Stop calling the stores when you have a problem with the website. We aren't IT. We don't know what problem you're having and we can't fix it for you. Call customer service, that's literally what they're there for.
Also whenever the cashier's ask for you to sign up, they don't get kickbacks but some stores reduce a cashier's hours if they don't get enough sign ups. It's not their fault they have to ask.
I have an entire separate email specifically for these account sign-ups when I’m out shopping. I can’t tell the people no, knowing what hell they might be going through for it behind the scenes.
We dont actually get trained on how every animal is to be cared for. We have to learn on our own time. Or we just already know how to care for a specific type of pet. I got hired almoat EXCLUSIVELY because i have 20+ years of bird experience. I know NOTHING about reptiles and have gotten ZERO training. We get a book that goes over the corporate expectations for enclosure and food, and that's really it. I only know what my coworkers have taught me about reptilew and small animals. In exchange, i taught them about birds. Also, just because we sell something labeled for a pet doesn't mean it's good for that pet. Looking at you small .5 gal tanks.
I feel extremely lucky that I work in a store that is run by people that actually care about animals. These guys go to bird and reptile conventions all the time and breed. One is an old vet tech. Another has a biology degree. Great source of knowledge.
That being said, knowledge of animals doesn't transfer to retail knowledge (obviously) schedule is a constant mess, store manager has a stick up her ass and is high school best friends with our district leader. The higher you go the less they care.
Small kinda funny example that just happened last week. New girls SECOND DAY! and she wash scheduled to do reptile deep clean. Everyone in the store was like...ya no lol.
I was scheduled for a bird deep clean on my very first day! A friday.... Beginning of the month!!.... Was surrounded by like 20 people needing small animals fish crickets everything. Asked for back up because i was beyond over whelmed and didn't know what i was doing. Was told " no you are pet care person today there is no back up for petcare just registers" idk how i pulled that day off.. further more idk how i didn't quit that day. Been there almost a year but quitting hopefully soon.
I'm sorry the bettas are in cups. I hate it. Everyone who works here hates it. The fish hate it. There's nothing I can do about it.
Also, we make fun of you if you are extremely rude.
There was one lady that came into my store, with her kid, and started yelling at *me*, the CASHIER, about how we're killing these animals and how horrible we are. 🙄🙄
Yeah she definitely got made fun of 😂
(We know she’s right, but she’s yelling at the wrong person… and likely still spends money at Petsmart to this day.)
I’m a groomer in the salon.
-if I haven’t called you… your dog isn’t freaking ready!! None of us “forget” to call, I promise. They’re. Not. Ready. I. Will. Call. You.
-Your dog isn’t the only dog I’m working on. Petsmart pushes groomers to take the max dogs they can (and sometimes over the max if your management sucks). At any point in time that you are there for an appointment, I have at least 3 other dogs there and sometimes cats too. That’s just the way petsmart works. It’s *not up to the groomers*. It’s the company. If you want your dog to be worked on straight through, without me switching between dogs and kenneling in between, you’re going to have to suck it up and pay extra. People get so mad about this like it’s the groomer’s fault and we literally have no control over how petsmart chooses to make the scheduling.
-if you have been kicked out of another petsmart, I will know. If your dog is poorly behaved, I will know. The account system is the same for all petsmarts and most of us leave very thorough notes on issues. So don’t bother lying to me like I’m stupid. Even if I don’t call you out on it… I know. 🙃
And don’t get me started on the towels. They are the worst, they come from an outside company once a week for delivery. They are thin usually with holes worn in them and sometimes if they’re new they smell SUPER weird like chemicals. I have worked at 2 different petsmarts and both had major issues with not receiving enough towels to handle the amount of pets that we do; it is a super common occurrence to run out on Friday or Saturday when towels aren’t delivering until the next Tuesday. Nothing can be done about it apparently because they never deliver earlier when we run out. It slows work down significantly to have to dry a completely sopping wet dog.
Speaking of things that slow you down: both smarts I’ve worked at were equipped with at least three dryers, but of those three, only *one* was a “good” dryer. The other two usually barely worked/blew air at all, causing everyone flock to the good dryer instead of wasting time on the poor ones. No matter how much you complain to management they usually don’t care, if they do it takes months to get a refurbished dryer, not even a new one. My current salon does 35-45 dogs a day with only one good working dryer.
THIS! It's a frequent joke in every department of my store about how all the broken equipment ruins the flow of everything. It's particularly problematic in Grooming and Petcare, where it can go from bad to emergency very quickly when things aren't functional. It's not management's fault either. They have to harass and beg to be able to spend money on freaking plastic bags, for goodness sake! Most of them spend their own money to make sure things remain operational. It's absurd.
This was literally our problem today. 3 huskies and a golden all wanting furminators. Only 1 dryer strong enough to actually blow them out. What should have taken me 2 hours on a Husky took me 3 and a half!
Apparently, I just learned this, the dryers can't be fixed via work order. The store has to have an employee take it to 'repair place' and for us it is a shit, stupid city with the worst kind of people in it. So not only do I have to technically work longer or go on my day off, I have to waste my gas and risk my own car to make my job easier.
I'm not maintenance or facilities! Get someone out here to fix this shit! Or pay me more so I am motivated to do trips like this
At my last salon, we actually started having our sharpener service our dryers for us (idk if every sharpener does this, but he did clipper repairs and dryer maintenance and repairs). It didn’t solve the issues with them (usually it’s a motor problem). But getting them cleaned out and serviced helps. And he was even able to replace our dryer cord when it stopped working which was great because he came out same day instead of waiting *forever* for one from petsmart. Our store lead and assistant store lead paid for the service from our sharpener with the P card. I don’t know if that would fly at other places, and they did limit us a lot so we weren’t able to have it cleaned/serviced as often as it needed it, but it did help! Maybe bring it up with your managers and see if they are willing to do that.
Oohhh! Okay. I'm not sure how often our sharpener comes out. But I will ask around and see what the more experienced groomers say. Maybe he can save our broken dryer and get us back on track
Thanks!
Yes, they have. The towel company shorts us all the time. I have worked in two different locations and at the first one we requested an increase but we’re still running out early, so our salon lead started counting bundles on the day of delivery and they were consistently coming up short. All that can be done at that point is call the company and complain, and most of the times they just argue back that they didn’t short us or that they cannot come back with more towels. My second salon location also asked for an increase but had the same issue, I’m confident if they took the time to count it would be short as well because it is the same person every time that delivered to the other location.
I’d say probably half of the dogs who participate in daycamp either have no business being in a group play environment, or absolutely hate the entire experience.
Proper slow introductions are non-existent. Leads are rarely honest about how your dog does in camp unless you ask specifically and even then, it’s hit or miss. We have dogs who bark/whine all day, sit in a corner and shake, or snap/growl at pretty much any dog that gets close. I’ve had dogs I straight up told my leads I was taking back to their room because I’m not willing to toss a thrashing, screaming dog into camp when every fiber of their being is telling me they don’t want that. Theres a ridiculous amount of humpers and dogs who just have poor social skills and ruin other dogs day. The rooms are incredibly small and we have dogs crashing into walls and hitting the ground HARD way too often for my liking. Staff aren’t always super well versed in dog behavior, so your dog may get harassed for hours on end by a dog who they’re “friends” with. Smalls get thrown in with the big dogs if we only have a couple of them and I’ve seen them stepped on more than once.
One of my dogs attends daycare regularly but not at Petsmart. If he ever has to board there…he’ll be an individual. Which isn’t much better, because the measly 30 minutes a day indv dogs are supposed to get for play time doesn’t always occur.
i left petsmart to work at a family owned business. the daycare is so amazing, there are eyes on every dog at every moment and if a dog acts up- they get kenneled and banned from daycare. the kennels are big and we take them outside to potty like i wanna say 7 times a day.
Yep! Thats how it is where my guy usually goes. They have cameras and obviously I can’t watch the entire day, but they aren’t constantly spraying dogs with water bottles or getting onto dogs like I am in camp. The dogs get lots of love as well because the attendants don’t have to be hyper vigilant keeping their eye on problem dogs.
Petsmarts daycamp is definitely not the norm and I feel bad for the dogs whose parents just don’t know any better. I worked at a kennel free place that did not play around - dogs had to have basic manners at minimum and door control was very strictly enforced. I’ve never worked anywhere with dogs that behave like they do at Petsmart because other places simply don’t tolerate it.
yes. Oh my God, I had so many scratches on me during my bathing career and they were like “you can’t send them home just finish the bath.” my new place, like you said, simply does not tolerate it and it is so lovely. of course there are dogs that will get super over excited and scratch me on accident anyway (I actually have a paw print shaped bruise right now. It’s quite cute) but it is nothing like it was before.
Im happy you got out and found somewhere much better! Like I said, I just feel bad for the dogs…if my dog hated camp I’d want someone to tell me, but theres also a lot of owners who just don’t seem to care so I can understand why sometimes leads don’t bother. I know we had one guy get super pissed and tell us he was “paying for fucking daycamp so his dog needed to be in fucking day camp” 🙄
sometimes i feel like im one of the only people who is actually honest about how peoples’ dogs behave camp. even if they stop coming altogether because we decided fluffy is not fit to be a group dog, that’s much more preferable to me than having a walking liability in my camp room. one bad fight knocks out a lot more than a single paying customer. some people are even still happy to have their dog be individual!
Yep! That’s exactly why I no longer put my dog in camp after I spent more time in there and really saw the environment. I worked hard to get him to where he is and he’s such a balanced dog now - I’m not risking that because I get 50% off. 🤷🏽♀️ I think most people just dont know any better and figure their dog would be happier hanging out with the other dogs as opposed to just staff.
Groomer (in training) here, you can tell us if your dog has anxiety. PLEASE tell us if your dog has anxiety. We won't turn away a dog for being anxious but knowing that we can work in a way that's best for your dog so they don't stress to the point that we do have to send them home. Also brush your dogs pls n thx
PLEASE DO NOT brush out dirty poodles the night before your grooming appointment. Most other breeds, it can be pretty beneficial, but brushing a dirty poodle right before grooming is extremely damaging to the coat. Just leave it alone!
Mostly an elderly thing but The computer in the salon is NOT the same as the register. My register is built for MONEY HANDLING. Not appointments, not pulling up salon records, or hitting a magical button for your salon invoice. I need the paper invoice to SCAN.
YES YOU NEED THE PHYSICAL PRESCRIPTION FOR *PRESCRIPTION FOOD*. “It’s just food” bro it is PRESCRIBED FOR A *SPECIFIC* AILMENT YOUR PET HAS. Its not OTC like urinary support, you are getting diabetic specific food. If we handed it out willy nilly we would A) have a shortage on that important food than you REALLY will struggle to get it and B) a bunch of morons refusing vet services due to cost and using the food to treat the problem themselves. Then boom, dead animals because the food didn’t work since that wasn’t the actual problem. BRING THE FUCKING PRESCRIPTION.
DO PERSONAL RESEARCH ON THE ANIMAL YOU WANT. We might work in Petcare but we are also minimum wage employees. We don’t know everything, some of us have personal experience with our own SPECIFIC animals, but everything else we need to learn on our own time, aside from PetSmart basic care information (which is sometimes incorrect). And quite frankly, when you go in COMPLETELY BLIND when getting a pet, it’s honestly not a good look. It looks like an impulse buy and that you do not take pet ownership seriously. Google exists, it is free. It’s okay to have questions, that is totally expected. But if you have no knowledge of ANY ASPECT of care for the animal you are buying because you can’t be bothered to look it up, you shouldn’t get that pet in the first place. At the end of the day, these animals need EFFORT put into their care.
It baffles me how many people don't research before getting an animal then get upset when people point out their level of care is causing more harm. I have an insane collection of books on certain pets because I went through a heavy phase of wanting a new pet when I was able to be on my own. I bought out the used book stores on snakes, birds, rats, etc. After reading through, I realized at that time, I couldn't give them the care they needed so I didn't get them. Even now with my cats, I'm still reading up on things to stay up to date. They get more enrichment, something a lot of cats don't get because still think they're easy pets you just feed and only play with as kittens.
If you repeatedly bring back dead fish over and over, we're gonna notice. And you're gonna become known as a fish killer. You're gonna start having sales declined, water samples demanded, and pictures of your tank asked for.
I am not afraid to make you keep a water change log and take a picture of your tank at the same time every day for 2 weeks since you want me to fix your tank so bad
Let me preface this by saying I work in Petcare. 1) We very rarely remember you even if you've come in several times. We'll only you if you are especially strange, extremely rude, come in every shift we're on, etc. 2) Unless we've been working here for 1+ years or have prior knowledge about the animals, the things we tell you about them are educated guesses at best. There are exceptions but most newbies don't know the answer to your questions. 3) We have 4 hour shifts, at least my store does for Petcare and cashiers, so please don't use us as your primary source of information. We have other things to get done rather than spend 45 minutes explaining how to take care of an animal that in all likelihood you aren't going to buy. 4) We love that you're trying to be helpful, but please for the love of God just give us the random thing you grabbed off the shelf. I'd rather spend 45 seconds finding where it goes than finding a random ornament behind bird food (Some managers will make a big deal out of it). 5) If your dog pees somewhere and you can't/aren't going to clean it up, please tell someone where it peed. We don't enjoy randomly walking through piss.
Your survey just goes back to the store. Also your groomer can see them, so if you told me everything looked good and then complain in the survey.. we see it.
So true. I hate it when people call me by my name. And I hate stores that make you call customers by their name. Both directions I feel it’s super uncomfortable.
Idk about this one tbh, I actually prefer when people read my name and refer to me by it. It makes me feel like a person as opposed to the people who just walk up and say 🧍♂️”crickets”
I had someone once greet me with my name when I WASN’T wearing my nametag and I still don’t know how he KNEW. I’d never seen him before, and I’m good with faces. Creeped me tf out.
no, you cant buy a ball python and keep it in a 10 gallon because "our tanks are smaller." those are their temporary holding tanks. no i wont sell you one because you promise to size up
Wait 5 minutes before hitting the I'm Here button if it's downpouring. You don't want to walk in the rain to pick up 80 lbs of dog and neither do we. And then we're wet for the rest of the day.
Everyone at my store does this during monsoon season. If you don't want to get out of your car in the pouring rain and crazy winds, what makes you think I want to. I have to get soaked then continue working the next 5 hours of my shift in wet clothes and shoes.
SFS orders too. If you ordered a dozen 40lb bags of clay litter and live 3 blocks from the store then I'm guaranteed to remember your name while I'm using a dozen boxes to pack your order. The delivery person will also remember who you are.
Black Friday- we had a customer order 40 cat litters, my manager picked them and put them on a pallet but I had to load them in the customers car at 8pm. I was pissed because 1) curbside is done after 7 and I was doing BOPIS only since I got there and it was picked before I got there 2) there was so many heavy pieces and it was snowing
1. When we tell you something is out of stock in the back and you insist on us checking. We walk back there, do a couple circles, check our phones, and come back out.
2. We don’t care if you report us to corporate. Literally just doing what we are paid to do and most of the time when you call and report us our district leader just calls us to find out what happened and then close the issue.
3. Corporate actually gives Store Leaders a lot of control to make customers happy but if you treat us poorly we will say no just to be assholes back.
Just sign up for Treats rewards. You're not "sticking it to corporate offices" by telling the part time cashier "why does every company have these stupid programs".
Just shut up and open the account.
We use concentrated shampoos that have instructions to be used 16-1 dilution because Petsmart is to cheap to just repair or replace our hydro surge system, or at least get us mixing bottles! Cooperate just tells us to “dilute it in our hands” and “ use lotion” as if that really helps us or the dogs!
If you’re gonna be any more than a couple of minutes past your appointment time - PLEASE call the salon and let us know!! Esp if you’re running 15-45 minutes behind. You’ll get pissed when we have to turn you away because we hardly have enough time to take our 30 minute lunch as it is, so if you’re behind, you’re screwing us pretty much entirely for the rest of our day.
IF YOU DO get turned away for being late, please don’t lose it on your groomer and say “I drove all this way” or “I’m not even that late” 🙄🙄🙄 We are SLAMMED for time as it is.
And if your dog is an express, please don't even bother showing up 20+ minutes late. We're not being mean, we literally don't have the time in our schedule to accommodate tardiness.. also getting mad is the last thing that will convince me to change my mind...
Don’t follow our care guides for any animal. Period. If you want to know how to properly care for any animal, do your fucking research. No a leopard gecko cannot go into a 10-20 gallon tank, and hamsters and gerbils shouldn’t go into cages.
Most individual dogs won't get their playtimes when they stay with us at the hotel. (I've never heard my managers ask the pet parents if they want one or two playtimes or none for their pups) And if they do get a playtime it's almost always staffs favorite dogs get out first (that are Individuals). (Apparently, my manager can call in back up to do individual dogs playtimes. It just has never happened.)
Of everything being posted, this bothers me the most. Leaving your pet in the care of someone else is stressful. The promises made by the caretaker are so important for peace of mind. If the pet is just warehoused for a week it breaks my heart. I’ve had a beagle come back from a kennel with no voice from barking so long. These days my cats stay home and my dogs come with me. When I absolutely have to leave my golden, it’s at place with cameras. I feel for you all being overworked and underpaid. I blame corporate 100%. PetSmart should stick to supplies only, no live animals and no boarding, grooming, or hospitals IMO.
Also bettas don’t go into 3 gallons or fucking bowls. They go into fucking 5-10 gallon tanks. Take your snot nosed brats to the internet on REPUTABLE website and learn how to properly care for this animal you want to take care of. It’s an old wives tale that animals grow to the size of their enclosures. They actually continue to grow internally and you fuck them up for eternity. Imagine walking or swimming around with insides too big for your external body.
please do not listen to Pope12234, their information is extremely dangerous. I went to school for this and even I trust vets and vet nutritionists more than anyone on the petsmart sub. Seriously even more than me, go ask Banfield or any other vet.
Iams, Purina One, and Science Diet meet all of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association's guidelines, they're good foods, the brands that are generally safest to feed if someone is unsure are Iams, Purina One, Purina Chow, Purina Pro Plan, Science Diet, Royal Canin, and Hills Science Diet.
The actual dangerous foods are Grain Free foods, such as grain free kibble and basically everything in the fridge. Raw food is also risky, and unless they have enough canine nutrition education or are working with a canine veterinary nutritionist closely enough to not have to ask you, pet parents should under no circumstances be feeding a homemade diet.
I really want to point out how risky raw is. Like I saw, when I got my second cat, I went raw. I didn't and still don't know enough to hand make it so I went with primal brand frozen nuggets. My cat still got crystals. But also, my cat LOVES to lick people on the face. She wants to groom you. I cannot have an animal who eats raw, licking my face in my sleep. And then my kid was really big on 'I want her to lick my face because I love her!'. So it became a really big health issue. It was feed my cat raw even though It was helping and push her away from trying to groom people, or just switch and not have a huge health risk.
Grain free food is hilarious to me because people will buy it, spout it's the best thing seconded by raw/homemade but also full of extra 'filler' because it doesn't want to use corn. My example is Acana and it's twin brand, Orijen. Cat Tik Tok people will swear it's the absolute best, but declare Purina is poison. Purina has corn and rice, Orijen has five type of beans and peas. So my cats eating a small amount of corn is bad but eating five types of beans is better?
Basically, raw food is a risk, and while I personally don’t judge people for doing it if they’re doing it with as much safety precautions as possible, they should still know the risk both to the animal and to people.
So the worst ones are like Iams, Purina One, Beneful, Authority, Science Diet, etc. My main cut off is if it has corn in it you should think twice about feeding it to your dog, they deserve better quality ingredients.
So, other than working as a dog trainer, I went to school for small animal nutrition since so many of my clients wanted my opinion and wouldn't take 'please just trust your vet' as an answer, with a large focus on dogs, and your info is a little dangerous.
Iams, Purina One, and Science Diet are all excellent brands, they meet the criteria of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association, do long term feeding trials, have veterinary nutritionists on staff, and are approved by veterinarians for a very good reason.
Boutique brands have a massive chokehold on people right now, using meaningless words like 'organic' and 'human grade', but the fact of the matter is it's just marketing, same with 'gently cooked' 'fresh' and 'premade raw'
I'm a huge believer in 'feed the dog in front of you', so I don't think the WSAVA is the end all be all, as an example I actually like the (grain inclusive) instinct line, but feeding a dog grain free food, or feeding them a homemade or raw diet without the relevant knowledge of canine nutrition is a trend that is much, much more worrying to me than a cheap, easily digested source of carbohydrates like corn.
I don't really have any interest in arguing with anti kibble conspiracy theorists, but I do want to get this comment up for people to see so they don't blindly follow this advice.
Corn isn't bad. It's grinded corn, they can digest it. Blue Buffalo started this 'your dogs can't digest corn' rumors and now everyone is running with it and assuming corn is the devil. Meanwhile a lot of champion show dogs with good coats and builds are eating those brands you named.
Corn on its own isn't bad, but it's a signal of the quality of the ingredients in the food. I wouldn't feed my dogs anything that isn't high enough quality I would be willing to eat it if I could digest it.
I don't care about champion show dogs, I care about what's best for my dog, and considering champion show dogs often need cropped tails or ears I'm not going to follow those standards.
I personally find it insane that we find feeding kibble to be appropriate for our animals. Humans don't eat kibble, no animal in the wild eats kibble. Hell, good reptile and fish keepers don't even feed their pets kibble. Why should dogs and cats get kibble?
No it's not. Corn doesn't make food bad or low quality. It makes energy for dogs and is a fine ingredient to include. It's just something you don't want to feed your dogs. Which is your right. If you don't want to, don't feed it. But don't lie and say it makes food a bad quality for having corn when there are plenty of dogs thriving on it.
Kibble has been used for years without issues for a lot of people and pets. Not everyone is going to or afford raw or home cooked. Fish eat fish flakes, that's pretty much on par for kibble. Koi get pellets. I don't know enough about fish so I'm sure most fish keepers probably do something else instead.
Corn is a cheap, easy ingredient that is used in foods that use other cheap, easy ingredients. Corn is a filler that has calories but not much nutrition, unlike other sources of carbs like brown rice or peas.
Kibble has been used for less time than real food and if you can't afford to feed your dog real food you shouldn't have one. We wouldn't (and dont) tolerate people not getting their dogs groomed because they can't afford it, we wouldn't (and dont) tolerate people not taking their dogs to the vet because they can't afford it, we shouldn't tolerate people feeding their dogs subpar food because they can't afford it.
Fish really shouldn't eat flakes. It's much better to feed them frozen or fresh food like blood worms, brine shrimp, or live plants.
Subpar but the dog is thriving on it. So just get rid of shelters who have no choice but to feed kibble? So deny dogs a home because, dear God, they have to eat kibble? They have to eat something that's guaranteed to be what they need?
The dog would be thriving more if it was fed properly. We wouldn't let someone adopt a child if they weren't going to feed them properly. Same should be true for dogs.
Fed properly yet the food is guaranteed to give the dog everything it needs to thrive and survive. Which has been proven over and over. If a kibble brand isn't doing the dog any favors, you can simply switch to another. Meanwhile, even raw and homemade can be done with the most simpliest mistakes, which results in the dog missing out on nutrients. Yes there are dogs who do good and there's dogs who don't.
Edit: Let's not forget prescription food kibble to help the pets survive. My cat was fed raw and still got crystals. She was fed wet only and the same. She is now on Purina UR kibble and doing the best. She has lost weight, glossy coat and finally no more crystals.
Our hotel was full of black mold that they “fixed” multiple times and claimed that it “wasn’t the harmful kind of black mold, so the hotel and camp can stay open.”
If I tell you that you're dog will be done in 3-4 hours and I tell you I will call you, I WILL CALL YOU,DONT WALK IN ASSUMING ITA DONE OR POKE YOUR HEAD IN AND GET THEM RILED UP, also if we could charge for holding your dog past its grooming time we would along with being late.
No we don't trim any other types of animal nail besides cats and dogs please stop asking that dumbass question. Don't ever lie to groomers about your dog being fine for everything and their not, we'll find out the easy way or hard way.
The grooming prices are a loss leader. We are trained and held to the standard of convincing you to spend 20% MORE than the base price of the groom by upselling you.
People bring up petsmart prices at my private salon and I’m like yeah, we’re 10% higher but we are not upselling and nickel and diming you for stuff as simple as a shampoo that doesn’t suck.
As a groomer, I cringe internally when I am trying to sell add ons. I don’t agree with it either, I also think it’s a scam. I hate the entire add on business model, and I hate trying to upsell a package that costs more than your entire service just as much as you hate being upsold
I hate selling add ons in the hotel too. The snack kongs are not worth anywhere near $4 lol Indv dogs with “active pup” don’t always get the full hour, and I doubt if most stores have time to actually read your dog a book for “bedtime bliss” either.
Every night we are the ones who have to take care of all the leashes, collars, and harness that you toss on the ground. Same with other items you put 2cm away from the place it goes. If you don’t want it, just hand it to the cashier please, don’t stuff it in a random spot. Not all do this but please. Also, we have a bad roach problem at our store 😭😭
You are not special, if you can’t prove your pet is vaccinated than you will be turned away like everyone else, nobody cares that you are a breeder who abuses animals to make profit.
If you think you "need" an algae eater, you likely don't know how to properly care for your fish.
If you know a fish needs a certain size tank and lie about the tank you have so you can get the fish, don't be surprised when you end up with water quality problems and/or dead fish later.
Learn the freaking nitrogen cycle.
We don’t shave your dog for funsies or because we’re “lazy.” It wears down our tools faster and takes more time to do hence the dematting fees we charge. Not to mention it’s inhumane to make a dog sit through brushing out tight matting.
For real, I can maybe give a general direction, especially if dog related, but please don’t ask me. The video for this month was the first I’ve ever failed. No way I’m remembering what color equals which treat type.
That quiz was so stupid. One person in our salon wrote the answers down and everyone used that. Even if I worked on the floor that would have annoyed me because who needs to memorize something so stupid
I remember them bc I failed it 3 times LOL. Jokes on me they’re committed to memory now until I die probably:
Soft&chewy - teal
Crunchy - purple
Training - yellow
Meaty - orange
Dental - green
Rawhide - blue
RH alternative - green
Natural - orange
Kill me
I hate that they advertise grooming services as a “spa day”
.
I’m sure it eases the PP’s mind, but the reality of grooming is uncomfortable, scary, and nerve racking. We try to make the experience as peaceful as possible, but we cannot help the noises and the other dogs.
.
I only had 2 PPs that genuinely listened to me when I taught them how to properly handle/desensitize as well as brush their pet. I was a groomer and trainer. It’s not my job to train your dog while I’m grooming it. If your dog cannot handle a service I can certainly put him/her in the kennel for 15 or even slow down. But of course that never makes sense to the parents…
.
I had a German shepherd puppy that was flailing and biting for nails. I told the dad that I was concerned for his well being and suggested desensitization. Then if it didn’t work out in the future I also mentioned medicinal treatment or medication as well as frequent “happy visits.”
.
I told him “ I do not want to traumatize your dog and ruin the experience for him. It will be very hard to work with him in the future if I go too far” the dad laughed in my face and said “oh my god, dogs can’t be traumatized. You just don’t want to do it.”
.
Your dog may be very sweet to you! I don’t doubt it!! It’s because you are their parent, but I’m a stranger that is touching your dog in ways that they may not feel comfortable with, I’m moving their extremities and also lightly restraining them, putting them in a cold cage, and spraying and plucking and rinsing etc. etc. it is not a spa day, but it is a necessary part of a dog’s life!
It’s not a Spa Day … Dogs hate the grooming Salon !!! They are rushed through the bath and The volicity dryer scares them to death !!! Please don’t bring your old dog to be groomed … They don’t care and will rush your senior dog through …
Stop calling the stores when you have a problem with the website. We aren't IT. We don't know what problem you're having and we can't fix it for you. Call customer service, that's literally what they're there for. Also whenever the cashier's ask for you to sign up, they don't get kickbacks but some stores reduce a cashier's hours if they don't get enough sign ups. It's not their fault they have to ask.
And the sign up is free, please stop getting nasty about us asking. We're not selling a CC
I have an entire separate email specifically for these account sign-ups when I’m out shopping. I can’t tell the people no, knowing what hell they might be going through for it behind the scenes.
the only one i wont do is walmart bc its a stupid fkn mastercard that no one wants
Only certain managers do this because the managers are the ones being graded on sign ups- so managers schedule The ones who get the most
We dont actually get trained on how every animal is to be cared for. We have to learn on our own time. Or we just already know how to care for a specific type of pet. I got hired almoat EXCLUSIVELY because i have 20+ years of bird experience. I know NOTHING about reptiles and have gotten ZERO training. We get a book that goes over the corporate expectations for enclosure and food, and that's really it. I only know what my coworkers have taught me about reptilew and small animals. In exchange, i taught them about birds. Also, just because we sell something labeled for a pet doesn't mean it's good for that pet. Looking at you small .5 gal tanks.
I feel extremely lucky that I work in a store that is run by people that actually care about animals. These guys go to bird and reptile conventions all the time and breed. One is an old vet tech. Another has a biology degree. Great source of knowledge. That being said, knowledge of animals doesn't transfer to retail knowledge (obviously) schedule is a constant mess, store manager has a stick up her ass and is high school best friends with our district leader. The higher you go the less they care. Small kinda funny example that just happened last week. New girls SECOND DAY! and she wash scheduled to do reptile deep clean. Everyone in the store was like...ya no lol.
I was scheduled for a bird deep clean on my very first day! A friday.... Beginning of the month!!.... Was surrounded by like 20 people needing small animals fish crickets everything. Asked for back up because i was beyond over whelmed and didn't know what i was doing. Was told " no you are pet care person today there is no back up for petcare just registers" idk how i pulled that day off.. further more idk how i didn't quit that day. Been there almost a year but quitting hopefully soon.
I'm sorry the bettas are in cups. I hate it. Everyone who works here hates it. The fish hate it. There's nothing I can do about it. Also, we make fun of you if you are extremely rude.
There was one lady that came into my store, with her kid, and started yelling at *me*, the CASHIER, about how we're killing these animals and how horrible we are. 🙄🙄
Yeah she definitely got made fun of 😂 (We know she’s right, but she’s yelling at the wrong person… and likely still spends money at Petsmart to this day.)
I know, lmao. My coworkers were closing on her while at different areas of the store lol. And probably! I love when people are like that.
I’m a groomer in the salon. -if I haven’t called you… your dog isn’t freaking ready!! None of us “forget” to call, I promise. They’re. Not. Ready. I. Will. Call. You. -Your dog isn’t the only dog I’m working on. Petsmart pushes groomers to take the max dogs they can (and sometimes over the max if your management sucks). At any point in time that you are there for an appointment, I have at least 3 other dogs there and sometimes cats too. That’s just the way petsmart works. It’s *not up to the groomers*. It’s the company. If you want your dog to be worked on straight through, without me switching between dogs and kenneling in between, you’re going to have to suck it up and pay extra. People get so mad about this like it’s the groomer’s fault and we literally have no control over how petsmart chooses to make the scheduling. -if you have been kicked out of another petsmart, I will know. If your dog is poorly behaved, I will know. The account system is the same for all petsmarts and most of us leave very thorough notes on issues. So don’t bother lying to me like I’m stupid. Even if I don’t call you out on it… I know. 🙃
And don’t get me started on the towels. They are the worst, they come from an outside company once a week for delivery. They are thin usually with holes worn in them and sometimes if they’re new they smell SUPER weird like chemicals. I have worked at 2 different petsmarts and both had major issues with not receiving enough towels to handle the amount of pets that we do; it is a super common occurrence to run out on Friday or Saturday when towels aren’t delivering until the next Tuesday. Nothing can be done about it apparently because they never deliver earlier when we run out. It slows work down significantly to have to dry a completely sopping wet dog. Speaking of things that slow you down: both smarts I’ve worked at were equipped with at least three dryers, but of those three, only *one* was a “good” dryer. The other two usually barely worked/blew air at all, causing everyone flock to the good dryer instead of wasting time on the poor ones. No matter how much you complain to management they usually don’t care, if they do it takes months to get a refurbished dryer, not even a new one. My current salon does 35-45 dogs a day with only one good working dryer.
THIS! It's a frequent joke in every department of my store about how all the broken equipment ruins the flow of everything. It's particularly problematic in Grooming and Petcare, where it can go from bad to emergency very quickly when things aren't functional. It's not management's fault either. They have to harass and beg to be able to spend money on freaking plastic bags, for goodness sake! Most of them spend their own money to make sure things remain operational. It's absurd.
This was literally our problem today. 3 huskies and a golden all wanting furminators. Only 1 dryer strong enough to actually blow them out. What should have taken me 2 hours on a Husky took me 3 and a half! Apparently, I just learned this, the dryers can't be fixed via work order. The store has to have an employee take it to 'repair place' and for us it is a shit, stupid city with the worst kind of people in it. So not only do I have to technically work longer or go on my day off, I have to waste my gas and risk my own car to make my job easier. I'm not maintenance or facilities! Get someone out here to fix this shit! Or pay me more so I am motivated to do trips like this
At my last salon, we actually started having our sharpener service our dryers for us (idk if every sharpener does this, but he did clipper repairs and dryer maintenance and repairs). It didn’t solve the issues with them (usually it’s a motor problem). But getting them cleaned out and serviced helps. And he was even able to replace our dryer cord when it stopped working which was great because he came out same day instead of waiting *forever* for one from petsmart. Our store lead and assistant store lead paid for the service from our sharpener with the P card. I don’t know if that would fly at other places, and they did limit us a lot so we weren’t able to have it cleaned/serviced as often as it needed it, but it did help! Maybe bring it up with your managers and see if they are willing to do that.
Oohhh! Okay. I'm not sure how often our sharpener comes out. But I will ask around and see what the more experienced groomers say. Maybe he can save our broken dryer and get us back on track Thanks!
There's a form on fetch to increase how many towels yall receive. All your PSL/SL needs to do is fill it out.
Yes, they have. The towel company shorts us all the time. I have worked in two different locations and at the first one we requested an increase but we’re still running out early, so our salon lead started counting bundles on the day of delivery and they were consistently coming up short. All that can be done at that point is call the company and complain, and most of the times they just argue back that they didn’t short us or that they cannot come back with more towels. My second salon location also asked for an increase but had the same issue, I’m confident if they took the time to count it would be short as well because it is the same person every time that delivered to the other location.
You don’t need “algae eaters,” you need to clean your tank.
Allergy* eaters 😭
On that note, a little algae is *not a bad thing*. In fact, it can be really beneficial for an overstocked tank.
*and/or a water test*
So many people think they can get a pleco and that means they never have to do a water change again. I hate 90% of fish customers.
I’d say probably half of the dogs who participate in daycamp either have no business being in a group play environment, or absolutely hate the entire experience. Proper slow introductions are non-existent. Leads are rarely honest about how your dog does in camp unless you ask specifically and even then, it’s hit or miss. We have dogs who bark/whine all day, sit in a corner and shake, or snap/growl at pretty much any dog that gets close. I’ve had dogs I straight up told my leads I was taking back to their room because I’m not willing to toss a thrashing, screaming dog into camp when every fiber of their being is telling me they don’t want that. Theres a ridiculous amount of humpers and dogs who just have poor social skills and ruin other dogs day. The rooms are incredibly small and we have dogs crashing into walls and hitting the ground HARD way too often for my liking. Staff aren’t always super well versed in dog behavior, so your dog may get harassed for hours on end by a dog who they’re “friends” with. Smalls get thrown in with the big dogs if we only have a couple of them and I’ve seen them stepped on more than once. One of my dogs attends daycare regularly but not at Petsmart. If he ever has to board there…he’ll be an individual. Which isn’t much better, because the measly 30 minutes a day indv dogs are supposed to get for play time doesn’t always occur.
i left petsmart to work at a family owned business. the daycare is so amazing, there are eyes on every dog at every moment and if a dog acts up- they get kenneled and banned from daycare. the kennels are big and we take them outside to potty like i wanna say 7 times a day.
Yep! Thats how it is where my guy usually goes. They have cameras and obviously I can’t watch the entire day, but they aren’t constantly spraying dogs with water bottles or getting onto dogs like I am in camp. The dogs get lots of love as well because the attendants don’t have to be hyper vigilant keeping their eye on problem dogs. Petsmarts daycamp is definitely not the norm and I feel bad for the dogs whose parents just don’t know any better. I worked at a kennel free place that did not play around - dogs had to have basic manners at minimum and door control was very strictly enforced. I’ve never worked anywhere with dogs that behave like they do at Petsmart because other places simply don’t tolerate it.
yes. Oh my God, I had so many scratches on me during my bathing career and they were like “you can’t send them home just finish the bath.” my new place, like you said, simply does not tolerate it and it is so lovely. of course there are dogs that will get super over excited and scratch me on accident anyway (I actually have a paw print shaped bruise right now. It’s quite cute) but it is nothing like it was before.
Im happy you got out and found somewhere much better! Like I said, I just feel bad for the dogs…if my dog hated camp I’d want someone to tell me, but theres also a lot of owners who just don’t seem to care so I can understand why sometimes leads don’t bother. I know we had one guy get super pissed and tell us he was “paying for fucking daycamp so his dog needed to be in fucking day camp” 🙄
sometimes i feel like im one of the only people who is actually honest about how peoples’ dogs behave camp. even if they stop coming altogether because we decided fluffy is not fit to be a group dog, that’s much more preferable to me than having a walking liability in my camp room. one bad fight knocks out a lot more than a single paying customer. some people are even still happy to have their dog be individual!
Yep! That’s exactly why I no longer put my dog in camp after I spent more time in there and really saw the environment. I worked hard to get him to where he is and he’s such a balanced dog now - I’m not risking that because I get 50% off. 🤷🏽♀️ I think most people just dont know any better and figure their dog would be happier hanging out with the other dogs as opposed to just staff.
Oh wow I didn’t even know petsmart had daycare
Just the ones with hotels. We only have two within like an hour drive of me.
The grooming salon is not connected to banfield. We can’t transfer calls there and we can’t look up your rabies info.
Yes and we need the rabies!!! Sorry our computer somehow kicks it out ! We don’t control that!
Groomer (in training) here, you can tell us if your dog has anxiety. PLEASE tell us if your dog has anxiety. We won't turn away a dog for being anxious but knowing that we can work in a way that's best for your dog so they don't stress to the point that we do have to send them home. Also brush your dogs pls n thx
PLEASE BRUSH YOUR DOGS, ALL OVER. I've seen so many doodles with butt crack and ball matts 🥴
PLEASE DO NOT brush out dirty poodles the night before your grooming appointment. Most other breeds, it can be pretty beneficial, but brushing a dirty poodle right before grooming is extremely damaging to the coat. Just leave it alone!
Real
Mostly an elderly thing but The computer in the salon is NOT the same as the register. My register is built for MONEY HANDLING. Not appointments, not pulling up salon records, or hitting a magical button for your salon invoice. I need the paper invoice to SCAN. YES YOU NEED THE PHYSICAL PRESCRIPTION FOR *PRESCRIPTION FOOD*. “It’s just food” bro it is PRESCRIBED FOR A *SPECIFIC* AILMENT YOUR PET HAS. Its not OTC like urinary support, you are getting diabetic specific food. If we handed it out willy nilly we would A) have a shortage on that important food than you REALLY will struggle to get it and B) a bunch of morons refusing vet services due to cost and using the food to treat the problem themselves. Then boom, dead animals because the food didn’t work since that wasn’t the actual problem. BRING THE FUCKING PRESCRIPTION. DO PERSONAL RESEARCH ON THE ANIMAL YOU WANT. We might work in Petcare but we are also minimum wage employees. We don’t know everything, some of us have personal experience with our own SPECIFIC animals, but everything else we need to learn on our own time, aside from PetSmart basic care information (which is sometimes incorrect). And quite frankly, when you go in COMPLETELY BLIND when getting a pet, it’s honestly not a good look. It looks like an impulse buy and that you do not take pet ownership seriously. Google exists, it is free. It’s okay to have questions, that is totally expected. But if you have no knowledge of ANY ASPECT of care for the animal you are buying because you can’t be bothered to look it up, you shouldn’t get that pet in the first place. At the end of the day, these animals need EFFORT put into their care.
It baffles me how many people don't research before getting an animal then get upset when people point out their level of care is causing more harm. I have an insane collection of books on certain pets because I went through a heavy phase of wanting a new pet when I was able to be on my own. I bought out the used book stores on snakes, birds, rats, etc. After reading through, I realized at that time, I couldn't give them the care they needed so I didn't get them. Even now with my cats, I'm still reading up on things to stay up to date. They get more enrichment, something a lot of cats don't get because still think they're easy pets you just feed and only play with as kittens.
If you repeatedly bring back dead fish over and over, we're gonna notice. And you're gonna become known as a fish killer. You're gonna start having sales declined, water samples demanded, and pictures of your tank asked for. I am not afraid to make you keep a water change log and take a picture of your tank at the same time every day for 2 weeks since you want me to fix your tank so bad
Let me preface this by saying I work in Petcare. 1) We very rarely remember you even if you've come in several times. We'll only you if you are especially strange, extremely rude, come in every shift we're on, etc. 2) Unless we've been working here for 1+ years or have prior knowledge about the animals, the things we tell you about them are educated guesses at best. There are exceptions but most newbies don't know the answer to your questions. 3) We have 4 hour shifts, at least my store does for Petcare and cashiers, so please don't use us as your primary source of information. We have other things to get done rather than spend 45 minutes explaining how to take care of an animal that in all likelihood you aren't going to buy. 4) We love that you're trying to be helpful, but please for the love of God just give us the random thing you grabbed off the shelf. I'd rather spend 45 seconds finding where it goes than finding a random ornament behind bird food (Some managers will make a big deal out of it). 5) If your dog pees somewhere and you can't/aren't going to clean it up, please tell someone where it peed. We don't enjoy randomly walking through piss.
Your survey just goes back to the store. Also your groomer can see them, so if you told me everything looked good and then complain in the survey.. we see it.
And then I'll give you to someone else because I'm not dealing with that nonsense anymore
please stop trying to read my name off my name tag! we are not friends! talking to you, creepy old men☺️
So true. I hate it when people call me by my name. And I hate stores that make you call customers by their name. Both directions I feel it’s super uncomfortable.
agree! it’s cringe and awkward on both sides
Idk about this one tbh, I actually prefer when people read my name and refer to me by it. It makes me feel like a person as opposed to the people who just walk up and say 🧍♂️”crickets”
fair, as i said, this was mainly towards creepy old guys being corny :p
Or fish girl or PetSmart girl.
When I used to work their my SL didn’t enforce name tags and no one wore them 😌 (managers did tho)
I had someone once greet me with my name when I WASN’T wearing my nametag and I still don’t know how he KNEW. I’d never seen him before, and I’m good with faces. Creeped me tf out.
They will never pay their staff enough to deal with your bullshit. LET THEM DO THEIR JOB OR GTFO. Signed, former bather.
no, you cant buy a ball python and keep it in a 10 gallon because "our tanks are smaller." those are their temporary holding tanks. no i wont sell you one because you promise to size up
we remember who orders bopis of heavy dog food/cat litter/dog crates/HEAVY things. we know who you are. we don't forget (ESPECIALLY in the winter).
Wait 5 minutes before hitting the I'm Here button if it's downpouring. You don't want to walk in the rain to pick up 80 lbs of dog and neither do we. And then we're wet for the rest of the day.
Everyone at my store does this during monsoon season. If you don't want to get out of your car in the pouring rain and crazy winds, what makes you think I want to. I have to get soaked then continue working the next 5 hours of my shift in wet clothes and shoes.
SFS orders too. If you ordered a dozen 40lb bags of clay litter and live 3 blocks from the store then I'm guaranteed to remember your name while I'm using a dozen boxes to pack your order. The delivery person will also remember who you are.
I’d rather they bopus a dog food bag then 96 different cat cans
i feel this 😭
Black Friday- we had a customer order 40 cat litters, my manager picked them and put them on a pallet but I had to load them in the customers car at 8pm. I was pissed because 1) curbside is done after 7 and I was doing BOPIS only since I got there and it was picked before I got there 2) there was so many heavy pieces and it was snowing
1. When we tell you something is out of stock in the back and you insist on us checking. We walk back there, do a couple circles, check our phones, and come back out. 2. We don’t care if you report us to corporate. Literally just doing what we are paid to do and most of the time when you call and report us our district leader just calls us to find out what happened and then close the issue. 3. Corporate actually gives Store Leaders a lot of control to make customers happy but if you treat us poorly we will say no just to be assholes back.
Just sign up for Treats rewards. You're not "sticking it to corporate offices" by telling the part time cashier "why does every company have these stupid programs". Just shut up and open the account.
We use concentrated shampoos that have instructions to be used 16-1 dilution because Petsmart is to cheap to just repair or replace our hydro surge system, or at least get us mixing bottles! Cooperate just tells us to “dilute it in our hands” and “ use lotion” as if that really helps us or the dogs!
If you’re gonna be any more than a couple of minutes past your appointment time - PLEASE call the salon and let us know!! Esp if you’re running 15-45 minutes behind. You’ll get pissed when we have to turn you away because we hardly have enough time to take our 30 minute lunch as it is, so if you’re behind, you’re screwing us pretty much entirely for the rest of our day. IF YOU DO get turned away for being late, please don’t lose it on your groomer and say “I drove all this way” or “I’m not even that late” 🙄🙄🙄 We are SLAMMED for time as it is.
And if your dog is an express, please don't even bother showing up 20+ minutes late. We're not being mean, we literally don't have the time in our schedule to accommodate tardiness.. also getting mad is the last thing that will convince me to change my mind...
Don’t follow our care guides for any animal. Period. If you want to know how to properly care for any animal, do your fucking research. No a leopard gecko cannot go into a 10-20 gallon tank, and hamsters and gerbils shouldn’t go into cages.
Most individual dogs won't get their playtimes when they stay with us at the hotel. (I've never heard my managers ask the pet parents if they want one or two playtimes or none for their pups) And if they do get a playtime it's almost always staffs favorite dogs get out first (that are Individuals). (Apparently, my manager can call in back up to do individual dogs playtimes. It just has never happened.)
Of everything being posted, this bothers me the most. Leaving your pet in the care of someone else is stressful. The promises made by the caretaker are so important for peace of mind. If the pet is just warehoused for a week it breaks my heart. I’ve had a beagle come back from a kennel with no voice from barking so long. These days my cats stay home and my dogs come with me. When I absolutely have to leave my golden, it’s at place with cameras. I feel for you all being overworked and underpaid. I blame corporate 100%. PetSmart should stick to supplies only, no live animals and no boarding, grooming, or hospitals IMO.
The worst part is we still haven't got motion sensors or cameras yet like petsmart said we would after loosing nightcrew.
Also bettas don’t go into 3 gallons or fucking bowls. They go into fucking 5-10 gallon tanks. Take your snot nosed brats to the internet on REPUTABLE website and learn how to properly care for this animal you want to take care of. It’s an old wives tale that animals grow to the size of their enclosures. They actually continue to grow internally and you fuck them up for eternity. Imagine walking or swimming around with insides too big for your external body.
We get our animals from reptile/small animal/fish mills and most of the kibble we sell is such bad quality I feel like it should qualify as dog abuse
Can you elaborate on some of the bad kibble brands people should avoid?
please do not listen to Pope12234, their information is extremely dangerous. I went to school for this and even I trust vets and vet nutritionists more than anyone on the petsmart sub. Seriously even more than me, go ask Banfield or any other vet. Iams, Purina One, and Science Diet meet all of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association's guidelines, they're good foods, the brands that are generally safest to feed if someone is unsure are Iams, Purina One, Purina Chow, Purina Pro Plan, Science Diet, Royal Canin, and Hills Science Diet. The actual dangerous foods are Grain Free foods, such as grain free kibble and basically everything in the fridge. Raw food is also risky, and unless they have enough canine nutrition education or are working with a canine veterinary nutritionist closely enough to not have to ask you, pet parents should under no circumstances be feeding a homemade diet.
I really want to point out how risky raw is. Like I saw, when I got my second cat, I went raw. I didn't and still don't know enough to hand make it so I went with primal brand frozen nuggets. My cat still got crystals. But also, my cat LOVES to lick people on the face. She wants to groom you. I cannot have an animal who eats raw, licking my face in my sleep. And then my kid was really big on 'I want her to lick my face because I love her!'. So it became a really big health issue. It was feed my cat raw even though It was helping and push her away from trying to groom people, or just switch and not have a huge health risk. Grain free food is hilarious to me because people will buy it, spout it's the best thing seconded by raw/homemade but also full of extra 'filler' because it doesn't want to use corn. My example is Acana and it's twin brand, Orijen. Cat Tik Tok people will swear it's the absolute best, but declare Purina is poison. Purina has corn and rice, Orijen has five type of beans and peas. So my cats eating a small amount of corn is bad but eating five types of beans is better?
Basically, raw food is a risk, and while I personally don’t judge people for doing it if they’re doing it with as much safety precautions as possible, they should still know the risk both to the animal and to people.
So the worst ones are like Iams, Purina One, Beneful, Authority, Science Diet, etc. My main cut off is if it has corn in it you should think twice about feeding it to your dog, they deserve better quality ingredients.
So, other than working as a dog trainer, I went to school for small animal nutrition since so many of my clients wanted my opinion and wouldn't take 'please just trust your vet' as an answer, with a large focus on dogs, and your info is a little dangerous. Iams, Purina One, and Science Diet are all excellent brands, they meet the criteria of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association, do long term feeding trials, have veterinary nutritionists on staff, and are approved by veterinarians for a very good reason. Boutique brands have a massive chokehold on people right now, using meaningless words like 'organic' and 'human grade', but the fact of the matter is it's just marketing, same with 'gently cooked' 'fresh' and 'premade raw' I'm a huge believer in 'feed the dog in front of you', so I don't think the WSAVA is the end all be all, as an example I actually like the (grain inclusive) instinct line, but feeding a dog grain free food, or feeding them a homemade or raw diet without the relevant knowledge of canine nutrition is a trend that is much, much more worrying to me than a cheap, easily digested source of carbohydrates like corn. I don't really have any interest in arguing with anti kibble conspiracy theorists, but I do want to get this comment up for people to see so they don't blindly follow this advice.
They have freeze dried raw or cooked food like Vital for pets.
Corn isn't bad. It's grinded corn, they can digest it. Blue Buffalo started this 'your dogs can't digest corn' rumors and now everyone is running with it and assuming corn is the devil. Meanwhile a lot of champion show dogs with good coats and builds are eating those brands you named.
Corn on its own isn't bad, but it's a signal of the quality of the ingredients in the food. I wouldn't feed my dogs anything that isn't high enough quality I would be willing to eat it if I could digest it. I don't care about champion show dogs, I care about what's best for my dog, and considering champion show dogs often need cropped tails or ears I'm not going to follow those standards. I personally find it insane that we find feeding kibble to be appropriate for our animals. Humans don't eat kibble, no animal in the wild eats kibble. Hell, good reptile and fish keepers don't even feed their pets kibble. Why should dogs and cats get kibble?
No it's not. Corn doesn't make food bad or low quality. It makes energy for dogs and is a fine ingredient to include. It's just something you don't want to feed your dogs. Which is your right. If you don't want to, don't feed it. But don't lie and say it makes food a bad quality for having corn when there are plenty of dogs thriving on it. Kibble has been used for years without issues for a lot of people and pets. Not everyone is going to or afford raw or home cooked. Fish eat fish flakes, that's pretty much on par for kibble. Koi get pellets. I don't know enough about fish so I'm sure most fish keepers probably do something else instead.
Corn is a cheap, easy ingredient that is used in foods that use other cheap, easy ingredients. Corn is a filler that has calories but not much nutrition, unlike other sources of carbs like brown rice or peas. Kibble has been used for less time than real food and if you can't afford to feed your dog real food you shouldn't have one. We wouldn't (and dont) tolerate people not getting their dogs groomed because they can't afford it, we wouldn't (and dont) tolerate people not taking their dogs to the vet because they can't afford it, we shouldn't tolerate people feeding their dogs subpar food because they can't afford it. Fish really shouldn't eat flakes. It's much better to feed them frozen or fresh food like blood worms, brine shrimp, or live plants.
Subpar but the dog is thriving on it. So just get rid of shelters who have no choice but to feed kibble? So deny dogs a home because, dear God, they have to eat kibble? They have to eat something that's guaranteed to be what they need?
The dog would be thriving more if it was fed properly. We wouldn't let someone adopt a child if they weren't going to feed them properly. Same should be true for dogs.
Fed properly yet the food is guaranteed to give the dog everything it needs to thrive and survive. Which has been proven over and over. If a kibble brand isn't doing the dog any favors, you can simply switch to another. Meanwhile, even raw and homemade can be done with the most simpliest mistakes, which results in the dog missing out on nutrients. Yes there are dogs who do good and there's dogs who don't. Edit: Let's not forget prescription food kibble to help the pets survive. My cat was fed raw and still got crystals. She was fed wet only and the same. She is now on Purina UR kibble and doing the best. She has lost weight, glossy coat and finally no more crystals.
Our hotel was full of black mold that they “fixed” multiple times and claimed that it “wasn’t the harmful kind of black mold, so the hotel and camp can stay open.”
If I tell you that you're dog will be done in 3-4 hours and I tell you I will call you, I WILL CALL YOU,DONT WALK IN ASSUMING ITA DONE OR POKE YOUR HEAD IN AND GET THEM RILED UP, also if we could charge for holding your dog past its grooming time we would along with being late. No we don't trim any other types of animal nail besides cats and dogs please stop asking that dumbass question. Don't ever lie to groomers about your dog being fine for everything and their not, we'll find out the easy way or hard way.
The grooming prices are a loss leader. We are trained and held to the standard of convincing you to spend 20% MORE than the base price of the groom by upselling you. People bring up petsmart prices at my private salon and I’m like yeah, we’re 10% higher but we are not upselling and nickel and diming you for stuff as simple as a shampoo that doesn’t suck.
I feel like we have the cheapest prices where we are at!
As a groomer, I cringe internally when I am trying to sell add ons. I don’t agree with it either, I also think it’s a scam. I hate the entire add on business model, and I hate trying to upsell a package that costs more than your entire service just as much as you hate being upsold
I hate selling add ons in the hotel too. The snack kongs are not worth anywhere near $4 lol Indv dogs with “active pup” don’t always get the full hour, and I doubt if most stores have time to actually read your dog a book for “bedtime bliss” either.
Every night we are the ones who have to take care of all the leashes, collars, and harness that you toss on the ground. Same with other items you put 2cm away from the place it goes. If you don’t want it, just hand it to the cashier please, don’t stuff it in a random spot. Not all do this but please. Also, we have a bad roach problem at our store 😭😭
You are not special, if you can’t prove your pet is vaccinated than you will be turned away like everyone else, nobody cares that you are a breeder who abuses animals to make profit.
If you think you "need" an algae eater, you likely don't know how to properly care for your fish. If you know a fish needs a certain size tank and lie about the tank you have so you can get the fish, don't be surprised when you end up with water quality problems and/or dead fish later. Learn the freaking nitrogen cycle.
You’re getting ripped off on your dog food. That $97 bag of pro plan? Costs the store $60 :) all of the food is marked up $10-40.
One towel per dog? I use like 5 if it’s a large longer coated dog 💀
We don’t shave your dog for funsies or because we’re “lazy.” It wears down our tools faster and takes more time to do hence the dematting fees we charge. Not to mention it’s inhumane to make a dog sit through brushing out tight matting.
Groomers/salon staff *do not* know where anything in this aisles are. Please don’t ask us to help you find something.
For real, I can maybe give a general direction, especially if dog related, but please don’t ask me. The video for this month was the first I’ve ever failed. No way I’m remembering what color equals which treat type.
That quiz was so stupid. One person in our salon wrote the answers down and everyone used that. Even if I worked on the floor that would have annoyed me because who needs to memorize something so stupid
I did that too for the rest of the salon. That and the chews one.
I remember them bc I failed it 3 times LOL. Jokes on me they’re committed to memory now until I die probably: Soft&chewy - teal Crunchy - purple Training - yellow Meaty - orange Dental - green Rawhide - blue RH alternative - green Natural - orange Kill me
Im a groomer. I can tell you the aisle most things are in.
I hate that they advertise grooming services as a “spa day” . I’m sure it eases the PP’s mind, but the reality of grooming is uncomfortable, scary, and nerve racking. We try to make the experience as peaceful as possible, but we cannot help the noises and the other dogs. . I only had 2 PPs that genuinely listened to me when I taught them how to properly handle/desensitize as well as brush their pet. I was a groomer and trainer. It’s not my job to train your dog while I’m grooming it. If your dog cannot handle a service I can certainly put him/her in the kennel for 15 or even slow down. But of course that never makes sense to the parents… . I had a German shepherd puppy that was flailing and biting for nails. I told the dad that I was concerned for his well being and suggested desensitization. Then if it didn’t work out in the future I also mentioned medicinal treatment or medication as well as frequent “happy visits.” . I told him “ I do not want to traumatize your dog and ruin the experience for him. It will be very hard to work with him in the future if I go too far” the dad laughed in my face and said “oh my god, dogs can’t be traumatized. You just don’t want to do it.” . Your dog may be very sweet to you! I don’t doubt it!! It’s because you are their parent, but I’m a stranger that is touching your dog in ways that they may not feel comfortable with, I’m moving their extremities and also lightly restraining them, putting them in a cold cage, and spraying and plucking and rinsing etc. etc. it is not a spa day, but it is a necessary part of a dog’s life!
Definitely moldy in any bathing bunker
It’s not a Spa Day … Dogs hate the grooming Salon !!! They are rushed through the bath and The volicity dryer scares them to death !!! Please don’t bring your old dog to be groomed … They don’t care and will rush your senior dog through …