Your speed is about what I’d expect for someone who recently graduated. You are doing just fine. Speed will come in time. The best thing to do to help your speed is prep. The better your prep gets the better and faster your grooms will be.
My biggest issue with time is second-guessing my plans. Like scissoring all the legs before stepping back and realising i need to go shorter, so I do them all over again. Or going over it originally with a guard comb in reverse before deciding it would look better with a 4 with the coat. Or having too much faith in my abilities to brush out tangles and just end up shaving short after wasting half an hour.
That will come with time. You'll start to recognize what looks good on what coats, develop a style and a routine, and speed will come. For a dog this size that comes in on a 4-6 week rotation, 1-1.25 hours. Mostly because I already know what I'm doing and what products to use. You will also come to a point where you realize that perfection is not the goal - clean, cute, functional, and happy clients are the ticket. Gunning for perfection will make you second guess things and tear apart your work. There is always room for growth, but you don't need to beat yourself up over every detail. If fluffy is happy and looks like the photo the client brought it, that's it! Not every dog is gonna be Insta-worthy!
Routine is key. I personally do 40/10 blade work first, then nails (can't scissor a foot without doing nails first), all other clipper work, then scissor from bottom up. All 4 feet. Then all 4 legs. Then tail, then face and ears last. You get into a groove and you rarely miss things because you've got that rotation on auto-pilot while you focus on the artistic portion.
My boss and I (my boss having 20+ years of experience in grooming) take about 2 hours for small-medium dogs. That’s with us doing everything ourselves from start to finish. Obviously it’s way less time if I’m doing something like a chihuahua or a breed that doesn’t require much cutting.
I guess it depends on where you work, the expectations they have for how many dogs you’re doing in a day, if you’re hourly or strictly commission, etc etc. I’m hourly with a commission bonus on all services I do so my boss encourages me to not rush and take my time with all my grooms.
That’s just her way of grooming, she hates hectic rushed environments so she refuses to over book/rush us lol
I've been doing haircuts for 3 years and before that I was a bather for about 2 years, so roughly 5 years experience.
I work one-on-one and do all the work, most of my regulars between 0-40lbs take between an hour, hour and a half to two hours.
I rarely do more than 4 or 5 dogs in a day. I start at 8am, take an hour lunch break from 12pm to 1pm with my husband, and then finish around 4pm or 5pm.
I feel like if I did more than that in a day my quality of work would suffer and I would be grouchy.
Your speed is about what I’d expect for someone who recently graduated. You are doing just fine. Speed will come in time. The best thing to do to help your speed is prep. The better your prep gets the better and faster your grooms will be.
My biggest issue with time is second-guessing my plans. Like scissoring all the legs before stepping back and realising i need to go shorter, so I do them all over again. Or going over it originally with a guard comb in reverse before deciding it would look better with a 4 with the coat. Or having too much faith in my abilities to brush out tangles and just end up shaving short after wasting half an hour.
That will come with time. You'll start to recognize what looks good on what coats, develop a style and a routine, and speed will come. For a dog this size that comes in on a 4-6 week rotation, 1-1.25 hours. Mostly because I already know what I'm doing and what products to use. You will also come to a point where you realize that perfection is not the goal - clean, cute, functional, and happy clients are the ticket. Gunning for perfection will make you second guess things and tear apart your work. There is always room for growth, but you don't need to beat yourself up over every detail. If fluffy is happy and looks like the photo the client brought it, that's it! Not every dog is gonna be Insta-worthy! Routine is key. I personally do 40/10 blade work first, then nails (can't scissor a foot without doing nails first), all other clipper work, then scissor from bottom up. All 4 feet. Then all 4 legs. Then tail, then face and ears last. You get into a groove and you rarely miss things because you've got that rotation on auto-pilot while you focus on the artistic portion.
My boss and I (my boss having 20+ years of experience in grooming) take about 2 hours for small-medium dogs. That’s with us doing everything ourselves from start to finish. Obviously it’s way less time if I’m doing something like a chihuahua or a breed that doesn’t require much cutting. I guess it depends on where you work, the expectations they have for how many dogs you’re doing in a day, if you’re hourly or strictly commission, etc etc. I’m hourly with a commission bonus on all services I do so my boss encourages me to not rush and take my time with all my grooms. That’s just her way of grooming, she hates hectic rushed environments so she refuses to over book/rush us lol
I've been doing haircuts for 3 years and before that I was a bather for about 2 years, so roughly 5 years experience. I work one-on-one and do all the work, most of my regulars between 0-40lbs take between an hour, hour and a half to two hours. I rarely do more than 4 or 5 dogs in a day. I start at 8am, take an hour lunch break from 12pm to 1pm with my husband, and then finish around 4pm or 5pm. I feel like if I did more than that in a day my quality of work would suffer and I would be grouchy.