Pros
After what I’ve seen, I honestly cannot put any pros.
Cons
I unknowingly fell in love with grooming as a kid. I was amazed when watching dog shows on animal planet. Every haircut was perfectly done to the point that it looked like the dogs were just born that way. About four years ago, I realized NOPE. It takes a whole lot of hard work and patience to groom a dog. I love every aspect of grooming. You have to build a relationship with each dog so that there is trust on both sides. That’s where I excel because I’ve always been able to bond easily with animals. I can tell you with certainty that THE MAJORITY of Petsmart grooming employees do not share the same passion, or even the same patience that is necessary. THE MAJORITY are not well-trained. The Petsmart “grooming academy” is a one month long JOKE. During my own academy there, I only groomed four dogs. FOUR. That was supposed to prepare me to groom on my own. Most of the time was spent watching YouTube videos (usually not even about grooming) and leaving “class” early. Now let’s talk about the type of people they hire to care for your dogs. ANYONE. If you can use your hands and make money for them, they’ll hire you. I say this because not everyone is meant for this job. That’s just the way it is. Dogs typically don’t like to be groomed. It’s that simple. I would say about 80% of dogs that I groom put up a fight. They can bite at you and pee on you. They don’t sit still. That’s where patience comes in. You have to work slow and gain their trust. In some cases, you even have to send some dogs home if they are too stressed out. If you have a short temper or become frustrated/stressed easily, this job is not for you. From just that short description, I bet you can think of at least three people you know that maybe wouldn’t be the best fit for this job. Petsmart doesn’t care. They will hire those people, very few questions asked. Petsmart is so desperate for groomers, actually, that they HIRE BACK employees that they fired for various reasons. Someone got so frustrated with a dog, they threw it against the wall. Petsmart sought them out and hired them back. Someone got so frustrated with a dog that they choked it. Petsmart sought them out and hired them back. Someone was constantly on drugs and grooming while under the influence of heroine (nodding in and out of consciousness). Petsmart sought them out and hired them back. Only to fire them again, of course, because someone finally caught them on video nodding in and out while grooming a dog. It’s sad because you should be able to trust the people and environment that is supposed to be made for your dog. If I am the first to tell you this, please hear me now. You absolutely cannot trust just anyone with your dog. Even if their title is “pet stylist” or they work for a company as well-known Petsmart. They are just like any other large corporate company. It’s all about the money. I had hoped that by transferring to FOUR different Petsmart locations, I’d prove that theory wrong and I’d find out they do care about the safety and well-being of dogs. Instead, they only continue to prove me right. Each location was as bad as the last. Yes, you may find that one Petsmart groomer that is skilled and cares for your animal. But you are more likely to be put with a poorly trained individual who is only in it for the money. I have personally seen dogs thrown off of the grooming table. Dogs tails slammed in kennel doors, resulting in broken tails. Groomers visibly on drugs. Dogs scruffed and tied too tightly on the grooming loops. Dogs cut and managers trying to cover it up by saying they came in with the cut already there. Or using liquid bandage on areas that are certain to open back up over the next few days. Any time there is a case of the dog flu, we are told to not mention it to customers. And if asked, to lie and say we haven’t seen any cases of it. Dogs have had seizures and even died from being so stressed and short-tempered groomers continuing to push them. I have always made my superiors aware of what is happening. And each time I am fed a chain of lies. They tell me what they think I need to hear in the moment. “Well look into it”, “we’ll take care of it”, and “I assure you something will be done”. All they do is sweep things under the rug or put together a short training video with a couple true or false questions that we need to fill out. Which in most cases, is skipped through and filled out by our managers. Every summer, like clockwork, the AC units go out in the whole store. For the first few weeks we are using just small house fans. I’ve seen it get up to 95 degrees in the grooming room. I was personally told by an AC repair man that the store has put in a request for new equipment for the last two years and corporate denies it. They put it off until the weather just starts getting cold again. And repeat. They do not care about the well being of the animals. They care about the money and the money only. We are told to lie to customers and tell them the AC works in the grooming area just not in the store area. This has gone on for too long and I don’t know if anyone else is talking about it. But it’s time to make a stand and expose what truly goes on within this huge “for the pets” company. It isn’t safe. I can’t tell you where else to go because up until now, I’ve spent all of my grooming years with this company. I can ask you to please do your research. Read reviews. Talk to other pet owners. You can’t trust just anyone with your pets. Not all groomers even like animals! Some just do it for the money. It would be great to be able to trust any establishment that calls itself a grooming salon, but you just can’t.
