A Katy, Texas, dog groomer was fired by PetSmart last week after a viral video captured her rough treatment of a dog. Terah Leder, a customer, recorded the video on her cellphone and reported the mistreatment to the store manager and called PetSmart’s corporate offices.
Source: Washington Post, February 3, 2018 (paywall), Houston Chronicle, February 2, 2018.
In Leder’s video, the groomer can be seen gripping a Shih Tzu’s muzzle and jerking its face several times while trying to trim the fur around the dog’s neck. At one point in the video, the groomer lets go of the dog’s face but then yanks its right ear to force the dog’s head into a different angle.
INSIGHTS: Whether cutting hair, vaccinating a pet or working a truckload of incoming calves at a feedyard, it is best to work as if you’re on camera. In this case, a concerned customer took a strong interest in what was going on and acted on what she saw. Even without the video, this incident serves as an effective training reminder that we all can be watched performing any task, even routine ones.