Diamonds In The Ruff Pet Grooming Salon

AKC Standard poodle puppies. 8 weeks old! Health tested parents on site. 2 boys 3 girls. 2 rounds of Neopar(parvo vacc) and age appropriate vaccines. Comes with microchip and a goody bag full of great things!! In the process of being kennel trained and already have 4 bath/grooms including face, feet and F***y complete!!

Next time you are booking a grooming appointment for your dog and the groomer is booked out, whether it be 2 to 3 week or 2 to 3 months, I want you to remember a few things:

~Groomers put up with a lot.
~We are overworked.
~We are generally and genuinely underappreciated.
~We push our bodies to the brink.
~Our work is intensive and laborsome.
~We can only groom so many dogs in a day.
~We are artists with a special skill that not everyone has.
~A lack of prior planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on our part.
~It is hair. It grows back.
~Grooming is expensive. We already know it costs more than your haircut. You do not get your entire body shaved and you certainly do not p**p on your hairdresser or bite them.
~There will never be enough groomers to keep up with the amount of dogs needing services in this country.
~If you treat your groomer poorly, they can and will fire you as a client. 💯
~We treat your dogs like our own and love your dogs like our own.
~We cannot ever promise you that nothing bad will ever happen. That isn't a promise we can keep. But we CAN promise to always handle any situation that arises appropriately and quickly.
~This career takes an immense level of passion and compassion.
~Grooming is a fulfilling and wonderful career full of beautiful moments.

Most importantly, I want to remind you that you can be the bright spot in that groomers day. YOU can be the difference between them being accused of being an awful person and being the person to make them smile. Please be kind. Your groomer is doing the very best that they can every minute of every day.

Feel free to share ❤️🐾✂️🐩

“What’s it like to be a dog groomer?”

Someone asked me this today.

In my head I thought:

“Have you ever thought of adding hair to a 3 year old child’s face that covers their eyes and mouth and then holding them by their jaw hair while coming at them with the sharpest scissors known to man and you can’t cut their eyes or nose off but they don’t understand what you want? But you can get sued if you cut them, even if they’re suicidal. Then people wanna tell you, you charge too much, while you have to p*e and dogs are barking when people walk in, but people wanna talk to you and you can’t hear them because the dogs are barking but you don’t wanna be rude but you can’t handle the dogs barking because you know when they leave the dogs will stop barking, then when you get off work you have hair pierced in your skin that oozes out between the webbing of your fingers and a permanent strand of golden retriever hair that has been stuck in your eyeball since April. Your shoes are wet, you smell like a**l glands. You lost your appetite because you pulled ticks off a dog and you have Mrs. Jones mad because you don’t have an opening for her dog you haven’t seen since August, so she tells you you’re heartless and don’t care about dogs and then the hot water heater breaks down and a dog knocks over the last gallon of shampoo right at the time you were about to turn a decent profit but you’re booked out and don’t wanna raise your prices because you’re afraid your business will fail so you wait til you absolutely can’t wait to raise them and then you have a new illegal uninsured hobby groomer open up down the road that charges half your current rate but you know they won’t be around long because it happens all the time and they can hardly do a mile’s worth of dogs because there’s a groomer shortage but you still think you’re not gonna be able to pay the bills because you had 2 cancellations that went to them with no time to fill it. You hire staff to help the load and then taxes eat you alive. You get a message that one of your favorite clients passed away at the same time you get a call from someone excited about their new puppy, then you smell p**p because the dog that you just finished decided it couldn’t wait any longer for their parents to pick up and they DEFINITELY need another bath, but they bite for the dryer and your shoulder gave out when you were holding them last time.”

But I said “It’s amazing”

And I meant it. ❤️

There’s a lot of “bad” that comes with our job, but if you focus on the good.. and set boundaries you’ll love this life.

The moments when you earn a dog’s trust with a little “shhshhhzzzzhh” with thinning shears at the eyes.

The moments when the clients tip you double or bring you gifts for no reason. The educated clientele base that values your work, listens to your recommendations and tells all their friends how much you’re worth it.

The times where someone has to cancel and doesn’t even hesitate to pay the bill without even being reminded of the policies. Even when you’re nice about it and tell them no it’s okay, they still tip too.

The moments when you know it’s the last few grooms with a senior pet that trusts you even with their painful joints.

Earning the trust of a dog that used to bite you.

Knowing some elderly people don’t have many friends but they look forward to that little chat with you while they drop off their best friend for a spa day.

Puppies. The good part about puppies.. not the chaos 🤣

The pride. The art. The joy. ❤️

The moments when clients respect you because you respect yourself. The moment they call you a magician. The moment the kids come with for pick up and they tell you “I love it”. You know a kid’s not lying 🤣

We don’t take care of ourselves. Mentally, physically or emotionally. This is an industry epidemic that I don’t co-sign on. Charge what you have to, do your best, stay in your lane and enjoy the ride.