jobbite
I adore dogs. They are some of the best creatures on the planet, and frankly, they're the only reason I stayed at this job so long. I was called "incompetent" by the people in charge on more than one occasion. I was also cornered in an office and unfairly accused of saying and doing things that were not true, as well as unethical. The pay was rough. A majority of the co-workers weren't the least bit kind, but there were a select few that were absolutely amazing. I won't even go in to the treatment of the dogs or the sub-par equipment. This was a work environment that it seemed like a bather was the lowest of the low and couldn't do anything right. I was yelled at for a mistakes that I wasn't responsible for on more than one occasion. At one point in my employment there, I made it my personal goal to make sure the dogs I got to bath/dry/etc were as perfect as I could make them. I didn't get dogs taken back to me for months. The one time I slipped up, I was literally yelled at and the groomers made fun of me for weeks. The dogs were the best part though. There were so many that came in, and though there were ones that caused problems, a lot of them were absolutely lovely. Getting to walk them every morning and make them all pretty was the best part of the job.
Dog Bathers work on commission only. From what I remember, you receive $2.25 for washing a small dog, another $2.25 for drying it, and $0.50 for every five minutes you brushed it. Large dogs were anywhere between $4-5 for the wash, with the same amount for the dry. 50 cents was the brush time (if you brushed the dog). Cleaning, setting up, walking dogs, doing laundry, etc was 50-75 cents per five minutes, and they will ask you what took you so long if you go a little over 30 minutes on a task like cleaning two bathrooms and one of the tubs. I believe you get vacation time after a year of working there. There was a Christmas bonus, based on the amount of change there was in the tip jar over that year. There weren't any reimbursements, but they did have this process of taking money out of your final paycheck if you borrowed money for gas at some point during the week.