#1 Reasons for Enrolling in Grooming School

Introduction

After resigning from my second company in September 2023 and spending a year unemployed, I began attending a grooming school for working adults in September 2024.
I will refer to the dog I own as Maru-san from here on, as he is a Maltese.

Reasons for enrolling in grooming school

At the time, my Maltese, Maru-san, was 10 years old, and I felt he was getting to be a senior.
I had been taking him to a local veterinary clinic for monthly grooming,
but he wasn't very enthusiastic on the way there,
so I wondered if I could make grooming something he didn't dislike,
and if I could reduce his burden and eliminate his stress.
After thinking about it for about half a year, I decided to attend grooming school.
It wasn't that the veterinary clinic I was using was bad at all,
but this was a decision made after considering Maru-san's grooming history and personality.

Also, at that time, I was unemployed, and when I thought about what I wanted to do now and how I wanted to live my life,
I simply thought that first, it would be great if the people around me and Maru-san could live happy, stress-free lives, and if I could make grooming my job, it would be a job involving the dogs I love, and I would be able to interact with them while possessing technical skills, which I thought was cool.

About Maru-san's salon history and grooming

The first grooming salon Maru-san went to when he was small (he only went a few times) would result in him defecating or urinating on the way there, and he would be trembling in the corner of the room after coming home, so it was too pitiful and I stopped going.
It was a rather expensive privately-owned salon, and a haircut cost about 10,000 yen.
(From about 6 months to 2 years old)

For the second salon, I didn't take him myself but switched to a car pickup service, but
when I dropped him off, the same thing happened, and there were incidents where my clothes would get dirty with poop and urine.
Compared to the first salon, it was a reasonable price of about 7,500 yen for a haircut, plus a separate pickup fee. This place had two locations in the same city.
(From about 2 to 6 years old)

So, I would sometimes do the grooming (just cutting the hair) myself, but since this was 10 years ago, grooming information wasn't widespread on the internet, and I was cutting with hair-cutting scissors without any knowledge.

Once, like the protagonist of a certain pirate anime, I accidentally pinched the area just under the edge of his eye with the scissors and cut him a little.
It was a really small wound, barely visible. (It has disappeared now.)
A little blood came out, but it stopped immediately, and since I didn't injure his eye, I remember feeling relieved.
I often asked the veterinary clinic I went to for checkups when I first got him to do only ear cleaning, nail clipping, and anal gland expression, and fortunately, I haven't caused him any injuries since then.

I have been using the local veterinary clinic mentioned at the beginning for grooming since he was about 6 years old when I moved. He isn't enthusiastic on the walk there, but there are no abnormalities with Maru-san after he comes home, and the groomer is a good person, so I kept going.
Also, the price was reasonable, about the same as the second salon.

Finally

I wanted to write about the reason I enrolled in grooming school, but
I realized I couldn't write it without looking back at Maru-san's history and my own history.

So, next time, I think I will write about why I welcomed Maru-san into my life.
I would be happy if you read it again.
Thank you for reading until the end.