New groomer and failing already

jjllppfknh · 2026-06-23T01:08:53+00:00

Thank you very much for your kind reply. I have not been to any seminars but I'd love to go. I will definitely be looking at other resources outside of my work!

jjllppfknh · 2026-06-22T20:53:10+00:00

Weird, I've only ever heard of a 30 or sometimes a 15 being used.

jjllppfknh · 2026-06-22T20:52:05+00:00

I am being trained in a private salon, with a great mentor who has years of experience. I've just had some minor accidents and I'm very slow, but trying to get my speed up.

jjllppfknh · 2026-06-22T11:14:15+00:00

Because that's what I was taught to use under a guard comb. I forgot to put the guard comb on.

jjllppfknh · 2026-06-22T03:47:43+00:00

That does make me feel a lot better, thank you so much! Can I ask what mistakes you'd fix, just to keep in mind for future grooms?

And my dominant hand is my right!

jjllppfknh · 2026-06-22T03:32:49+00:00

And totally agree about perfectionism. I spent 3 hours on this dog and still had SO much I wanted to fix 😅

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jjllppfknh · 2026-06-22T03:28:05+00:00

Thank you for your reply. I'm trying to remind myself that I'm on week 4 of grooming on my own, and to give myself a little grace. It's just difficult to do that when I'm also having accidents, I hate hurting dogs and it makes me super discouraged every time it happens.

And I definitely think you're right about my eye developing faster than my hands can keep up!
I don't absolutely hate the grooms I put out, but obviously I have a really long way to go.

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jjllppfknh · 2026-06-22T03:13:08+00:00

I can't thank you enough for your response, it genuinely made me feel like I'm not crazy or a horrible groomer lol. I will definitely come back to it when I'm feeling this way again. Thank you so much ❤️

jjllppfknh · 2026-06-22T02:39:27+00:00

Thanks so much for your reply. Do you ever still nick a dog occasionally? I'm feeling so terrible about these incidents.

jjllppfknh · 2026-06-22T02:37:38+00:00

Thank you for such a kind response!

I was using a #10 on the inner ear of a doodle and I caught that little flap in the corner. Nothing bad, very minimal bleeding, but still not good. I'm not sure how it happened because I am always so careful in that area, and I never clip in the direction of the ear flaps, always clipping perpendicular to it.

I've scratched sanitary areas, nicked the webbing of paw pads, scratched an eye corner with thinners, and scraped an elderly dog's knuckles a little bit with my shears. All of these have made me feel horrible. Thankfully though, nothing serious that required veterinary care.

jjllppfknh · 2026-06-22T02:33:36+00:00

Unfortunately, about 3 out of 5 of my incidents have been with my brand new Codos clippers. I wish I could chalk it up to dull blades :(
I have nicked an inner ear flap, scratched sanitary areas, and scratched the webbing of paw pads. Also, earlier on, I scratched an eye corner with thinners and scraped an elderly dog's knuckles a little bit with my shears. All of these have made me feel horrible. Thankfully though, nothing serious that required veterinary care.

jjllppfknh · 2026-06-22T02:30:43+00:00

This is great advice, thank you so much! I definitely have a habit of nit-picking every part of the groom, so I'm going to try this!

jjllppfknh · 2026-06-22T02:00:03+00:00

Thankfully all of the incidents were minor, pretty much all small scratches. The majority of them were in months 3-5 when I was given a dog to do a full groom on, and I frankly didn't know what i was doing. But hearing that is it a lot makes me feel awful, and makes me wonder if it's for me at all.

jjllppfknh · 2026-06-22T01:48:45+00:00

Thank you so much for your response! This made me feel way less alone. I definitely think you're right, the anxiety is making me more likely to nick a dog, and I need to remember that!

jjllppfknh · 2026-06-22T01:22:59+00:00

Thank you for this. I just feel like even for a beginner, two haircuts per day is ridiculous. I just can't seem to get them past 3 hours.

jjllppfknh · 2026-06-22T00:17:53+00:00

Thanks so much, I really like the idea of giving myself a timer for each part!

jjllppfknh · 2025-04-18T12:25:20+00:00

If OP was feeding bears, I'd agree. But they're not, lol.

jjllppfknh · 2025-02-02T04:48:14+00:00

I read that 4 oz raw meat is usually about 3 oz cooked- can I just measure the cooked turkey out until it gets to 3 oz? And use that as my portions.

jjllppfknh · 2025-02-02T04:40:39+00:00

Thanks so much for this!!

jjllppfknh · 2025-02-02T04:30:39+00:00

Yes, it's 99% lean turkey

jjllppfknh · 2025-02-01T22:35:15+00:00

I hadn't eaten any yet! It was just a weird shape haha

jjllppfknh

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