Here’s the thing, if you groom dogs, you will occasionally cut a dog. I don’t care how long you’ve been grooming. Pads are pretty easy to nick as are ears. Dogs move. A lot. I work in a busy shop with a lot of commotion. There are 8 groomers on any given day and between 1 and 4 bathers. Each person typically has a dog attached. That’s a lot of bodies and a lot of motion. Even the best behaved dogs get distracted. My personal dog is a poodle in full show coat at the moment. He’s been groomed since he was 3 weeks old. He’s been coming to the shop since he was 10wks old, but so he definitely knows the drill. I nicked his lip the other night when I was shaving his face because he jumped at some loud noise. Its just a little papercut like cut and aside from jumping when I did it, he hasn’t even seemed to notice it. Just goes to show that an experienced groomer with a well behaved dog can still cut a dog.
Protocol in my shop is to immediately take the dog to the vet next door anytime blood is drawn. The majority of the time the vet just puts a dot of glue on it and life goes on. If it is something more serious the vet deals with it. Sometimes the groom will be finished, sometimes not. It depends on the severity of the cut, the dog’s behavior and the owner’s wishes.
As for charging? It kind of depends on the severity of the wound. If its just a little papercut like nick or what is essentially a scrape from a blade tooth? We still charge. If its something that will require any kind of follow up care either from a vet or the owner, we do not charge. If its a big enough cut for the owner to notice without it being pointed out, we don’t charge. Either way, we still inform the owner what happened.
