# PetsMart Grooming



## cbrand (Aug 9, 2009)

I think it all depends on the groomer. My neighbor gets her Standard groomed at Petco (like Petsmart) and they do a nice job. Of course he is in a Miami so maybe this is just an easier trim, though they do a nice job on his bracelets.


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## Kerplunk105 (Oct 4, 2010)

I called petsmart and talked with one of the groomers. Apparently, the $14 is only for a Lab type breed that only needs a bath. I guess the girl last night didnt know what she was talking about. :doh: :wacko:

For the price they are charging, I'm going to just try and take her to a private place.


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## yigcenuren (May 3, 2009)

If the price they are charging is similar to what a professional/private groomer is charging I'd ask around and go with the place that has the most experience with poodles. Ask for references if you can, or if you know of another poodle owner or even just see a nice one in your area, ask them where they go.


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## Spencer (Oct 7, 2009)

I was charged $60 for a shave down on my toy/small mini poodle. This, after being told it would be no more than $35. Talk about shock.


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## Kerplunk105 (Oct 4, 2010)

yigcenuren said:


> If the price they are charging is similar to what a professional/private groomer is charging I'd ask around and go with the place that has the most experience with poodles. Ask for references if you can, or if you know of another poodle owner or even just see a nice one in your area, ask them where they go.


Thats a good idea! I'll have to ask if I see any around.

Since she's obviously going to have to be groomed for her lifetime, I don't want her first experience to be traumatic!


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## neVar (Dec 25, 2009)

Oh i've had the sticker shock too- when we were selling the house Kiah my aussie (who was what 5 months at the time? maybe 6 months) had an oops in her kennel. Not wanting to get the tub FILTHY with a showing later that morning i swung her by petsmart (where someone i know grooms) the $30 qoute turned into $50 and all it was was a bath and dry (It was clearly pointed out that scissors were NOT to touch my dog) 

Like any groomer you'll be hit and miss on who you get. If go there and are happy with teh groom make sure you get the person's name. What they know when they come out is VERY basic stuff.


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## Fluffyspoos (Aug 11, 2009)

I work at Petco, and I now get all the poodle and bichon clients because the other groomers are afraid to touch them, rofl. I don't mind, obviously, since I know what I'm doing, but REALLY, it's hit and miss. If I groomed a poodle at my store, it would look nice, if one of the other groomers did one.. it wouldn't look as good. Same store, same price, different grooms.


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## Feralpudel (Jun 28, 2010)

I have a friend with poodles in Malvern. She grooms her own, but may know of good shops in the area if you want me to ask.


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## Kerplunk105 (Oct 4, 2010)

Feralpudel said:


> I have a friend with poodles in Malvern. She grooms her own, but may know of good shops in the area if you want me to ask.


Yes, please ask! Thank you!!


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## buttercup123 (Oct 7, 2010)

It's such a hit and miss I wouldn't bother especially with the horror stories I've heard. With the price you really get what you pay for so just keep that in mind. If you can you shouldn't let price influence your decision ( not possible with everyone I know).


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## Kerplunk105 (Oct 4, 2010)

Price actually doesn't really matter since I'm not paying for it lol

I found a place I used a few years ago for another SDIT poodle. She's doing in on Friday!


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## Aidan (Mar 4, 2009)

I would call around..as for groomers who HAVE poodles or at the very least specialize in them.

Ask what products they use. You can tell a lot about a groom shop if they use quality products and different products for DIFFERENT coats.

For instance I don't use the same shampoo or conditioner on a australian shepherd that i would use on a standard poodle!

Since i've been using Isle of Dogs products on my poodles i wont use anything else and if I were to have someone groom/bathe my dogs i'd make sure they used quality products as well.

I worked at a Petco and most of the grooming was terrible. Most of the groomers never did any kind of research outside work on new grooming techniques, or even knew how shampoo/conditioner worked..and didn't make it work for the coat they were working on. It was just a paycheck for them..get as many in and out as possible!

Not every petco or petsmart will be like that..it's so random that you'll never get an honest answer really. They also usually have pretty high turn over..so your favorite groomer might not be there the next time you want to have your dog groomed. I started at Petco but eventually wanted somethign that offered me more of a challenge..and wanted to work around people who enjoyed grooming and didn't just want the paycheck at the end of the week.


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## HOTW (Aug 31, 2010)

I worked at a corporate salon as a grooming manager and was a satellite trainer for the area. THey quote low and throw extras at you and are supposed to explain the price but don't. It leads to a lot of issues with clinets.

The groomers vary just as you would find in private salons, it all depends on their training, ability, desire to learn. The large coprorations ahve the attitude anyone can groom I know for a fact from teaching it isn't true! The biggest issue with corporate salons is the high turnover, mostly from groomer dissatisfaction in the working environment and they usually lose the good groomers!

A big issue si the fact that a lot of people today do not understand the concept of "paying your dues" and expect to be as good as the person who has been working in their profession for 20 years. So if they don't get as mnay clients right away they make the working environment miserable for all. 

As with any groomer you have to go check them out and anytime you see a well groomed dog about town ask where they go. People who have a good experience are usually quite faifthful and wil go out of their way to send you to their groomer.


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## CharismaticMillie (Jun 16, 2010)

My mom always took Henry to PetsMart. The lady owns a standard poodle and did a very good job on Henry. However, she recently cancelled on me twice in one week. The first time was emergency dental surgery involving her grandson. No biggie, I rescheduled. But then the rescheduled appt. was cancelled, apparently. I never recieved her message so I showed up at 7 am for his appt. and was told she wasn't coming in. Apparently she had called 3 days earlier on Wed. and left a message canceling for an "emergency" with her nephew on Friday. I'm sorry, but that's not an emergency. That's a scheduling conflict. Regardless, leaving one message is NOT sufficient when cancelling an early morning appt. The second time was unacceptable so I found a new groomer for Henry. I take him to a private place that does just as good of a job and charges less. 

Millie goes to a private groomer as well. This lady charges only $60 for a CC. She has shown/championed 3 standard poodles and does grooming competitions. When I took Millie to PetsMart, they charged $84.00 and did a FAR inferior job!!!!!!!!!!


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## Kerplunk105 (Oct 4, 2010)

She's going to a place tomorrow that I took a dog to years ago. She did a good job then. She seemed to really care about how Lily's experience will be.


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## BellaDella (Sep 25, 2010)

*PetSmart Grooming*

Definitely depends on the groomer. My very good friend who owned & operated her own grooming and kennel years ago, now works at a PetSmart as the head groomer. She is the very best at what she does. I was lucky that she wasn't working at PetSmart when Bella came to live with us. She would come to my house and for $15, she would groom Bella, who only weighed 4 lbs at the time and was a young pup. One day she told me that she couldn't come over anymore (something in her PetSmart contract that she can't groom outside of PetSmart). Since her store was so far away I chose to go to the local PetSmart and I requested the head groomer, my first mistake because I should have driven to my friend's PetSmart. I think it was $65.00. I also chose PetSmart because unlike the local groomers that I had called, I could walk in for the appt and wait. I watched from behind the glass, Bella was gone in a back room (wash room) for nearly two hours. But I kept reminding myself it was better than her being in a backroom for several hours and tried to keep calm. When she came out of that back room she looked nearly dry and was frantic. My heart leapt. I can't say for sure but I believe that they put her in a cage dryer :nonosince my friend said that they don't have any other dryers in the back room). Bella was done pretty quickly from there on and I was watching but only for the last 35 minutes or so. *We left and never went back.* Bella had these little balls of clumped fur under her arms that i had to cut out once I got home, thus my belief of the cage dryer. That's the day I ordered all the grooming supplies from PetEdge and started to do it myself. 

As a side note: We women make an appt at the beauty salon, we walk in, wait a few minutes, get washed, cut, styled and leave. I don't understand why it can't be the same for dogs. I am sure that there are groomers out there that follow the same but when I called a few recommended groomers here where I live, all of them said the same thing, drop off early morning, pick up in the late afternoon or evening. So I went to PetSmart... Forgot to mention that the head groomer told me she owns Standard Poodles.

I realize not everyone can groom or wants to groom their own dog. But for me it's the ONLY way to go. I look forward to it and feel so great after. I play soothing classical music and give lots of breaks and we're both happy.


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## Kerplunk105 (Oct 4, 2010)

I ended up taking her to a really great place. The ladies were so nice. I dropped her off at 9 and picked her up around 12:30.


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## Aidan (Mar 4, 2009)

When a dog comes in at 8am I usually can get the dog out by 10..but it does depend how many clients I have coming in that early.

I try to bathe 1-2 dogs..sometimes three if one is just a bath dog..or one that can be cage dried...like a jack russell or something. Then I groom the first one that came in and usually done within an hour or two from the time the dog was dropped off.

There is simply no reason for a dog to be dropped off at 8 and then not picked up till 4pm. If a customer wants to drop off early for some reason (work) and im booked in the morning then I explain that your dog will not be ready until XX time..and I offer to give potty breaks and such.


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## flyingduster (Sep 6, 2009)

There is two types of shop groomers, there's the ones that do each dog straight through, one at a time and each dog goes home when it's done and the next one bought in etc.

Then there's the sort that gets multiple dogs dropped off first thing in the morning, to be done through the day. This latter method can have two versions, one where there's a morning lot that is all collected at midday, and have the next lot dropped off to do in the afternoon, or another version that has the entire days worth dropped in the morning with no pickup/drop off in the middle of the day.

Now, the thing with dogs is that it's a TON easier if there's one set drop-off time at 8am (or whenever), and then not be disturbed for the rest of the morning with trying to check-in and check-out each dog! See, with dogs, in comparison to hairdressers, I can't leave them on the bench while I'm checking in and out other dogs, so continually having to stop, put the dog down/away sort out a customer, and re-start the dog again etc etc is really disruptive and unproductive!

BUT, in saying all of that, I still personally do enjoy doing each dog straight through and sending it home. I have a lot of working clients who drop off in the AM and pick up at lunch time or the end of the day, but the ones that can come any time, I get them to drop off at their appointment time and pick up when finished. But to *require* a dog to be dropped off at 8am and left until 4pm is a bit harsh IMO...

And I totally disagree with cage drying curly coated breeds... lol

Kerplunk, how did it go!?? I bet she looks great!


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## Kerplunk105 (Oct 4, 2010)

flyingduster said:


> Kerplunk, how did it go!?? I bet she looks great!


She looks great!! I'll post pictures later today hopefully. 

Thanks for asking.


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## BellaDella (Sep 25, 2010)

Kerplunk, 
So happy to hear that all went well at PetSmart! Looking forward to the pics.


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## grab (Jun 1, 2010)

Not petsmart, but Newt is off at Petco getting a modified continental. I've never had her groomed there (I go to a private groomer that is pretty close to my home, but they're ridiculously hard to get a hold of) but one of the longstanding groomers (has been there for years) happened by with her standard poodle..who was both lovely and charming, and in a splendid full continental..banded topknot and all. After assuring that she'd done the trim, we got Newt an appt. Her jacket area won't be as long, since we're growing out from the Miami, but she'll have a nice pattern to go by and grow out into, I think


Newt hates being left places, so she was looking a little woeful. But, I'm sure she'll do just fine


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