I feel like my salon isn't taking bites and aggressive behavior seriously at all (vent?)

I’ll preface this by saying that I’m a new bather. I haven’t been working for long, so this is just the perspective of someone who’s only been with PetSmart for about two months.

As the title suggests, I feel like our salon doesn’t take aggressive behavior seriously at all. The other day, I was scheduled to do a bath and brush for an elderly Rottweiler. In the notes, it was listed as: "Can be bad for nails and may not want to pick up feet for check-in." I thought, Okay, great. I’d prefer she be good with nails, but it is what it is.

Check-in went fine. I examined her feet as best I could, even though she was getting a little grumpy, and then I brought her in. Once the pet parent left, I helped her onto the table and immediately put her in the helper out of an abundance of caution. I gave her a good pet and let her settle for a moment before carefully grabbing a paw to start doing her nails.

The second I put the clippers to her foot, without even cutting a nail yet, she started growling and snarling, doing her best to reach around and bite me. The salon manager even said she looked like something out of Cujo.

I asked my manager what to do since I, you know, like not being bitten, and she told me to continue trying to clip her nails. I wasn't allowed to use the cone, no muzzle, nothing. I eventually had to call over a more experienced groomer to help me because I just wasn’t sure what to do.

This has happened before, and every time, I’ve been pressured to just "deal with it" and finish the nails. I want to put my foot down and say no, but I also can’t afford to lose this job. Is this normal for PetSmart? Am I doing something wrong? I am more than willing to admit I am naive as hell, but this just feels weird to me.