'Pawfection' Lembke enjoys work as a pet groomer

 

When McKenna Lempke graduated from North Fayette Valley in 2015 she had her eyes set on becoming a veterinarian. She learned pretty quickly at Iowa State University that becoming a vet just wasn’t for her and decided to go to pet grooming school at Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids. She graduated in May 2018 and hopes to open up her own shop some day.  Submitted photos

 

'Pawfection' Lembke enjoys work as a pet groomer

 

 

By Chris Deback
cdeback@thefayettecountyunion.com

 

 

 

 

Today (May 1) is National Skilled Trades Day. 

While there are plenty of skilled trades that come to mind such as electrician, plumber, and welder; one that you might not think of is pet groomer. 

Just like humans, some pets need frequent haircuts. A newcomer to the pet-grooming industry is Elgin native McKenna Lembke, who has been grooming pets for approximately a year. Lembke didn’t graduate from North Fayette Valley High School in 2015 with the intentions of becoming a pet groomer. She attended Iowa State University with the hopes of becoming a veterinarian. For some college students like Lembke it doesn’t take long to learn that they have chosen the wrong profession. 

“I originally wanted to be a vet, but it didn’t take me very long to figure out that isn’t what I want to do,” she noted. “In our careers’ classes, where the school talked about what kind of career we could go into with an animal science degree, none of them were really something that I was passionate about. I just didn’t think I should continue in animal science.”

While searching her soul for her new career path, Lembke stumbled upon pet grooming.

“I had no experience whatsoever, and I don’t know why all of a sudden I thought of pet grooming,” Lembke recalled. “It was just something that I had mentioned to my mom, and she was like, ‘Oh, yeah. Kirkwood has a good program for that, and I told you when you were in high school to check it out but you didn’t listen to me.’ Moms are always right. 

“ I was a research assistant at ISU, and we spent all summer just working on one project,” she added. “By the time I left they hadn’t even finished the project yet. I thought to myself, ‘Why would you want to spend that much time working on one project?’ The thing I really like about pet grooming is it only takes me a couple hours to finish one project.”

Lembke enrolled to Kirkwood’s one-year pet grooming program graduating in May 2018. She had classes two nights a week, where the main focus was on grooming pets. The class started working on dogs in large groups and eventually worked their way down to working on pets individually by the end of the one-year program. 

“We also had classes where we were talking about opening our own business, nutrition classes, and classes where we talked about a dog’s health,” she continued. 

After graduation, it was Lembke’s goal to move back to northeast Iowa and be close to her Elgin roots. She saw a post on Kirkwood’s alumni website noting that Pipestone Vet Clinic in Independence was looking for a pet groomer. She inquired with the person who made the post and then reached out to Pipestone about the position. 

“I went in to Pipestone speak about my credentials, and they offered me the position,” Lembke explained. “I have been working there since May 2018, and it has been a lot of fun. No one at the clinic has any grooming training so sometimes I might mention something to them of which they might not have thought. Since I’m only in Independence three days per week, I recently got started at Critters and Such in Decorah, as well.”

Lembke noted that a typical dog grooming appointment can last anywhere from one to four hours, depending on the size of the dog and what exactly the dog needs done. 

“I have what I call my basics, so I do the feet, clean up the paw pads, brush out the dog, do a sanitary clip on them to clean up their tummy and butt, clean out their ears, a bath, and then whatever haircut the owner wants,” Lembke said. “A breed that wouldn’t get shaved like a lab or husky, I do basically everything except for shaving the dog.”

When it comes to giving a dog a haircut, Lembke listens to what the owner wants and tries to replicate it to the best of her ability. However, the customers don’t always know what they want.

“I had a Shih-Tzu mix come in yesterday, and the owner said to me, ‘I don’t even know what it is supposed to look like,’” she recalled. “I was like, ‘Okay, I will do what I think will look good for this dog.’ Everyone loved the haircut when I was done. It was a little different than I would normally do for a Shih-Tzu mix. Normally, I would do a big round face, but the owner wanted it short, so I did a short little face with a beard and mustache on it. It looked really cute.” 

Lembke takes a great deal of care to make sure the dogs warm up to the equipment she is going to use. She’ll let the dog smell the hair clipper before turning it on and letting them hear it for a little while before she starts cutting their hair. Sometimes, that doesn't matter and Lembke has had to cut appointments short because the dog was being aggressive. She doesn’t have the ability to explain to a dog that she isn’t going to hurt them. 

“The nice thing about working in a vet clinic is we have the option to sedate the dog if necessary,” Lembke explained. “We obviously start by trying without sedation, but if they aren’t responding we will talk to the doctor about possible sedation. We obviously have to have permission from the owner to do that. Some dogs we put a muzzle on and try our best. The owners are understanding of that because they don’t want us to put their dog in danger, and we don’t want to put their dog or ourselves in danger.

“I have sent dogs home,” she added. “I have had dogs that every time they come in they are really nice and then all of a sudden one day they aren’t having it. They are like people and can have a bad day. Once in awhile the dog just doesn’t want to cooperate so I have had the owner come pick the dog up without getting its haircut because they were trying to bite and being aggressive. The owners understand because we explain to them that they were stressed to day and if you go into work and you are stressed you don’t want to do stuff either. But, we can’t explain to the dog that we aren’t trying to hurt them. We just try to deal with it as best as we can.” 

Her ultimate goal is to start her own business one day, but for now Lembke is enjoying grooming dogs in Independence and Decorah. 

 

 

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