Trying again...

[Lullaby]

Some time ago, I mentioned that I was accepted into a pet grooming school. I was supposed to start last month, but my depression got much worse and I fell out of contact with almost everyone; including the school. Last week, I realized that being home with my thoughts all day was making me feel worse, so I reached out to a lot of people to get back on top of things. The school told me everything was fine and that I could start tomorrow, Monday morning. So I'm going to push myself and go through with it.

I'm excited, but the nerves are setting in today and I'm just really scared. For years, I could not keep a job and would just leave after a week. I dropped out of college twice because my anxiety was too severe and/or I just couldn't find anything that I was passionate about. Then I started working with animals, and noticed that was the first time ever where I held a job for a long time. Even on my bad days, I was still happy to go to work. So this is a trade I know I want to get into, but with how bad I've been lately, I'm scared I'll have a bad day and use that as an excuse to just give up completely. When I get too stressed or busy, I get overwhelmed and just shut down entirely. It's just too easy to stay in bed and go back to what you're used to.

But I'm going to really try and ignore these thoughts, and do one las, big push. It's been almost three years since I've done any work or schooling, so it'll take some time to adjust to being active again but I'm going to try and do this. I'm going to also start taking my medication again tomorrow morning before I leave and hope this all goes okay.

 

[Lost in a Dream]

I really hope this works out for you. Getting stressed and overwhelmed has the same affect on me and that's when I'm the least likely to even consider the idea of recovery. Animals are really good at bringing us out of the downward spirals we find ourselves in, and once they get to know and love a person, they never stop loving them, unlike people.

Once you get through the pet grooming school, there's a good chance you can do it professionally. Once you start seeing regular customers on a regular basis, the animals you'll be working with will learn to trust you and it will be a very rewarding experience.

 

[Well-Edited Chaos]

Good for you for pushing through the fear, anxiety, doubt, etc, and going after what you want. That's tough, and I hope you're proud of yourself for doing it.

If you feel like it, stop by tmrw when your day is done. I'd love to hear how it went. I'll be sending you positive thoughts.

 

[Lullaby]

I really hope this works out for you. Getting stressed and overwhelmed has the same affect on me and that's when I'm the least likely to even consider the idea of recovery. Animals are really good at bringing us out of the downward spirals we find ourselves in, and once they get to know and love a person, they never stop loving them, unlike people.

Once you get through the pet grooming school, there's a good chance you can do it professionally. Once you start seeing regular customers on a regular basis, the animals you'll be working with will learn to trust you and it will be a very rewarding experience.

Thank you, I'm hoping it does too. You're definitely right about animals, I think I've only been able to make it these last couple of years because of my cat that I adopted. So many people have come and gone, but at the end of the day, I still have him. I feel like animals deserve the best, that's why I love working with them so much.

Working in this field would be my first ever career oriented thing, so I'm really going to try and make the best of my training as much as I can.

Good for you for pushing through the fear, anxiety, doubt, etc, and going after what you want. That's tough, and I hope you're proud of yourself for doing it.

If you feel like it, stop by tmrw when your day is done. I'd love to hear how it went. I'll be sending you positive thoughts.

Thank you! I'll definitely update you on the first day, hoping I can come back with some positive news.

 

[Dead Meat]

I wish you all the Luck in the world and that you have great success

 

[whatevs]

Let´s go! It sounds like good opportunity to try making life bearable again. Good luck.

 

[TheLastFemaphrodyke]

Some time ago, I mentioned that I was accepted into a pet grooming school. I was supposed to start last month, but my depression got much worse and I fell out of contact with almost everyone; including the school. Last week, I realized that being home with my thoughts all day was making me feel worse, so I reached out to a lot of people to get back on top of things. The school told me everything was fine and that I could start tomorrow, Monday morning. So I'm going to push myself and go through with it.

I'm excited, but the nerves are setting in today and I'm just really scared. For years, I could not keep a job and would just leave after a week. I dropped out of college twice because my anxiety was too severe and/or I just couldn't find anything that I was passionate about. Then I started working with animals, and noticed that was the first time ever where I held a job for a long time. Even on my bad days, I was still happy to go to work. So this is a trade I know I want to get into, but with how bad I've been lately, I'm scared I'll have a bad day and use that as an excuse to just give up completely. When I get too stressed or busy, I get overwhelmed and just shut down entirely. It's just too easy to stay in bed and go back to what you're used to.

But I'm going to really try and ignore these thoughts, and do one las, big push. It's been almost three years since I've done any work or schooling, so it'll take some time to adjust to being active again but I'm going to try and do this. I'm going to also start taking my medication again tomorrow morning before I leave and hope this all goes okay.

I was training to be a vet tech when my professor turned out to be the next door neighbor girl I grew up next to, her father was part of the human trafficking ring that had abducted me from my yard at the age of 4 1/2, she had been abused too and both our memories were swiss cheese, went to work the next day and had to help during 5 euthanizations, the last one fought and did not want to go, went home and the ex that was trying to kill me had gotten my new number and threatened me on my answering machine. The next day I got sent down to the grooming department and learned that trade, dropped out of school, went into dissociation yada yada yada......

Anyhow, grooming can be very good. Do NOT work for petsmart or petco, stay away from those kinds of places, work for a real groomer. Petco and Petsmart will use you AND you will not be able to make the money you need OR to perfect your grooming skills as you will have limited animals to work with, doing mostly baths and less actual grooming. A real groomer will show you how to hold your scissors and use your talent and artistry to create beautiful hair cuts for all your animals. If you are good enough you will be able to keep yourself sustained by only grooming show dogs/cats, but you have to get your skills up to par to enter into that world. Cats. Cats are the way to go. If you can handle cats, bathing them, brushing them, detangling them, shaving them, giving them special hair cuts, you can make bank. You get to charge more for cats because they need special grooming care as their skin is much thinner than dogs and cats are more difficult to handle for the most part, but if you are like me and work well with cats, get into that subfield as it pays well. Before I moved across the country I had a pretty exclusive clientel that brought their pets to me at my home, or paid extra to have me come to their home to take care of their cats or hard to handle dogs. This can pay really well for you and become a great comfort to the pets, their parents and to YOUm working with animals reduces stress, however, you must assure you are not overextending yourself, no matter how the parent cries, do NOT allow yourself to overbook, the animals can sense your stress and over booing makes you rush, do you want to be rushed by your hairdresser or your massuese, yeah, neither do they.

 

[Cathy Ames]

How is it going so far?

 

[Lullaby]

How is it going so far?

Not as easy I thought it would be lol my first day they had me shadowing but on my second they had me work on my first dog. It was really overwhelming because it was a puppy and his first time being groomed. I was so frustrated by the end and wanted to cry, but I'm not going to give up on this.

The instructors and other students are really nice and supportive, I'm the only one that's being hard on myself and overly critical.

Here's the first dog I worked on. I didn't snap a before but here's how he looked by the end.





And here's the second one

 

[onlyanimalsaregood]

I am glad to hear that you are committed to it and I think it will do you a lot of good. Animals can be therapeutic and I think you are good at it from the pictures you sent :)

 

[Lost in a Dream]

The second dog looks grateful to have their eyesight back! Before getting their grooming done, he or she probably felt like they were seeing through a fog.

 

[Sibyl Vane]

Aww they are so cute

You did a great job!

 

[Well-Edited Chaos]

Not as easy I thought it would be lol my first day they had me shadowing but on my second they had me work on my first dog. It was really overwhelming because it was a puppy and his first time being groomed. I was so frustrated by the end and wanted to cry, but I'm not going to give up on this.

The instructors and other students are really nice and supportive, I'm the only one that's being hard on myself and overly critical.

Here's the first dog I worked on. I didn't snap a before but here's how he looked by the end.

View attachment 94138

View attachment 94139

And here's the second one

View attachment 94140

View attachment 94141

Those dogs look pretty darn good to me! I think you did a great job.

 

[Azagorod]

That second dog looks so cute in the after pic ! I'm not sure how much he relies on his eyesight but he sure looks glad to have it back xd. First dog looks super fluffy, makes me want to pet it for an entire day haha. Great job on those two, you're going to do fine ! Keep at it. ^^

 

[TheLastFemaphrodyke]

Not as easy I thought it would be lol my first day they had me shadowing but on my second they had me work on my first dog. It was really overwhelming because it was a puppy and his first time being groomed. I was so frustrated by the end and wanted to cry, but I'm not going to give up on this.

The instructors and other students are really nice and supportive, I'm the only one that's being hard on myself and overly critical.

Here's the first dog I worked on. I didn't snap a before but here's how he looked by the end.

View attachment 94138

View attachment 94139

And here's the second one

View attachment 94140

View attachment 94141

Oh yes, it can be frustrating, especially with animals that have had a bad experience with the grooming process. Time. Gentle grooming method works best for me. Sometimes, with the hard to do animals, having them come in, get handed to the person taking care of them and loved on a bit and gotten done and back out to home is best, sometimes, having them come in and be in the grooming shop for a while beforfe getting bathed works best, just like humans, each dog will have it's own personality. The bext ones are the ones who get all excited to come in and be pampered, but the absolute top notch ones to groom are the ones that come in scared, from bad grooming experiences or life experiences and after three or four times, they suddenly start coming in all excited to see you and get worked on, knowing they will feel better when they leave, THOSE will keep you grooming and make you cry when they can no longer come in to be groomed.