Dog grooming courses for ten weeks!! Are you taking the piss?

[user1486499646]

Ive been a dog groomer since the age of fiteen been doing it. Nearly seven years at a dog groomers in ny area. Ive always wanted to open a dog grooming businesss and will do soon. Hoemwever what s really pissing me off lately is people wanting to earn some more money pay for a ten week course and their all of a sudden a dog groomer opening shops! Its not just about cutting and styling its about knowing how to handle dogs if their scared or agressive the ammount of people who bring their dogs to us with botched coats and cuts and sores because inexperienced groomers are popping up everywhere and are cheap really grates me am i being unreasonable ino peopleare just trying to make a living but its not something you just go on a course for there animals for god sake and they dont no how to handle them!! Rant over

How do you know that? I've had dogs all my life, used to be a dog walker. Very experienced and a good reader of their body language. I've been looking at something similar to those courses. How are people supposed to get started otherwise?

Friend of mine is a dog groomer after a three day course. Doing very well at it.

Work in a groomers get experience first and im not saying all of them but alot off them are.

Groomers round here want youngsters, they don't want older people like me. You seem to be saying that everyone needs to slog for seven years like you had to before they should be allowed to make a living at it.

Erm, it's exactly the kind of thing you go on a course for. IIRC city & guilds level 2 and 3 courses are the industry standard. Think the college bits are probably 10 weeks but there's work placement stuff too.

There are really multiple competitors who have opened up in your locality with no experience and just a short course? You know all their personal and professional background and animal handling history to be able to claim this? You've never ever misjudged an animal's behavioural cues yourself, been caught slightly off guard or made any kind of mistake at work? Very impressive if so.

This ten weeks, is it full time? I thought you were going to say ten weeks is a long time, not too short a time.

Most people who start a dog grooming business will surely have some experience with animals. It would be an usual choice otherwise.

I would say you need the same level of skill as a hairdresser. It's ok if you only deal with dogs who need a bit of a clip but what about Scissor cutting breeds like bichons.

Ah op this annoys me to. Different job but similar, I trained for 2 years and worked in a crummy job for years for min wage to gain experience and there's people doing 3 days courses. Although I've seen some of their work and it's awful.

Not really Alex.

My bichon won't be getting highlights any time soon. That animal costs enough money as it is :)

I've never had highlights. But if only go to a qualified hairdresser.

But st least I don't need my anal glands emptying.

Anal glands

Good thing we love 'em!

Does yours do that buzz thing up & down the room.

The majority of groomers these days just seem to be clipper-happy, with lots refusing to do teeth, anal glands etc. that used to be part of the service. Many seem very bad at even that.

It does seem though that those who are properly trained and know their stuff will a) be fully booked far in advance and b) be able to charge realistic prices for a better job done, including things like hand stripping that others just can't offer.

I get what you mean. I've had two bad experiences with dog groomers one has got years and years of experience won awards etc, manhandled my poor pup-her first "puppy" groom. Came back scared to death. Wouldn't let me near with a brush for weeks.

Before that I had my lab in for a deshedding at a different place- 10week evening corse type girl in her back garden. She was fine, but I could of done a better job myself-left loads of shampoo in his coat so needed rewashing and didn't even get all the mud from his paws.

So I've decided that I'm learning to them myself, brought myself table, blaster etc and I've got a lovely showing lady (I'm just to show cockers) how to do it. Seems an much easier way of doing it

I've also got a friend that's fine the city and guilds course, it is quite literally a 10week evening course. She's had no experience with dogs, only had her only for 3months before the course. She's got no idea of breed clips at all. She's all set up and is running a lovely salon, which is fine if you just want a deshred/tidy up but the experience is lacking.

Might explain why, when I told the last groomer not to touch my long haired dog's coat or tail, she came back with the fur on her haunches clipped and the ends of her beautiful tail snipped off.

However, the fur on her paws and bum, which is what I went there for in the first place was unevenly cut, and the tops of her paws looked as if they'd been clipped as well, can't imagine why as they fur there is pretty short anyway.

New person in a groomers I'd used before. Won't be going back there again.

For starters there are so many different breeds that have to be groomed in different ways, not to mention all the other services a good groomer should offer. Pretty sure that can all be learned in a ten week course. Surely this is something that should be learned through an apprenticeship.

Can't all be learned in a ten week course, I should have typed.

Oh dear, completely changes the meaning of the whole post.

Tweed, same here. Went to a "professional" dog groomers twice. 1st time the dogs where clipped lovely, 2nd time they had literally clipped holes into coat and skin, it was just awful!
Needless to say, they went never back to any groomers, I did grooming course and do all the grooming/ clipping myself. I wouldn't call myself a groomer, I only do my own dogs and a few of my friends and family.

The problem is OP, the courses are available to anyone and the skill level of individual groomers varies greatly.

Same here op, these new groomers dont have a clue they see it as easy money because a all over shave on a placid shitzu is a peace of piss when it comes too a teddy bear clip on a westie (harder hair to style) and its aggresive they dont have a clue and mess it up because they havnt had experience in grooming parlour with professionals in the end where the ones who have to try and fix the mess they have made off them. Always ask your groomer if they have had experience and for how long!

Breed specific grooming cannot be learnt in a ten week course. Whilst I'm not a professional groomer (I show my own dogs), I love learning how to groom different breeds, and twenty years later I'm still learning. I've seen so many absolutely terrible grooming jobs done on dogs by the so called 'pet' groomers, and most of them just want to do a quick all over clip without through for any breed specific hallmarks or owner requests. Any groomer that tells owners to clip off their double coated dogs have no business being in the grooming industry. I find the best groomers to be the ones that show dogs, as they are interested in how the breeds are supposed to look. I've had a number of groomers come up to me and ask me how to groom my breed because they actually care.