Academy of Animal Arts

I’m very sad I took this long to write a review for the most amazing school of grooming that is Academy of Animal Arts.
I’m 28 years old I’m married and have a son, and have been working for corporate offices since early 20’s and finally decided to do something I love, which is working with dogs. I live in New York City and researched for awhile for the best grooming school out there. I tried the only school in New york city and it was no good. Later I tried another school still no good. so then i started my research for the best school of grooming out there. I called Academy of Animal Arts and spoke to Rick for 40 minutes which by the way all schools i’ve called before, weren’t as attentive as he was and he explained everything to me and was very honest. So finally I registered online for Academy of Animal Arts School, packed my bags, thank god my husband supported me in this journey to take this course that I so desired to pursue my dreams.
I found a roomate to live with which Rick and Teri helped me find and it was perfect.
Let’s talk about Teri– Teri was an inspiration like no other. She has a curriculum of over 30 years thats hard to achieve. Teri really taught me to overcome my fears of grooming and I’m only good at what I do now, thanks to Teri. She taught me every aspect of grooming in a short amount time and was very impressed. She is the grooming whisperer and Dog Whisperer. Teri is a professional with work ethics that i’ve never seen before. i returned home to New York and I know own a business of my own.
With Teri’s expertise and years of experience of teaching grooming and pet business, she has made my dream come true.
Thank you so much Teri bialek and Rick. Miss you guys and the school.
P. S.pardon my grammer, english is not my first language.

Let me first say that I do not attend the school. Rather, we bring our dogs (we have 3!) to be groomed by the amazing students and faculty! They have great care, patience, and love when pampering our fur-​babies. We’ve tried other groomers in the area, but for the time they spend and cost of having our pups look absolutely amazing, I will never go anywhere else! Even our most finicky pup loves going to see the wonderful people there! Most definitely, 5 Stars!

I am currently attending the Academy of Animal Arts after leaving a 25+ year career in corporate America to pursue my passion of working with animals. This school offers the most comprehensive theory and daily hands on experience available. Teri Bialek is an excellent educator and very patient and thorough. Her extensive background in owning pet salons, coupled with the experience of being a judge /​educator FOR CKC, NCA, and Best In Show allows her to share invaluable information and tools to prepare students for success. This accredited school offers assistance with job placement and I have personally spoken with past students that are practicing and making average and above average incomes. I offer a 5 star recommendation and encourage anyone interested in a grooming/​styling career to come spend a day observing.

This school is awesome! I have been here for 16 weeks and love it. The owner, instructor Teri is very thorough and attentive.

I’m writing this review after leaving the Academy of Animal Arts, finishing my degree at another Tampa Area Grooming school, and working as a groomer for close to a year. I thought that over time working in the industry, my complaints about the Academy might soften. They have not.
My experience at this school was very negative and I would not recommend it. In my opinion there were not enough instructors for the number of students. At times there were 7+ students in 3 different rooms with only one instructor to teach/​oversee them. The other Tampa Area Grooming school had 2 instructors for 6 students in two rooms.
At the Academy of Animal Arts if you ran into a question, or had difficulty you had to find and/​or wait for the instructor. At their competitor, an instructor was always there and usually recognized that I was having difficulty — even before I did.
I don’t feel that proper dog handling techniques were taught at the Academy of Animal Arts and I also feel that this contributed to many stressed out difficult dogs to try to learn on. I learned proper handling at the other Tampa grooming school. The second school’s dogs were much calmer and easier to learn on. I feel this is because they were properly handled with plenty of instructor oversight.
I found the instruction at the Academy of Animal Arts to be quite critical as opposed to the supportive learning environment I had expected.
I could only describe the feeling of the school as that of indentured servitude, add in a smattering of fear of doing something wrong, and throw in a high level of stress. The school (AAA’s competitor) I finished my education with was relaxed, supportive, and gave me the education I paid for.
The Academy of Animal Arts does accept funding from Florida’s Vocational Rehabilitation. Which I think is a great thing. If you want to become a groomer through the state program, then you don’t have many choices and I would advise you to pursue a career in grooming however you can. I would also advise you to be aware of the above and thoroughly explore all of your options.
If you are looking to pay your own way through a grooming school, I would strongly recommend against the Academy of Animal Arts. In my experience if you complain, as I did, after completing 40% of the program (the point where your tuition becomes non-​refundable) the director can dismiss you from the school and keep all of your tuition — thousands of dollars. This happened to me. It also happened to another student shortly before I enrolled. I would guess that it has probably happened to others as well.
For myself, I was able to afford a better quality education, in a much more supportive learning environment at another institution and I look at it as a blessing in disguise.
Additional Note *I find it interesting that when Googling reviews on the Academy of Animal Arts — all the positive reviews seem to read like the same person wrote them.