While I would be cautious, I wouldn't be so quick to give all Petcos such a bad rap...

IMHO I have 4 dogs, and think that it has to be judged on an individual basis. Right now I'm using a wonderful groomer at a Petco after going through a ton of independent groomers that didn't suit me for one reason or another.

Granted she came highly reccommended and is the only one that I leave my dogs with (like any quick-stop human beauty/barber shop they seem to have high turn over!) and she does the best job yet.

I can also say that I left in tears and cancelled a check at another Petco because of the way they hacked-up my Marley right before I had him scheduled for professional pics...

If I thought I could do it myself, I would. But my poor babies would be the ones in tears if I tried to cut their hair! :p

My girl never ever gets passed around first I am there. She does go in a kennel if there are other dogs and she having a bad day. Mostly these days it is her and the other dog I take down that have the place for 5 hours on thier own.
I have a firm word or two if anyone but me and my groomer had her thier hands on my girl.
Joy

You are definately not being over protective. I personally would have been furious and would have confronted the groomers as well as the person who was holding her and told them straight out that such a thing is not only rude but inappropriate. She is your dog and you are paying for a service and they were completely out of line for handing around your girl. Not only was there the risk of her being stolen but what if she had riggled free and fallen and been hurt? Ahem, we all know they wouldn't be willing to pay the vet bills to fix her injuries so they shouldn't be holding her w/o your consent. And another risk is what if your girl felt scared and decided she didn't like this person and bit and hurt them and wow.. guess what.. Once again you'll be the one paying when they throw a lawsuit in your face and you could even lose your little girl bc of this. I mean the risks are endless.

WARNING NOTICE OF KINDA FALLING OFF TOPIC ;)
I've only had professionally groomed once and it was quite an ordeal. I don't know if they 'passed him around'.. God only knows.. but the lady did a terrible job, sprayed him w/ that mens deoderant "Axe" (which made him sneeze, itch insanely) and she jumped up the final price an extra 10 bucks (gave herself a tip) when she saw me pull out a couple fifty dollar bills. Needless to say I called back and b*tched and still have that $10 store credit there waiting.. But doubt that will ever happen since they burnt the you know what out of my other dogs belly!

just like everyone else i would have been furious too!! :mad: it was so unprofessional for them to do that! they should know better than to let strangers handle other customer's pets, its just ridiculous to me that they would do that!
the response they gave you did seem sincere however, i would still make sure to be there and watch them work whenever (if ever) you decide to go back.

thank god though that your baby wasn't harmed and is safe now.