About us

To groom or not to groom:

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So the decision to take up dog grooming? I was stressed out and had enough of work and realized i had to change a few things in my life, with work being one of them. I've always wanted to work for myself and decided to try my hand at online retail. I started playing around with illustrator and created a few t-shirt designs and mock-ups, I wanted to create a fashionable clothing brand that could also raise awareness of mental health. I created the brand "tenacious clothing" with the idea to design, print and sell my designs online, a percentage of the sales would go straight to mental health charities. It was a great idea and the brand was doing ok, but the time, cost and work involved was too much for one person. So what next? well the love and affection you receive from a dog is unconditional, they can cheer up when your down and relax you when your stressed out. They ask for nothing in return, apart from a few treats here and there :) so i researched a few jobs and looked into dog grooming. To be honest it looked easy, washing and grooming dogs and puppies all day? great. I attended a basic course at bridgend college run by engage training just to get a taster of what i could expect. It was alot harder than i expected, the dogs don't stay still, they lick your face and they bite your finger and that was just the tutor haha. It was so much fun that i decided to do both the level 2 and level 3 advanced courses. So what next? well i kind of hit a brick wall with training and further qualifications, there is nothing available unless you can get onto an apprenticeship with the likes of pets at home, but these were mainly designed for young adults and are not offered for someone of my age. I spoke to my tutor in bridgend who offered me work at her salon for 3 months but she would also show me different styles and different coats as well as going into first aid in more depth, it also gave me the insight of working in a salon and dealing with customers. It was great experience and great fun. I really wanted to work for myself at this point so i started doing friends' dogs from home to keep my hands busy. What alot of people dont realise is the amount of training and practice a dog groomer needs, there are hundreds of different breeds all with different coats and styles. I needed more training, one name that kept on getting mentioned was claire hyde at classic canine cuts. If you speak to an established dog groomer there is a very good chance that claire has trained them. I attended Claire's salon to really hone my skills, i had the chance to work on poodles, schnauzers, bichons, cockapoos, husky's german shephards to name a few. Its probably taken me 12 months to become confident and experienced to say i can now cut it with the best. I purchased a van, had the van converted and never looked back, life is good :)

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the adventures of me and buddy continue, woof woof

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with thanks:

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