My Life As A Groomer

It has been 14 years since I plunged into this profession. There have been days, even weeks that I have wondered why I am still doing this. And then along comes someone with a flattering complement or unexpected gift just as a gesture of appreciation that makes all of the bad days well worth while. I could write volumes about all of the good and not so good moments in my life as a groomer, but will try to keep it to the more memorable ones.

My first experience with a totally unreasonable request came while I was still in training. A woman had come in with her white toy poodle "Sammy." She had been very faithful about coming in every two weeks for quite a few months for "Sammy" to be bathed and have his feet and face shaved. Well by now you can imagine how long little "Sammy’s" coat was getting. Finally "Sammy’s" owner was informed that it was time for an actual grooming that would take some of his coat length off. She hesitated and asked with all seriousness, "can you cut off what you need to but then glue his apricot ends back on?" We all looked at her in total disbelief trying to control our laughter. Some people! To this day, that has to be the most unusual request I have ever been asked.

I have had my own grooming business for eleven years and have just recently acquired a client who has pushed my patients to the limit. This elderly gentleman owns a Yorkie and has me put the most ridiculous haircut on her. When I am done with her I want so badly to tell him not to tell anyone who grooms his dog. It’s that bad! Then to top the whole situation off, he has decided to start paying me in change: nickels, dimes, quarters. It takes a lot for me to lose my cool, but it is all I can do to keep my temper in check when he comes in. I guess it takes all kinds of people to make the world go around.

On the flip side though, I made one of my closest friends about ten years ago all thanks to my grooming career. She called the shop I was working at at the time to set up an appointment for her two toy poodles "Clint and Jake." After I got all the information I needed from her, I asked her, "Clint and Jake, like from the commercial?" (There used to be a commercial on the radio for Wrangler jeans with two cowboys named Clint and Jake). She laughed and said that I was (and still am) the only person to "get it" where her dogs names came from. She and I are still great friends and our children are close in age and love to get together and play. There are so many similarities between us that is almost scary. If I weren’t a groomer, I never would have found this great friend.

One thing that makes me feel good about myself and being a groomer is when someone tells me that their dog gets so excited when he or she is told that they are coming to see me. I have a client that travels about fifteen miles for me to groom his two miniature poodles "Tasha and Cheena." He says that once he gets about two miles from my place, regardless of the way he comes, the dogs go crazy and get really excited in the back seat of the car. He has purposely changed his route just to see what they do, and they always seem to know exactly where they are going. It is such a good felling to know that my canine clients are tail waggin’ happy when they walk through the door to my salon.

This profession has been good to me and my family and I can honestly say I love my job despite some of the bad moments. The good days and complements I receive out number the bad days 100 to 1. I can’t imagine doing anything else but grooming. I do believe that this is what I was destined to do.

Tricia Wagner
Wags Pet Salon
Windsor, CO