Pet Career Weekly - for future dog groomers
How do you become a dog groomer?
Every week, one free email with honest answers about working as a dog groomer: how people get in, what shapes the pay, and what the job is really like.
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What lands in your inbox
How people really get in
The first skills, the order they come in, and why you don't need a four-year degree.
The honest answer on pay
Not one number from a search result, but what really shapes a groomer's income, and why.
What the job is really like
A day at the grooming table: the dogs, the owners, and the parts nobody photographs.
One real piece of the craft
A coat type, a handling trick, or a busted myth you'll spot on the next dog you see.
The questions future groomers ask
01
How do you become a dog groomer, and how long does it take?
02
Can you make a good living as a dog groomer?
03
What does a groomer notice that an owner might miss?
04
How do good groomers handle a nervous or frightened dog?
05
Salon, mobile or your own shop: what's the difference?
06
How hard is grooming on your body?
From a recent issue…
You will see that dog more often than its vet does
Every six or eight weeks, your hands go over an animal from nose to tail with nothing in the way. Nobody else in that dog's life gets that, including the vet it sees once a year, and it turns an ordinary grooming appointment into the closest thing many dogs have to a regular physical.
So you learn what to notice while you are already working:
Sensitivity to touch, especially somewhere that was fine last visit.
Swelling, discharge or an odor that was not there before.
Lumps, which the high-velocity dryer finds by parting the coat down to skin.
A change in behavior, from a dog whose usual behavior you happen to know.
Owners come back for the haircut. The ones who stay ten years tend to stay because somebody once told them, carefully and without alarming them, to get an ear looked at.
Written for people who can't walk past a well-groomed dog
Bathers and daycare staff who are closer to grooming than they think.
Crafty, hands-on people who love making something look exactly the way it should.
Proud dog owners who trim their own dog and secretly love it.
Career changers who want work that feels like it matters, at any age.
Brought to you by The Academy of Pet Careers
Pet Career Weekly comes from The Academy of Pet Careers, a pet career trade school that has been teaching people to work with animals since 1993. From our campus in St. Charles, Missouri, and online, we teach dog training, dog grooming and veterinary assisting to students from across the country. Everything we teach starts from Pet Empowerment, our force-free, science-based approach to how animals learn and feel. This newsletter shares what we've learned along the way, free, with anyone curious about a career with dogs.
Become a Dog Trainer
Learn force-free, reward-based training online from anywhere in the U.S., or in person in St. Charles.
Explore Dog TrainingBecome a Dog Groomer
Hands-on dog grooming training in a real working salon at our St. Charles campus.
Explore Dog GroomingBecome a Vet Assistant
An in-person program of about five months, taught by a Registered Veterinary Technician.
Explore Vet AssistingYour future in dog grooming starts with a weekly email
Join future dog trainers, groomers and veterinary assistants learning something real every Wednesday.