Not so long ago one of my career goals was to become a Certified Master Groomer. Well, I've done that. I have completed my CMG through The International Professional Groomers Assn. I feel energized, just knowing that I can and have proved my ability to groom pets to a judged degree of excellence. But does it make a difference to my next new client or any of my current clients? Probably not. Just around the corner from me is another career groomer who markets herself as a "master groomer" but admits that she gave herself that title, has never belonged to or tested with one of the three national organizations that our industry has. So what makes us different?
How does one get to be a Master Groomer? Boy that's a question and a half. So, who's to say when one reaches the destination of MASTER GROOMER? Is it the years we've put into being a groomer, is it the knowledge that we glean everyday for years? Or is it the testing by some organization that then gives you a piece of paper that says you are now a "Certified Master Groomer" (term used by the International Professional Groomers Assn.) or "Nationally Certified Master Groomer" (term used by the National Dog Groomers Association of America), or "Master Pet Stalest" (term used by the International Society of Canine Cosmetologists). How many groomers yearn for those letters behind your name... CMG.
Discussing these thoughts years ago with my good buddy Barbara Bird, we observed that in many skilled professions a program of skill exists starting with Apprenticeships, Journeyman, and finally to Master is the normal climb to the summit. However the pet grooming industry seems to have taken a much different path to the summit. When the pet industry exploded with the boom of prosperity in the decades after World War Two, the demand was high for individuals that could wash and cut the hair of family pets. By the 1960's and 1970's the demand was met with schools for pet grooming popping up all over the country. There were not enough apprentices seeing their way to the summit of Master fast enough. Because there was [and still is] no structure in place to license groomers the "journey" concept was scuttled and graduates of these grooming schools moved right into ownership of establishments without any need to work under the supervision of masters. At the time there was also no agreed upon definition of just who was a master.
Then national organizations scurried to get ahead of the growing wave and attempted to reserve the title of "master" to one who had been "peer certified" or tested by peers using a strict guideline of certain breeds along with written testing of breeds within AKC groups so that one fully understood the Breed Standards, our blueprint of how a breed is suppose to look when grooming is completed. Grooming schools of the time were providing their own version of certification, which was a certificate of completion, not the independent peer certification from organizations like the National Dog Groomers Association of America, or the International Professional Groomers Assn. just to mention two of the earliest organizations to do so.
How would you define apprenticeship, journeyman and master? Barbara and I came up with some interesting ideas ... just where did the concept of apprentice, journeyman and master come about? If you look into our past these concepts have been around for hundreds of years. It was not uncommon for a skilled person [master] to take on a younger person [apprentice] to pass on his skills or trade. This was how trades passed knowledge to the next generation of skilled worker. The designation of journeyman most likely came about as an apprentice became skilled but not yet a master, in other words still on the "journey toward master".
In our fast paced society of the 1990's a new idea gained popularity, that of 'Internship". What's that? Is there a difference between an intern and an apprentice? Yes there is...An apprentice is someone that starts new in the trade then under observation works toward mastering the skills of the chosen profession. An intern on the other hand is someone that has had schooling directed toward a specific trade or industry with some laboratory time to have hands on with the intended profession. Schooling plus Lab is but another way to the summit for the Intern, who has an understanding of the basics, both the concept of artistic design and use of the equipment to accomplish the task. They do not however have the years of hand's on training that a seasoned apprentice would have at the side of a master, so they usually enter the field or profession with skills less than a master but more than an new apprentice.
Now in the new millennium even the traditional grooming school has evolved past a physical location. Instead we see a move to the Internet with learning the basic concept of artistic design and equipment knowledge ON-LINE and then hands on with something called an "extern-ship" . What's that? An "extern-ship" as explained by John Nash from the Nash Academy of Grooming (having two physical locations, one in New Jersey and the other in Kentucky) is where students first complete the on-line course designed similar to what you would find at any university setting, one based on class credits earned for classes completed. The laboratory time is then held at the home campus or can be any other qualified external location, one that has been certified by the Nash Academy following it's program for External Locations. --- " An approved external location is one that the instructor has completed the Internet course and has had hands-on for a minimum of six weeks as an instructor at one of the home locations and has passed an on-site evaluation of the location/salon to be used. We have to keep our standards high" to quote John Nash, founder of the Nash Academy ---
The Internet is the growing wave for the future in schooling and instruction, many location schools are closing finding it more profitable and less stress, no need for hands-on instructors, the equipment to be maintained or the pets on a day to day basis or the struggle to meet State requirements for teaching a vocation. The wave of the future is changing our concept of training, but does it change the title of master? What do you believe testing or requirements of a Master to be? Do years of service count? Does peer testing count? To be "politically correct" in todays world of higher education where does the title of "Master" fit in?
With the increasing occurrence of "bad-press" focused on injuries or deaths of pets in the grooming shop environment the general public may soon demand that our industry be one that has a qualified "vocational" system in place. Who is to say what that system will be? As we have seen in the past with many of the skilled trades we have today, it will surly involve a multi-step process to gain the title of "MASTER GROOMER".
