work

Work has been going fairly smoothly, despite a few bad dog bites, minor disasters, and outraged customers, etc, etc. There's another mandatory meeting coming up soon, and I'm going to have to talk to my managers about that.

The other day someone brought in his high strung Belgian Malinois for a nail trim and file. I trimmed down the nails quickly and started up the electric file to start grinding the nails when I realized I'd clipped one too short and it was bleeding... and bleeding and bleeding. By the time I finally stopped the blood flow there seemed to be blood everywhere. And meanwhile the owner was standing right there watching! He didn't complain when I gave him his ticket to take up to the front register to pay, and when he came back to get his dog, he gave me a $5 tip! I'm not sure if he felt sorry for me or what exactly.

Unfortunately my work station is just opposite my manager's, which is right at the very front of the salon where all the customers come in. Groomers are supposed to check in "their" dogs, but more often than not I'm checking in and checking out a whole lot of dogs that aren't "mine", and on a busy day that can put me way behind schedule. We cannot leave a dog unattended on the grooming table, which means that for each of these people I have to take my dog down and tether it near the wall, and sometimes I can literally put the dog on and off the table over a dozen times! Of course, I could ignore all these customers and make some of the other groomers come up to the front, but the customers don't know if I'm running behind, and as far as they can tell I'm just standing there ignoring them.

I actually do usually enjoy my job, even on the chaotic days. It's satisfying to turn a messy dog into something the owners are visibly very pleased about, and I kind of like working under deadlines.

Sorry there's no pictures this time... I'll try to update again later this week with some photos.