What does a groom do?
A groom is primarily in charge of maintaining the hygiene and appearance of pets. Typically working at grooming shops, a groom liaises with pet owners to identify their preferences, observe the pet's condition to identify its needs, and explain the extent of procedures to pet owners. They may bathe and cut a pet's hair or nails, even brush its teeth and recommend care procedures to clients. Furthermore, as a groom, it is essential to be proactive and alert as some pets' behaviors are unpredictable.
Groom responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real groom resumes:
- Manage all breeding, whelping, raising of puppies, grooming and showing of dogs for owners in the AKC.
- Provide excellent customer service and interact with pet parents.
- Perform all grooming procedures including bath, brush, clips, and shave downs.
- Toe nail clips, ear cleanings, and also extensive de sheds and mat removal.
- Perform animal grooming such as washing, brushing, trimming coats, cutting nails, and cleaning ears.
- Answer calls, make grooming appointments, wash and dry dogs, trim/ grind nails, brush coats appropriately
- Provide top-notch services to customers by washing and drying dogs, clipping nails and fur, and cleaning ears.
- Bathe and brushing and some grooming like shave downs and sanitary, anal glad expression and nail clipping and filing.
- Keep supervisor inform of needs and problems in assign areas, maintain cleanliness of immediate work area and report maintenance needs.
- Maintain cleanliness and organization of grooming shop.
- Generate repeat clientele by building relationships with pet owners and veterinarians in the community.
- Used touch point and SMS and can quickly adapt to other computer software's.
Groom skills and personality traits
We calculated that 71% of Grooms are proficient in PET, Clipping, and Animal Handling. They’re also known for soft skills such as Dexterity, Listening skills, and Physical stamina.
We break down the percentage of Grooms that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- PET, 71%
Determined pet name, destination, mode of travel, time and other data, following written and oral instructions.
- Clipping, 11%
Groomed cats including clipping and trimming, bathing, shed control treatments, nail trimming, and ear cleaning.
- Animal Handling, 4%
Cleaned, disinfected and maintained animal handling areas and veterinary services areas.
- Pet Care, 3%
Certified Pet Care Expert, where I would take care of the animals that were for sale.
- Compassion, 3%
Managed difficult situations and demonstrated compassion, and interest in the needs of our customers.
- Customer Satisfaction, 3%
Safeguarded customer satisfaction by providing a clean and properly stocked aircraft.
Common skills that a groom uses to do their job include "pet," "clipping," and "animal handling." You can find details on the most important groom responsibilities below.
Dexterity. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a groom to have is dexterity. Their role and responsibilities require that "agricultural workers need excellent hand-eye coordination to harvest crops and operate farm machinery." Grooms often use dexterity in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "provided hands on assistance to the groomer, performing a large variety of tasks i.e. "
Listening skills. Many groom duties rely on listening skills. "agricultural workers must listen carefully to ensure that they understand instructions from farmers and other agricultural managers and supervisors.," so a groom will need this skill often in their role. This resume example is just one of many ways groom responsibilities rely on listening skills: "listen to the wants and expectation of each individual pet parent to determine what services were going to be done. "
Physical stamina. This is an important skill for grooms to perform their duties. For an example of how groom responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "agricultural workers must have physical endurance because they do laborious tasks repeatedly." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a groom: "obtain and monitor vital signs, perform physical exams and maintain pet records. ".
The three companies that hire the most grooms are:
- Pet Supplies Plus491 grooms jobs
- Petco Holdings, Inc.192 grooms jobs
- Kriser's Natural Pet
18 grooms jobs
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Compare different grooms
Groom vs. Ranch hand
A ranch hand is a person who takes care of livestock animals in a ranch. Ranch hands perform the ranch husbandry job, which involves keeping them healthy, feeding them, and overseeing breeding. The primary duty they serve is to assist in the day-to-day operations in the ranch. They prepare livestock animals for slaughter or sale. They must have experience in cattle handling and/or animal husbandry. They should also be adaptable, enthusiastic, and know ranch equipment and maintenance.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between grooms and ranch hand. For instance, groom responsibilities require skills such as "pet," "clipping," "animal handling," and "pet care." Whereas a ranch hand is skilled in "harvest," "farm work," "farm machinery," and "physical characteristics." This is part of what separates the two careers.
The education levels that ranch hands earn slightly differ from grooms. In particular, ranch hands are 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a groom. Additionally, they're 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Groom vs. Stable hand
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, groom responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "pet," "animal handling," "pet care," and "compassion." Meanwhile, a stable hand has duties that require skills in areas such as "facility maintenance," "general upkeep," "water," and "water buckets." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
In general, stable hands achieve similar levels of education than grooms. They're 0.2% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Groom vs. Field hand
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from groom resumes include skills like "pet," "clipping," "animal handling," and "pet care," whereas a field hand is more likely to list skills in "frac tanks," "oilfield equipment," "manual labor," and "routine maintenance. "
Field hands typically earn similar educational levels compared to grooms. Specifically, they're 0.7% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.3% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Groom vs. Field worker
Types of groom
Updated January 8, 2025
