Positive Examples! Yea!

In showing folks how to not suck at life, I occasionally have positive encounters. I had such an encounter yesterday evening.

I've adopted a dog who I love dearly. He's a rescue. He had been severely abused and neglected. He's been extremely distrustful of new people and terrified of water, but he's been getting better. I currently do not have the proper apparatus to bathe the dog at home, and I had to give in and take him to Petco's grooming salon so he could get a bath. I was extremely nervous about him getting scared while a stranger was spraying water on him. I told my concerns to Crystal, the lovely young woman who gave him his bath. She came out into the waiting area of the grooming salon and crouched down to be at my dog's level. She let him sniff her, he accepted a treat, she petted him. She spent about five minutes just crouched down, letting my dog get a sense of her and letting him become comfortable before putting the grooming loop on him and leading him into the back. Through the bath, she went nice and slow with him, letting him smell the hoses before using them and being overall very gentle with him. And he did just fine.

I'm sure a lot of you are thinking "Duh, she used common sense and followed her job training. So what?" But that's exactly it. SHE USED COMMON SENSE! SHE FOLLOWED HER JOB TRAINING! SHE EXPRESSED THAT SHE CARED ABOUT WHAT SHE WAS DOING! There is a competing pet store that I refuse to take my dog to, even for food or toys, because I know how poorly they train their salon associates. That company emphasizes rushing and keeping costs low. They way Crystal interacted with my dog was just wonderful. The other associates I saw in the salon were acting the same way with their dogs. To me, above all else, this says the company actually cares about who they hire and how they're trained. Petco emphasizes actually caring about the animals they see. Every employee I've dealt with at any location has seemed to genuinely care about what they're doing. Maybe this isn't so much informational or providing sound examples of what to do or not to do as much as me just expressing that I was happy with the way things went down yesterday. But I was happy with the way things went down yesterday! And I firmly believe that when a company, and especially when an employee, does something great, they should receive recognition. I'm going to call in the morning to speak to the salon manager to pass on the kudos.

Perspective time. I used to work for that competitor I mentioned earlier. I worked in the grooming salon, very briefly. That is how I know just how piss poor their training is. My first day, I was being trained by a girl who had just returned from a medical leave. I was to replace her. She was in the process of being promoted. She had started out as a bather (what I was to do), and was about to start "school" to become a groomer, being able to cut the dogs' hair and such. She quickly told me that she will never work on Pitbulls and that it would be wise for me to refuse to work on pits as well. I asked her why. And she told me the story of why she had been on medical leave. She had been bathing a scared pit who managed to break his grooming loop and run off. This scared, confused dog ran and hid underneath a table. The bather got on her knees, reached under the table, and grabbed the dog and pulled him out by his front legs. Shockingly, the dog bit her in the face. Of course the dog bit her in the face! I understand what happens in a grooming salon and if somebody roughly grabbed me and started pulling me towards them, I would bite them in the face! A terrified dog who has no idea why a stranger is spraying water at it? Of course he's going to run! And then the stupid bitch was rough with him and forced him out of a place he felt kind of somewhat safe? Yeah. I'm personally proud of the dog for not going for her throat. That bite didn't have shit to do with what type of breed that dog was. Pits are the sweetest dogs ever (my dog is an Australian Shepherd mix, with no pit, so I say that without bias). They are so easy to train. Unfortunately a lot of horrible people train them to be violent. That's not indicative of it being a bad, violent breed. It's simply indicative of how easy it is to train a pitbull. But that's my PSA and not exactly relevant. The point is, that bather was clearly, 100%, absolutely in the wrong. But that company was afraid the bather would sue them for being injured on the job, even though this is the equivalent of working in a hardware store and having an associate sue because he/she personally decided it would be fun to try that juggling thing with live chainsaws and lost a hand. So instead of risking a law suit and taking action to protect future clients, the company promoted this idiot. Everything about that is how you suck at business. If you don't have the common sense and compassion to work with dogs, DON'T WORK WITH DOGS. If you're going to promote somebody who could have seriously injured, and definitely traumatized, a dog into a position where they get to put scissors near the eyes of dogs...just stop. Just stop existing. Seriously. Please.

In short, well done, Petco. You are a shining example of doing things right.