Tell me about dog grooming and other animal-related careers, please

[Innisfree]

Bonus points if they don't require a lot of human interaction or warm fuzzy social skills. Interaction skills with animals are strong, it's humans that are the issue. High stress situations and medical work are not good ideas.

Super bonus points if no college is needed, or trade schools that wouldn't accept a homeschool diploma.

Win the jackpot with a career meeting the above requirements, while paying a wage an adult could live on long term.

[ktgrok]

Grooming might work, but still have to talk to the humans to find out what they want, etc. But not high stress like a vet tech job. Pet sitting might be a good fit, and some make an decent amount of money. A friend of mine does this as her career, but she's married so husband works too. She's also near Palm Beach so lots of people willing to pay quite a bit I imagine. Dog training can make good money if you are good, but again, still have to deal with people. Some do "board and train" so less time with people, but you stll have to do an intake with them and some training sessions after. No college needed for that. 

Zookeeping isn't a ton of human interaction I don't think...here in Florida there is a community college that has an AS degree in it, not sure if all places require a degree. 

[Slache]

I was a bather who worked for a groomer for years. I absolutely loved that job. On the job training, low wages, gross. 95% dog, 5% human. Years later I go visit because loved my boss and tails would go berserk as soon as I was recognized. They've had to bring some out of cages to attack me with smooches because some dogs were so excited to see me. I wish I was that popular in high school.

[Innisfree]

3 minutes ago, Slache said:

I was a bather who worked for a groomer for years. I absolutely loved that job. On the job training, low wages, gross. 95% dog, 5% human. Years later I go visit because loved my boss and tails would go berserk as soon as I was recognized. They've had to bring some out of cages to attack me with smooches because some dogs were so excited to see me. I wish I was that popular in high school.

Now this sounds good, lol. So-- I've never had a dog who needed professional grooming, so, I'm not familiar with this world-- obviously the dogs were long-term repeat customers. Is that standard?

Would an adult who mainly cared about supporting her own dog(s),  but also needed housing, internet, utilities, etc., be able to make ends meet as a bather or groomer?

[ktgrok]

3 minutes ago, Innisfree said:

Now this sounds good, lol. So-- I've never had a dog who needed professional grooming, so, I'm not familiar with this world-- obviously the dogs were long-term repeat customers. Is that standard?

Would an adult who mainly cared about supporting her own dog(s),  but also needed housing, internet, utilities, etc., be able to make ends meet as a bather or groomer?

In my experience they might need a roomate. Maybe depends on cost of living in the area?Good ones do get tips which would help. A bather is going to be around minimum wage. 

Edited April 24, 2021 by ktgrok

[Slache]

7 minutes ago, Innisfree said:

Now this sounds good, lol. So-- I've never had a dog who needed professional grooming, so, I'm not familiar with this world-- obviously the dogs were long-term repeat customers. Is that standard?

Would an adult who mainly cared about supporting her own dog(s),  but also needed housing, internet, utilities, etc., be able to make ends meet as a bather or groomer?

I worked for a high end groomer. Her company made two million a year before expenses, she had 5 employees and 2 locations, so I really don't know what a normal person would do. As a bather I worked part time for not much above minimum, so no.

[Slache]

This is so not what you're asking, but my husband is in school for home inspection. It's physical, but not physically demanding, not too peopley, absolutely phenomenal pay. School is about $3K and a 4 month commitment. Start up costs can be expensive, depending on your state.

[Innisfree]

3 minutes ago, Slache said:

I worked for a high end groomer. Her company made two million a year before expenses, she had 5 employees and 2 locations, so I really don't know what a normal person would do. As a bather I worked part time for not much above minimum, so no.

Wow. That sounds like a bigger operation than anything around here.

Okay, thanks.

[Innisfree]

Just now, Slache said:

This is so not what you're asking, but my husband is in school for home inspection. It's physical, but not physically demanding, not too peopley, absolutely phenomenal pay. School is about $3K and a 4 month commitment. Start up costs can be expensive, depending on your state.

Something like that would be a far better way to support oneself, no question. Not sure if the kid in question is open to anything other than animals, but I appreciate the idea.

[Slache]

2 minutes ago, Innisfree said:

Wow. That sounds like a bigger operation than anything around here.

Okay, thanks.

Yeah, she was like 40 years in. Sorry!

[Slache]

1 minute ago, Innisfree said:

Something like that would be a far better way to support oneself, no question. Not sure if the kid in question is open to anything other than animals, but I appreciate the idea.

Oh, I didn't realize this was a kid! In my experience, a kid opening a grooming shop is a terrible idea. It's more of a 30 year old and over thing. People will not trust a kid. They can apprentice though. Professional sitting and walking (as in doing both) can work well. Vet tech in low stress environments are good work, but probably hard to come by. I'm thinking wildlife refuge. I knew a support dog trainer who loved her job. She trained seeing eye dogs and seizure dogs. Money was decent, I think twice minimum.

[Masers]

I bet someone could cobble together a career doing animal work with minimal human interaction, like combining pet-sitting, dog-walking, dog bathing, and working at a humane society. I used to volunteer at our humane society, and some of the employees there were NOT very interactive with visitors (or the other employees or volunteers), but they did stuff like dog walking, laundry, feeding, cleaning kennels and litter boxes, etc., and nobody seemed to care. They put the friendly high school girls or retired people out front to chat with customers. 🙂

I bet there are also positions at large boarding facilities to just help with feeding, cleaning, etc. Zoos or animal sanctuaries are another idea...just people to help with day to day animal care. 

i feel like one on their own would not be enough to live comfortably (or maybe even minimally), especially since those jobs tend to be part-time, no benefits, etc., but I think combining a couple of them and being really smart and frugal with finances could be doable. Probably also depends on cost of living and what sort of lifestyle someone wants. Like, a small apt would be more doable than owning a home, etc. 

[Pawz4me]

I think in many area of the country one could earn a living dog grooming, especially if you could do some boarding or pet sitting on the side.

I groom the dog in my avatar myself, but I take our other dog to a groomer (she's solid black with dark pigmented skin and I can't see well enough to groom her safely myself). It's a husband-and-wife owned shop. The wife is the head groomer. Her husband does the bathing and also has a clipper repair business. They employ three other groomers. As a customer my interaction is almost solely with the owner groomer. She answers the phone and handles drop offs/pick ups. So the three other groomers have minimal customer interaction.

Petsmart has it's own free/paid training program for groomers. And I *think* Petco does, too. Now I personally don't trust groomers at those chains, and there is no way on earth I'd take one of my dogs there to be groomed, but . . .it would be worth investigating as any easy way to get started and a way to get paid while she figures out if she really wants to groom as a career. And our community college has in the past offered evening classes in dog grooming. No high school diploma required; the classes are more like sewing or some other craft type classes one might take. But they do require an investment in your own equipment.

ETA: Here is a professional groomer's forum I lurk on sometimes. She might find some of the discussions there helpful.

Edited April 24, 2021 by Pawz4me

[mommyoffive]

Dog walking

Pet sitting

Working at a dog boarding facility. 

[Melissa B]

My dd has two jobs that fit those qualifications, though I would still consider them rather low paying. 

1. She works at a pet rescue. She has almost no interaction with anyone. She works in the building that houses the dogs that are not ready to be put up for adoption. They are either a mom with a new litter of puppies, a newly acquired dog that has not passed the vet's examination yet or a dog with an injury or illness that needs treating before being ready for adoption. She normally works with about eight dogs on a given day.

2. She also works at a pet boarding facility. She is their social media person. She has a bit of interaction with other workers, but mostly she is alone or photographing the dogs. The play-yard attendants also have very little contact with people but quite a bit of contact with the dogs. Social media pays better than play-yard attendant though. 🙂

[elegantlion]

I used to work as a vet assisstant, I loved not dealing with people. We also did a lot of boarding and maintenance type grooming. I also had to learn to talk with clients, but it grew on me. I'd recognize people at the grocery and couldn't remember the person's name but knew every detail about their pet. 

One consideration, even with just bathing and grooming, is that it can be gross work, challenging when you have a pet that gets snippy, and there can be a need for some minor medical care for the pets- generally simple stuff like if you accidentally trim nails back too far. Clients, depending upon the groomer, can be rather snotty sometimes. So, if they don't want to work with people as much, work as an employee so you have a supervisor to fall back on. 

Dog walking could be good - no idea if it could be a living wage - but if they're an independent dog walker, they need to deal with clients, self-employment on taxes, and there is a higher level of responsibility if they're going into someone's home when no one else is there. 

Another option could be house-sitting. I've done that several times- generally for people with pets they didn't want to board- and liked it. I'd generally come in the same day the owners left and leave on the day they were due home. No sure if you could get enough gigs to be full-time though and it would have some of the same pitfalls as above. 

edited to add: 

one other issue to consider is how they deal with animal injury or death. At the vet where I worked, we obviously dealt with that all the time. I could not work in an animal shelter where animals were euthanized if not adopted. When we hired people at the animal hospital, we made sure they could face that reality. I'll admit, even after a few decades, I still have some trauma from that. Dog walking, grooming, are mostly positive experiences with pets. 

Edited April 24, 2021 by elegantlion

[Guest]

I think a dog trainer (or maybe horse trainer) could make a living wage around here, if they get good results. And - I know many people object to this philosophically, even me, but - dh’s friend breeds poodle crosses and delivers them to bougie homes all over the east coast. He makes a very good living doing this and quit his normal job. 

[Dmmetler]

What about handling for show dogs? I don't know how much human interaction it would require (most of what I know of the career comes from reading Laurien Berenson mysteries!)

 

[Innisfree]

Thank you all for these ideas. I'll pass them along. 

 

On 4/24/2021 at 10:28 AM, Pawz4me said:

Petsmart has it's own free/paid training program for groomers. And I *think* Petco does, too. Now I personally don't trust groomers at those chains, and there is no way on earth I'd take one of my dogs there to be groomed, but . . .it would be worth investigating as any easy way to get started and a way to get paid while she figures out if she really wants to groom as a career.

I had hoped starting at one of these stores might be reasonable to get a taste of the job. Good to know that's a viable option. And the grooming website looks very helpful, thank you! They have a whole section on investigating grooming as a career.

 

On 4/24/2021 at 11:02 AM, Melissa B said:

She works at a pet rescue. She has almost no interaction with anyone. She works in the building that houses the dogs that are not ready to be put up for adoption. They are either a mom with a new litter of puppies, a newly acquired dog that has not passed the vet's examination yet or a dog with an injury or illness that needs treating before being ready for adoption. She normally works with about eight dogs on a given day.

This sounds like her dream job, lol.

 

[itsheresomewhere]

I am a dog groomer.  I currently work for another groomer while I get a bit more experience with speciality grooming.  I deal with people including ones who get a bit peeved that I won’t just charge them regular price for a matted pup.  Grooming school here runs about 6000 and includes the basic tools you need.  Now you can go through petsmart or petco for the training, but the groomers I have worked with will not hire ones with only that training. 

[Jenny in Florida]

I have exactly one data point to share, but I was casually friendly for a while with someone who worked as a groomer at a Petsmart. They had been trained by the company and were required to stay with Petsmart for some period of time after training or repay the cost of the training if they left earlier. They were barely scraping by, financially, in a studio apartment and eating lots of ramen. They also had lots of stories to tell about the obnoxious pet owners with whom they interacted frequently. As a real animal lover, it was sometimes tough for them to witness owners not taking good care of their dogs, too.

I assume that in other settings, the experience is very different, but that was this person's experience.

[Ausmumof3]

Would the person have the physical strength for shearing or dairy work?  Shearing pays ok I think though it’s hard on the body.

[Innisfree]

20 hours ago, itsheresomewhere said:

I am a dog groomer.  I currently work for another groomer while I get a bit more experience with speciality grooming.  I deal with people including ones who get a bit peeved that I won’t just charge them regular price for a matted pup.  Grooming school here runs about 6000 and includes the basic tools you need.  Now you can go through petsmart or petco for the training, but the groomers I have worked with will not hire ones with only that training. 

How do you figure out which grooming school is a good choice? I've done a bit of looking, not a lot. The ones I've seen all seem to be for-profit enterprises, and I'm not sure how to evaluate them. The website @Pawz4me mentioned might help, once I spend some time looking at it.

[Innisfree]

39 minutes ago, Ausmumof3 said:

Would the person have the physical strength for shearing or dairy work?  Shearing pays ok I think though it’s hard on the body.

Interesting idea, thanks!

[Innisfree]

57 minutes ago, Jenny in Florida said:

As a real animal lover, it was sometimes tough for them to witness owners not taking good care of their dogs, too.

Yeah, this could be a problem. ☹️

[itsheresomewhere]

37 minutes ago, Innisfree said:

How do you figure out which grooming school is a good choice? I've done a bit of looking, not a lot. The ones I've seen all seem to be for-profit enterprises, and I'm not sure how to evaluate them. The website @Pawz4me mentioned might help, once I spend some time looking at it.

If possible-  ask a couple of groomers in your area.  That is what I did to figure which ones were good in my area.  

[Jean in Newcastle]

Dog training is 90% dog owner training.  Ie. you are really demonstrating to the owner how to work with their own dog even if you might do some advance work alone with the dog.  I would not do this if you don't want human interaction.

Some bigger doggie daycare/boarding situations will hire people to exercise dogs, to clean cages, pick up poop etc.  The owner/ front person absolutely does a lot of human interaction - talking to owners about their dogs needs, talking to prospective clients on the phone etc. but they often aren't the same people who are taking care of the animals especially in a larger facility.