I’ve come to notice while grooming there are days that I feel like one of the best groomers in my salon, and others that make me feel like I have no idea what I’m doing. Some days I look at the dogs on their way out and just think, “wow, I’m really kind of good at this!”, and then even the next day, I might think ” wow, that really just doesn’t look right to me…” But it seems, no matter how I feel about what I send out the door, the owners are always ecstatic. Although I might not feel one hundred percent about how the dog came out, as long as the eyes are clean and the tail is up, what’s going on in between doesn’t matter as much as I think it does.
This monday it will be one year that I’ve been grooming at Petsmart. And there are owners that step back and criticize every inch of their creature, asking me to fix one spot or take the chin a bit shorter, and there are some dogs that hairs sticking out on his legs when he leaves the salon is a way of life, because he is not letting the scissors get that close to his precious toes. I think I’ve learned more in this year than I did in some semesters of college, and I’ve enjoyed it a lot more. For that, I have my associates at Petsmart to thank, but no one has been more instrumental in my education or my confidence with grooming than Dara. She’s seen more dogs that I’ve done lately, having a few months’ gap between seeing what I could do, and nothing makes me feel better than when she tells me how cute that dog looks that I just sent home 
With the continuing education available in the field, the opportunity for creative expression and the joy of making dogs and owners happy, I think I’ve found my spot in the world. I can deal with any person when there is a four legged creature between us, and I feel like I can deal with most four legged creatures no matter how sharp their teeth are.
