I was very lucky growing up to be surrounded by animals and pets including rabbits, mice, cats, calves, a horse and of course dogs. As a true animal lover, I knew I always wanted to work with animals in some way, even as a child.
Straight after finishing school at Otumoetai college, I went off to Waikato university, with the first dog of my own, a beagle named Ivy and studied Animal Behaviour under a Bachelor of Science. Straight out of Uni I went on to work with dogs. Over the years I have learnt so much through hands on experience with dogs in day care and grooming environments.
As any good dog groomer will tell you, you have to work your way from the bottom up, so I spent many a day’s washing and drying dogs, which quickly progressed to brushing, and finally being taught the ins and outs by several different professional groomers in a hands on manner. A day up-skilling with a NZ master groomer and hundreds of grooms later, here I am. I pride myself in communicating with the owners to get an understanding of the desired outcome of a groom.
In between these things I also achieved some personal goals like becoming a home owner, travelling, getting married and starting a family with my husband Charles.
After running my business for nearly 8 years at my home-based salon in Simpson road, I outgrew that space and made the move to a bigger space in a commercial zone to help meet the needs of the dogs I groom even better than before, with more space, a separate drying room for a quieter grooming environment and special cosy areas to wait for their owners, either with other dogs to play with or in their own space for dogs that need that extra bit of alone time.
I aim to always listen to my customers, giving their dogs the groom required where I can, and keep grooming times down so dogs aren’t here longer than they need to be.
