bathing – it may seem easy, but if the bath is not done properly, it is likely your haircut will not be great. A good bath is the foundation to a great haircut.
- Blow drying – force dryers, stand dryers, kennel dryers; if a coat is not properly blow dried; sometimes you have to start over.
- Brushing – easy peasy! Brushing is an art and takes time to learn. If a dogs coat is completely brushed out, you should be able to put a fine tooth comb right through it. There is line brushing, back brushing ,etc.
Are you overwhelmed yet? I hope not! I just want you to be aware that there are multiple layers to grooming a dog. I haven’t even scratched the surface. Have you ever heard “sharp tools and moving objects do not go together”? Well this is exactly what pet grooming is! Animal behavior is another thing you should master when working with dogs. If you cannot recognize or anticipate how a dog will react, both you and the dog could be in danger. I am not saying that all dogs are vicious or sensitive, but you need to be prepared for these scenarios. Some pets are “sensitive” with certain aspects of grooming, i.e. paws, lifting the tail, being blow dried, scared of water. You have to be able to adjust your handling or technique based on the pet. You are a forever chameleon in the world of pet grooming.
The best way to enter into the grooming world is through mentorship. There are grooming courses available, however, the textbook information needs to be in conjunction with the hands on training in my opinion. Here are a list of some grooming courses available: