I have spent the month of June bathing dogs at Petsmart.  I chose this job because I love dogs and love grooming them.  My first impressions of the job were rather positive; Petsmart had good policies that I agreed with.  I learned about the appropriate safety precautions for myself as an employee as well as for the dogs.  I read all the training books and watched all the videos.  Although it’s a pretty tedious and repetitive process, I was happy with the training I received and happy with Petsmart as a company.

Then I started working for real.

All those great things I learned from the videos and books?… about 60% of it was actually practiced in the salon.  I wasn’t as much bothered by the policies like “staying out of the bite zone” being violated because that was putting the person who was violating the rule in danger, not the dog.  If that person gets bit… well, it’s kind of their own fault.  The violations that really disappointed me were the ones that had to do with how the dogs were treated, controlled, and contained.

Policy said to clean out the water bowls and kennels after EACH dog.  We had a disinfectant spray we were supposed to use.  Well, if you were lucky, this was being done once a day.  Employees had no problem getting one dog out of a kennel and immediately putting a different dog in there.  What if the first dog was sick?  No one seemed to care.  In my opinion, this is a HUGE violation.

The next thing that really bothered me was how often the groomers would be willing to leave a dog on a table unsupervised.  This dog has a loop around it’s neck and it could very quickly turn into a noose!!  And I’m not just talking about taking their hands off the dog and stepping 3 feet away.  On a few occasions a groomer even left the ROOM asking another groomer or bather who had their OWN dog on their OWN table to keep an eye on their dog.  How is it that one person is supposed to safely watch two dogs on two different tables that are not within arms length of each other?!  Unbelievable.

Last, and definitely not least, I was appalled at how most of the groomers treated the dogs in general.  If a dog was misbehaving or moving too much, the groomers would actually call the dogs names!  Their favorite name was “sh!thead”!  They would yell at the dogs very loudly and make them even more frightened.  Many times I believe the dog just needed a little break.  There was one groomer whom I had NEVER witnesses say ANYTHING nice to ANY dog!  No “good boy” or “good girl”.  I saw many dogs have their arms tweaked in weird positions while trying to get away.  If my hands were free, I would come help handle the dog to free it from its torture.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t always in a position to do so.

I believe the employees who treated the dogs the best were the bather/brushers.  The groomers seemed to be mean ones.  I think that’s because no one in thier right mind would be a bather/brusher for Petsmart unless they REALLY loved dogs; the pay isn’t enough for such hard work.  I could have made the same tiny hourly wage working at the cash register.  Groomers, however, get 50% commission, so they are generally rushing to get as many dogs done in a day as they can.

I would like to be clear that this is what I have to say about this ONE Petsmart location.  Other Petsmarts may be following company policies and procedures just perfectly.  But I highly recommend NOT taking your dog to the Petsmart in Rohnert Park, CA.  If you consider a different location, I recommend observing the groomers for a good while before making your decision.  Feel free to ask them for a tour of the back as well and take a good look at the kennels that your dog will be placed in.

Today was my last day at Petsmart because I am moving tomorrow.