ERRRR!!!! Pet Smart!!
 

A couple days ago we took our little yorkie for her first grooming at PetSmart and this is our first time taking a dog to a groomer. One of the employees there told us that Lucky (our yorkie name) said the back of her hair is matted and need to cut it. I told them not to shave her and trim her ears so she can try to stand her ears up . They say OK and told us to leave her for 3 hours and call us whenever they are done with Lucky. Well 2 hrs later pass by and they call us that Lucky ready to pick up. We came back to pick her up and we saw our little yorkie whole body been shaved and they trim her head hair a little but they didn't want to shave or trim her ears:mad: . I was so mad and she look horrible. She was so happy to see us and was shaking like she been scared once my wife hold her. 38 bucks have went down the drain! I feel so bad for her and that she have to go through with this especially the weather in WY/CO is cold now. Once we got home she seem so aggressive and barking at ppl walking by!!:eek: We wonder what Pet Smart did to her and she usually nice and playful before this happen. I got her a hoodie sweater for the winter and hope her hairs grows quickly. This is a lesson to us and take her to a professional groomer next time. We will never go to Petco and PetSmart again and learn from the lesson.:thumbdown :mad:

I am sorry for your experence. You have a much better chance of getting the cut you want by going to a professional groomer

Im sorry you had a bad experience at that petsmart but Im offended at this comment. I AM A PROFESSIONAL GROOMER and I do work at petsmart. I have been grooming for 12 years and I show yorkies. Just because one works for Petsmart does not mean they are not a professional. Just because one store didnt do what you had wanted doesnt make all petsmarts bad groomers.
Did you sign the shave down/ matted release form? If you did maybe you should READ what you had signed before you signed it.
I groom several YT yorkies and never had a complaint. Maybe instead of finding a so called"professional" in your eyes maybe you should try and find a groomer that specializes in yorkies.
Im tired of defending myself because I work for a petsmart :mad: . Guess I will just let my work and my clientele speak for itself.

Aww poor babie, I have heard lots of people complain about PS, I hope she grows out quick and keep her sweaters on, I had to do that with karleigh one whole winter:( hope you find a good groomer in the future.

nope no release form, no paperwork, just a receipt. Which is weird cuz I suspected of some kind or work of paperwork, but didn't get any paperwork from that store.

Then go back and complain to the store manager, something should be done about that groomers lack of following policy and procedure. Your dog should of never been shaved or dematted without that form. YOu should of signed something when you dropped your dog off and that paper work stays with your dog while she is there.
You can possibly get your money back

Na it a hassle now and we live 1-2 hrs away

Then call and complain if its not worth the hassle of driving there. Your bad experience should be noted against that groomer for not following policy and he/she could be written up for not following the rules.
Those signed release forms are important. Hopefully your experience opens their eyes to something that is lacking at that store

I made an appointment for Xmas eve for Daisy's first haircut at Petco and my first experience with a groomer. Daisy's coat is quite long and I did not want her shaved so I took the advice of fellow YTer's. I showed up with pics of how I wanted her hair done in hand and that I would ask for a scissor cut since I wanted her coat to be a medium length.

Other people were just dropping off their yorkies and leaving with no instructions to the groomer. I started to explain how I wanted her cut to the gal who has you fill out the registration so she got the groomer for me to explain it to. After telling the groomer " I want it no shorter than this pic, she is to be scissor cut not shaved, etc" the groomer told me that they do not scissor cut there. They only use clippers.
Upon hearing that I said thank you but I am not leaving her here.

If I hadn't started leaving instructions they would have shaved my Daisy into a short puppy cut. :eek: Also, they were not having me sign any papers for permission to shave her.

I am so glad I asked here on YT what to expect. I guess the lesson learned is to make sure to be very specific with your groomer.

I just have to say that I see so many of these anti-Petsmart-grooming threads and I'm surprised. I take Kalina to Petsmart to be groomed every other week and she comes out looking fantastic. If you look at my avatar you can see the picture of her with her front feet on the arm of the chair. That picture was taken just after I brought her home from Petsmart. Chrissy does groom her, but I have seen other dogs in there by other groomers and they look great too. I sign a paper every single time I go in there and I have NEVER had to wait for HOURS to get her back. I'm sorry you had a bad experience, but all Petsmart grooming salons are not like the one you went to. The one I go to is very professional and they do a great job.

It is possible to get a long hair cut with clippers, its a matter of using the right gaurd on the clippers. Sometimes it comes out better then a scissor cut if the groomer is inexperienced with hand scissoring dogs

I was told that the longest her hair could be was 2" with clippers - that this was the longest guard. Maybe this info I received was incorrect?

I think Kalina looks great. That is the length I was looking for with Daisy but the groomer at my Petco said it would be a very short cut and only with clippers. Maybe this was this particular groomers choice on how to cut smaller dogs or maybe it is Petco's policy?.

Thanks will do

Also, people were just dropping off their dogs (including yorkies) for cuts and not leaving any instructions or anyone asking them instructions on how they wanted the cut done. It was just drop off and leave. I found that odd, is that the way it is supposed to be?

They could have been regular clients and the groomer already knows what to do. Everything that is done to your dog is noted and kept on file. Not sure where in NJ you live but if Deptford isnt real far from you, I would be more then happy to give it a try on what you want.

The yorkies going in the same time as us were first time clients as well. That's what I thought was so odd. No one was asking me what type of cut I wanted for Daisy. They just wanted me to fill out her card and hand her off and leave and they said it would be 3 hours to pick her up.

I believe Deptford is at least an hour away from me. Is it the only Petco in Deptford?

Im at petsmart not Petco.

There are actually 2 petsmarts in deptford just seconds away from each other, im at the new one of the 2

Deptford Petsmart
Store #1225
856-848-2719
2000 Clements Bridge Road
Woodbury, NJ 08096-2011

Thank you. I will have to check it out. :)

There are bad groomers everywhere, even the so called "professional" variety has some bad ones mixed in there. There are also the good ones, but it's hard to find one sometimes without having an experience like yours:(

That groomer should be FIRED, or sent back to grooming school, for what she did to your baby:mad: To not even KNOW that the Yorkshire Terrier is SUPPOSED to have the tip of their ears shaved is unforgiveable in my eyes. Just my two pennies.

Luckily, it's just hair, and it'll grow back. In the meantime, some nice fleece PJ's or jogger will keep her warm:love:

I totally agree with this! I had the a wonderful groomer at PetSmart. Sometimes I would sneak in early and watch. She was sweet to my Willy -- she would kiss each paw after she clipped them. Unfortunately she moved away, and I have good and bad experiences with PetSmart, PetCo and private groomers since. (I found out one groomer was sharing her lunch with Willy -- McDonalds french fries! No wonder he threw up after every appointment!)

The groomer I have now is outstanding! It just takes a lot of looking I think.

You need to find a different groomer. Even if they did a better job on her cut, she is frightened to go there. My dogs SHAKE when they go to Petsmart but not when we go to the small boutique stores.

I found a groomer who lets me stay and chat while she grooms my dogs. They don't stay in cages and they are each done in about an hour. Sometimes i run an errand while they are there but I know they are in good hands. Loki went to a bad groomer when he was a puppy and it took months to help him get over it.

Also, the matting thing is an excuse IMO. Unless you don't take care of your dog they shouldn't be so matted that they have to be shaved. There are tools to get mats out like a coat king and although it thins the hair, it doesn't require shaving. More likely they didn't want to brush her out properly and scissor trim her because that is more work.

You need a groomer you can talk to. Like, even though a full groom typically involves ear cleaning/plucking AND nails, I'm perfectly capable of doing nails so I do that at home a different day because my dogs get too stressed out for nails AND ears. I'd rather she do the ears. I'm sorry but unless you know the groomer and go to the same one every time, Petsmart is like drive through grooming. You can pay extra for "express" service, but I still wouldn't recommend them unless you personally KNOW the person and your dog doesn't get stressed out by the multiple dog environment.

I find this statement funny. I know where Im at and all of the other petsmarts around me the bathers bathe bath dogs only (labs, shepherds, etc). The groomers are the ones who wash their dogs. Its the small private shops that are like drive through grooming. When I was at a small private shop I had a bather, now at petsmart we have to wash our own dogs.
Years ago I applied at one private shop and each person had a certain task. One person does the pre groom, One person bathes and cuts nails, another fluff dried, and the master groomer finshed the dog. Now thats drive through grooming and I would never want to work in a place like that.
One should ask their grooming shop how dogs are taken care of instead of assuming from hearsay.
Did you also know that all yorkies must be hand dried at petsmart? Because of their treachea problems they must not be kennel dried. There is an actual list of dogs that are not to be kennel dried and the dogs that are kennel dried are dried with room temperature air and there are no heated dryers and dryers are on a timer. A manager comes in often and checks the room temp and if its over a certain temp everything gets shut down. Very few private shops do that. Most private shops have dryers that are not on timers and some even use heated air.

By saying "most private shops" you are also generalizing. The difference is that Petsmart is one company with many many stores. With that, i would expect some consistency, but rather if you look at the posts on here you get the exact opposite.

My groomer hand dries all of her dogs, not just Yorkies. She only takes one dog at a time and works on that dog start to finish. I don't disagree with you completely though - we have at least 2 local independent shops are are downright terrible and exactly what you describe. It's difficult to find a good groomer.

This is why it is IMPORTANT to research where you are leaving your dog to be groomed.

you know it is the same with finding a good salonist, some are right out of school, some are very experiened and others just never really figure out how to cut hair. We had our Sheep dog cut at petsmart and they did a great job... again, it is hit and miss till you find a good one.

Erin, I love Sammy's cut and from the pic his coat looks really nice. Is this a puppy cut?? I'm a new yorkie owner and really like this look, my baby is not ready for the groomers just yet, but when she's ready I'd love to be able to tell the groomer about this cut.

Thanks.

I've heard of a lot of people having poor results at Petsmart and Petco. I'd take her to a regular groomer next time.

One reason you hear more complaints about Petsmart grooming is because there are SO many Petsmarts across the country. There are hundreds of Petsmarts and usually one of each private grooming shop. Think of how many complaints we've heard on here from private shops COMBINED and then compare it to the number of complaints about Petsmart...probably about equal. The truth is that Petsmart shouldn't automatically be thought of as bad groomers. With ANY groomer you need to look at them as individuals. Each store will have their own general policies, including Petsmart. So first find out if you are okay with that store's policies. But then, look at each groomer individually. Even groomers in the SAME store can be so different - one may be an wonderful groomer while one is just okay. It's so important to get groomer recommendations from vets and other dog owners where you live, go see the the store in person, talk to the groomer you are interested in, watch them groom a dog, bring in pictures and leave specific instructions. I worked for a private grooming salon (not as a groomer), and while the store policies and safety procedures were always the same and each groomer we had was good with the dogs, each groomer had different experience. There were some I preferred to groom Lacy over others. Anyway, I just think it's important to not automatically rule Petsmart grooming out or a private store out. A store honestly is only as good as it's current groomers

re: ur bad grooming experience
 

I've taken our chunk, our teapot yorkie to petsmart since he was a baby and I have not had a single bad experience. I did take him to a so called professional groomer who specializes in yorkies only to be disappointed by the attitude they had towards my baby boy. They had the nerve to say that he may be mixed with a silk terrier because of his teapot size, (12 plus lbs. of pure love). His siblings and parents are 5-7 lbs. He will be going back to the Petsmart in Whittier, CA for all his grooming needs. They always receive my little guy with much affection. They also give him kisses. Maybe you need to talk to the grooming mgr at your petsmart. Also, yorkies need to be brushed on a regular basis to prevent the matting. Good Luck. Chunk's mom