To wonder how I can become a dog groomer without selling a kidney?

[Woofwoof1]

I’ve been working as a grooming assistant at my friend’s salon for the last 5 months.

I LOVE it! I’ve always loved dogs and had my own for 15 years until he sadly died. Friends over the years have jokingly called me the Dog Whisperer, as dogs seem to gravitate towards me and I just get them (I realise that makes me sound like a mad twat but it’s true). When I started working with my friend she was blown away from the start with how trusting and relaxed the dogs were with me, even ones that had always been ‘difficult’ were a lot more chilled than usual.

Me and my friend work really well together, it’s bloody hard work but I enjoy (nearly!) every minute. At the moment I am mostly just washing/drying/brushing the dogs, ready for their haircuts. But have also done a bit of clipping, and I do admin stuff as well as greeting the customers etc.

I am in my early 40s and my friend is in her late 50s. She’s been a groomer for a long time, and is at the point where she’d like more days off. If I could become qualified I could do some days and she could do others. Not sure how the finer financial details would work as it’s a vague future idea rather than a concrete plan. But the point is, she has a long-standing, successful business that she isn’t a million miles away from retiring from.

I’ve been looking into training courses and there is one college near-ish that does the level 2 course, which from what I see doesn’t involve an awful lot more than what I already do. And would take 13 months. And I can’t find any colleges offering the level 3 course, which is what I’d actually need. There are private establishments offering the level 2 and 3 combined, but the cheapest I can find is £8k!! I don’t have that kind of money sitting around sadly.

Am I missing something? There must be an affordable way to become a fully trained dog groomer?

According to my dog groomer who has had a lot of official dog grooming training, its perfectly legal to set up as a dog groomer even if all your training comes from youtube! I was shocked when she told me.

Dog grooming is not a regulated industry, there is no actual requirement for you to have any particular qualifications. Likewise, unfortunately, dog training - anyone can set themselves up as a dog trainer without any experience or qualifications which is actively dangerous since poor handling can make problems like aggression worse. At least the worst thing an unqualified dog groomer can do is give your dog a dodgy haircut. Is your friend not providing you with training on the job? If not could you ask her to do so?

@devuskums I can believe that. My friend is capable of training me, although there would be an inevitable knock on financial hit for her in doing so, as we wouldn’t be able to get dogs groomed at the same speed if she was training me.

I remember many years ago when I was working as a receptionist for a counselling organisation, one of the counsellors told me that anyone can call themselves a counsellor and practice as one! She knew of one person who used her home to be a counsellor (non qualified) during the day, and entertained paying ‘gentleman callers’ at night! Resourceful, if nothing else I guess.