Well, in my opinion it would be better if they did know what they were doing when working with animals. Just a love for animals itself isn't enough. It's like a kid that sees a cute puppy, but doesn't know how to take care of it. It's not fair to the animals, if this person taking care of them doesn't pay attention, or know how to do the job that customers are paying them for then why bother paying them? I know it's a risk to trust them, but it's up to the business to hire people that know on a level what they're doing.
bumdick ©2005 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Fri, 15 Dec 2006 23:30:30 -0500Subject: Re: [Chihuahuas] Nail trimming at Petsmart I think we can't assume that. I walked by such astore once and was looking at the sign reflectingrates. The store was a chain but brand new to afairly newly renovated mall. Two young "boys"came out, I am not certain they were yet out ofhigh school, suspect they were part-time workers.They clearly were revving up business and probablymaking brownie points for anyone they could talkinto setting up appointments. At the time myolder dogs were still living, a Mini Pin and twoChihuahuas. They really wanted me to bring themin for total grooming since they had *never* doneany full grooming of dogs yet.I didn't make the appointment. I wondered howthey learned. No apprenticeship? Do they trainon plastic animals, kind of like Lamaze classes?Frankly, I wasn't interested in them learning onmy dogs.My sister showers her ShiTzu (sp?) when she takesher own shower. She blows him dry and brushes himout during the blow dry, he accepts it fine. Ithink she does have his nails clipped by the vet.My son and I had absolutely no problem cutting mygirl Chi's nails, it's fairly easy with two doingthe work. I held, she trusts me, she trusts himbut is more skittish when he holds her. So I heldher and held out the paws and he cut with aclipper designed for small dogs (bought at petstore). We talked to her the whole time, shedidn't fight (I admit I can't say that for myolder dogs who had to be groomed by the vet's inhouse groomer, I always suspected the dogs weresuspended in those body/open leg cradles anddipped, washed, clipped while being held up offtheir feet and fairly incapable of fight). MyMini Pin was quite ready to bite the vet each andevery time his nails were clipped, he was muzzledeven when I held him though I never thought hewould bite me, but he did make an effort to getthe vet.Whatever, the Chi's have reputations. My own Vetalways tells me jokingly, yeah, right, see howsweet he (or she) is while you are here. Youshould see him/her when you go! I can't see it,my animals are all socialized with people, youngand old, not so much with strange animals, butthere is no reason for them to be out with strangeanimals. But then the social group isn't givingthem shots, or cutting nails and clipping hair.There's a big difference. So I am glad the newpup is amenable to my son and me working on her.My biggest fear has always been that the hipswould be dis/placed/located during carelessgrooming. She doesn't fight me holding her paws,so the chances of problems at home are minimal.I have hardwood floors. The funniest part of therecent nail clipping was she was skating on thefloor after the clipping. She clearly was offkilter with the shorter nails. I suspect nexttime I also should consider some filing in thehopes that will prevent some of the sliding.I live in a highrise condo, I could walk my dogsoutside but had to stop. We have no size limit ondogs. Some dogs here in one snapping bite couldkill a Chihuahua. I decided it wasn't worth it.My dogs use paper and we stay in. The balcony istheir window on the world. My son chicken-wiredit in for safety.ElaineIf a man does his best, what else is there?--General George S. Patton (1885-1945)Hello AmandaOn Friday, December 15, 2006, you wrote> I've tried clipping Chazs nails at home and> he'd rather gnaw his own paw off, so that's why> I was looking into getting them done at> Petsmart, stupid me assumed that if someone is> working in that degree with animals, they'd know> what they're doing and how to handle him. _________________________________________________________________ Use Messenger to talk to your IM friends, even those on Yahoo! http://ideas.live.com/programpage.aspx?versionId=7adb59de-a857-45ba-81cc-685ee3e858fe
