Where’z Wally Dog Grooming & Day Care Ltd

Sam Dove and Rebecca Mullally are the owners of Where’z Wally Dog Grooming & Day Care Ltd. We spoke with them to find out a little about their business.

The pair are the proud owners of Where’z Wally Dog Grooming & Day Care Ltd. Sam started with a salon in her garden and Rebecca had a mobile grooming van.

In a nutshell, or maybe a dog biscuit, it all stems from early childhood. For the ultimate tail of women joining forces you need look no further than the story of Where’z Wally.

Rebecca and Sam met at Woodend School, aged four, and lived a fiveminute walk from each other’s homes. Their parents were friends, so evenings and weekends were spent in each other’s residences. As they grew up, they kept in touch and, over the following years, both women had jobs and started their own families.

In 2016, Sam’s dad, Wally, died suddenly. This devastating event fuelled her motivation to change her own path and work for herself. With a shared family love of dogs, Sam decided that grooming was the way forward and enrolled at college to start her journey. The salon she established is honoured with her father’s name and together with her husband, Graham, she set about designing and establishing the perfect studio for her back garden.

Incredibly, Rebecca had started working at a doggy day care centre in Sutton Coldfield, which had fuelled her passion for all things animals, and she trained as a dog groomer too. Later, the opportunity arose to leave her employment and go it alone in a mobile dog grooming van.

Fast forward a few years and over a catch-up chat, the pair realised what the other had been doing and what was evident was that they were both working long hours. And so, began the plan to combine their skills and businesses into a fabulous one-stop provider for all things dogs. Over tea and sometimes wine, the ideas flowed.

The new unit in Wilnecote, Tamworth provided the perfect solution, with ample space for the grooming side of the business, while allowing a further area to be developed into a doggy day care facility in the future.

They offer grooming for any dog regardless of breed, size or temperament. This has helped them reach a wider client base and has grown their reputation.

They started out December 2021 with just Sam, Rebecca and their apprentice Lianne. As they got busier, they welcomed another apprentice Kadence as well as a part-time junior stylist, Sian. They hope to have the Doggy Day Care ready to open in March 2023 and the big plan is to purchase their own land to develop it for a one stop shop for all your dogs’ needs.

The advice that they would give is to get trained by a recognised body like City & Guilds, ICMG, iPet or OCN, because it’s quite a specific skill that takes time to develop. Always continue to learn and develop your skills. Every day is a school day. Taking the time to train professionally means your clients know they can trust you with their dogs.

Dog grooming isn’t all hearts and flowers and can be quite demanding on not only your body but mentally as well.

“We honestly didn’t realise how hard it was starting out, designing and creating our salon. Battling with the council for change of use so that we could open the premises. Making sure we had enough bookings to over our overheads. Then another battle again with the council to get approval for the doggy day care, running the business, training staff, but we are very excited for our future.” Finished the pair.

You can find them on Facebook by searching Where’z Wally Dog Grooming, on Instagram at @wherezwallydoggrooming and www.wherezwallydoggrooming.co.uk. You can also e-mail them at info@wherezwallydoggrooming.co.uk.