Bad groomer tales...

Alysser - of course there are plenty of good groomers out there and I'm sure that they far outnumber the bad. Right now - it's just finding one that I feel comfortable with after the other 2 incidents that I mentioned. I never had a problem with my old groomer until she took on new people and then I had the incident of the probable sedation and leg injury there, so that ended it for me. And altho I never personally had a problem at Petsmart, just knowing what my DIL witnessed there, was enough for me to not go back there again.
I have found a very promising possibility tho. There is a girl locally that has a mobile grooming service - she has a van fully equipped as a grooming salon - self contained water, water heater, hydrobath, etc, etc. and she comes to the house and works right in the driveway. I thought she must be pretty expensive, so I emailed her with all pertinent info about my poochies and requested a rate quote. She emailed me back, and I was rather surprised that she's not all that expensive, considering all that she does, which is more than just the cut, bath and dry. If the shops did what she does, then they would add extra for every extra thing that they do, and it would jack the price way up anyway. Plus she gives a 2 dog discount. Myndi is getting older and kind of stresses when she goes to the shops, so this might work out - plus I don't have to take them there, go to pick them up, and they don't have to be caged. It's not a definite, but I've read good reviews about her, and will meet with her beforehand before I make any decision. There is still a shop in town I want to check out, and I'll ask my vet for any recommendations too.
I just never expected that I would have to be in a position of such caution. It's a shame that a few bad apples spoil the whole barrel! :(

I'm very skeptical when I hear horror stories. I've been grooming professionally for over 4 years now. I've been working out of my house for a couple of months now but before that I worked at the busiest grooming parlour in the valley. One year we were doing 40 dogs a day and 60 dogs a day in the winter time, and became known as the place to deal with "problem dogs." All of the vets in town recommended us for senior and difficult dogs. We had people fly in their dogs from Alberta and Washington.

And even with how busy we were and how many thousands of clients we had, many people still said bad things about us. Our building was torn down in May due to someone buying the land to build condos. However, many of our clients heard from other people that it was because we "had to shut down because we are too abusive." It's sad to hear things like this, because we dealt with some really difficult dogs who were kicked out of several other parlours in town, and really had to work with them to make them good.

Of course many people would walk in the door just as a dog was screaming and assume we were beating it. Unfortunatly many dogs put up a huge fuss for nail clipping, blowdrying, ear plucking, etc. We've done dogs that could only be done when they were completely put under at the vet, and we absolutely refused to sedate any of the animals, so yes, every day we dealt with dogs that screamed and bit and basically freaked out because they had a rough start somewhere else, were genetically strange dogs, or were very old and senile.

So not every groomer is bad just because of something you hear. We've heard things over the years from our clients that we just had to laugh at. Literally hundreds of times we heard how "the last groomer just shaved him off for no reason." 99% of the time, these are dogs that are consistently matted, and we absolutely tortured some poor dogs dematting them because their owners swore up and down that the dogs were not matted, and then they wonder why their dog is so afraid to come in to be groomed, so they think we must abuse it.
And, groomers make mistakes. Every groomer has cut dogs. It just happens. The dog zigs when you zag, the dog pushes itself into the blade while you are scissoring, etc. Sometimes it's the groomer's fault, sometimes it's the dog's fault. Sometimes dogs fall off tables. Sometimes they literally try to. I've had dogs fling themselves off my table while I'm working on them and I'm surprised they didn't break their neck. A dog shouldn't be left on a table unsupervised. You should always have someone there to watch if you have to leave your table. One time, I was grooming a malamute and the front legs on the table buckled and the whole table collapsed, I literally leapt forward to try to catch the dog so it wouldn't hit the ground, and instead was pushed to the ground by the dog and I landed on both of my elbows. Of course there had to be clients in when that happened. We didn't know the table was broken.
And old dog fits...basically an older dog's heart will skip a beat and it's almost like they have a seizure in their mind. They just start SCREAMING. The only way to stop it is to hold the mouth shut so it can't hear itself, and turn off all noise. This usually happens during the blowdry. It looks like we're torturing it..it sounds like it... but if you don't hold the mouth shut while it screams, the dog will literally scare itself to death.
So sometimes not everything is what it seems. When you deal with problem dogs, old dogs, and new puppies on a regular basis, it can seem very chaotic. But we loved the dogs and we did our best with them, and when people would say bad things, we knew it was because we were doing some difficult because we never hurt a dog on purpose.

On the other hand, there are bad groomers, plain and simple. I know from co-workers going to work elsewhere. One lady in town gets high on crack before she grooms. She kicked a small dog down the stairs. My co-worker saw this. Another lady lets her big dogs run loose with her client dogs, and occasionally they will attack the client dogs. She was seen kicking a chihuhua across the room. Two of my co-workers saw this.
And the rest I hear is just rumors, so not sure if it's true. I have heard that one lady leaves her dogs on the table to stand for hours at a time with no break. I know of one place that broke a dog's leg, and one place that got so much water in a dog's lungs it was in pretty bad condition for a while, coughing up blood, etc.
You'll hear horror stories about every place, you just have to make your own decisions! :)

Agreed, Wolfsoul, with everything you said. Unless you are a professional groomer with years of experience (or a professional in any other business, for that matter) you do NOT know what really goes on and what is simply not true.

Everyone repeats the one or two horror stories they hear ... about ANY business. However, I believe, that for every horror story you hear, you DON'T hear about the thousand postive experiences. Those just don't make the news.

Today we groomed a chihuahua mix. He screamed bloody murder the entire time he was there ... and of course his owner couldn't pick him up for hours and hours. Was he hurt? Mistreated? Upset? No ... he just screamed. Wagging his tail, quite happy ... but screaming like we were skinning him alive.

I appreciate the input of the groomers.

As I previously posted, I'm certain that the good, far outnumber the bad, just as I'm certain that there are many fabricated and exaggerated stories told by the naysayers. And of course, the bad, be it true or not, are always the stories you hear about, and seldom the good.

The 2 incidents I stated in my OP however, are true, and they obviously have made me gun shy. I could no longer take my dogs to either of the 2 previous groomers with any confidence that they would be treated properly. Finding a new one I can trust is going to take some work on my part, but I know that I will find someone eventually.