Workplace Nightmares·
GROOMER'S PRIVACY QUANDARY
At a Tennessee grooming facility, a leash incident spurs a privacy dilemma as staff wonder how to respond when a stranger asks for another dog's owner's contact.
Should the owner info stay private or be handed over?
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A small dog got loose, a bigger dog jumped out of a truck, and now a groomer in West Tennessee is asking one urgent question: who is supposed to hand over the other owner's information?
The poster works at a dog boarding facility as a groomer and says they are on a time crunch of about three hours. They were not outside when it happened. "I was not outside, so only know what I was told," they said.
Here's the scene as it was described to them: one client was dropping off a dog for grooming while another person was leaving. The poster says they'll call the dog leaving "Ursa" and the incoming dog "Snowball." Snowball's owner was walking up with Snowball when the dog got off leash. At the same time, Ursa jumped out of his owner's truck and "attacked" Snowball.
The poster used the word "attacked" in quotes, saying Ursa is known to them and has never been aggressive with other dogs before.
Snowball's mother panicked when the larger dog moved toward her small dog and fell down. Afterward, she told the front desk what happened and asked for Ursa's owner's information. According to the poster, that information was not given to her at the time.
Snowball does not have any injuries, and the dog was still left there for the haircut.
Now the question has shifted from the incident itself to the fallout. The poster wants to know what the legally proper way would be to respond if Snowball's mother asks again for Ursa's owner's information when she comes back to pick him up. "What is the legally proper way to respond?" the poster asked. "I'm uncomfortable with just handing out a client's name and contact info," they wrote, adding that they are "unsure if I'm obligated to do so due to the incident."
In an edit, the poster clarified that their manager was the one who was actually asked for the information. "y'all, my manager is the one who was asked for the info. she also was unsure what to do." The manager, too, did not know how to handle the request.
For now, the facility is left with a loose dog story, a fall, and a privacy question hanging over the front desk.