So you want to be a groomer get the inside story on training

Training Matters

So, you want to be a pet groomer … stop and think before you choose your training provider because this is a pivotal moment in your career. Caroline Cogan of The Training Room at Dandini’s explains why:

Choose your training carefully, because your career, the reputation of the industry and the pets in your care are relying on you to be the best you can be.

With so many options available becoming a dog groomer appears to be a simple journey, with online courses, college courses and private training all claiming to make you a dog groomer, anything from 20 days upwards the choice should be simple, find somewhere local, quick and cheap.

This is pretty much what most prospective students are thinking when they weigh up their training option. Many are retraining looking to change careers or redress the life work balance and due to the vast range of training available this is generally where problems can arise because they don’t see the potential of investing smartly.

Dog Grooming can lead to a career where you can earn £30-40K a year and work hours that suit your lifestyle. You can work around picking up the kids, work from home or even go bigger and set up your own salon, the opportunities are endless.

Training courses that suggest you can do this after just 20 days training imply your journey will be an easy one with skills effortlessly acquired or even worse training from an online course with no practical tuition whatsoever.

Unfortunately for prospective students there are some schools suggesting this and it does lead to misconceptions around how long it takes for someone to become competent in the skills required to become a dog groomer.

At this enquiry stage you really may not have a clue about what dog grooming involves or have experienced a real working salon. You may worry you won’t be any good or perhaps not enjoy it. All valid and important questions. However, it is important to put those questions to one side and revisit them once you have done a taster day. It is only then that you will really know whether dog grooming is for you.

Why are taster days essential?

Taster days are experience days and give any prospective student hands-on experience in the field - water, hair, noise, fatigue the lot! They are an important part of your journey into dog grooming. It is on a taster day that you will find out if the environment is what you imagined. Programmes such as Pooch Perfect have done wonders for opening the public’s eyes into what grooming is really like and how hard and technical it can be.

But for many people the rose-tinted spectacles are still on and the reality of what a day’s hard graft as a dog groomer consists of is still beyond comprehension. It only really sinks

in when you have a fidgety dog on the table that is making your job very difficult, that you realise learning a new skill with an uncooperative dog may actually be more challenging than you originally thought.

Don’t get me wrong, dog grooming is a wonderful and an extremely fulfilling career, but it is hard, and even harder if you do not receive comprehensive and competent training.

For me as a teacher, these taster days are vital. It is part of our selection process and I only accept someone onto a course once they have completed a day in the salon. This is a mutual experience day; the student also needs to feel they can learn in the environment after seeing what the school has to offer them first-hand and that all-important opportunity to work out whether dog grooming is for them. I would highly discourage anyone from signing up to a course without first seeing things for themselves first-hand.

A quote from a student reviewing her experience after training “Before I started grooming, I thought ‘This will be fun’, after training her thoughts were: ‘This industry is massively under-appreciated’ (N.H)

What to look for when searching for training

One of the most important things to look for in a course is the hours of practical experience you will receive, along with the ratio of students to teachers, the number of dogs you will groom during your course and the variety of styles you will be taught, along with support for theory - the why, wherefore, what’s and how’s of grooming.

The aim of a course is to make you a competent dog groomer and ready for the workplace. Ask these questions during your initial enquiry, dog grooming is a hands-on job, and you need all the experience you can get! Even the best courses will leave you feeling like you want to learn more. So, before you rush into any course do your homework and find a course that will offer you an opportunity to become confident, educated, and experienced, realistically. There are no short cuts!

A big part of grooming and probably the most challenging is handling dogs safely and confidently whilst trying to learn a new skill. There is a lot to learn, dog’s anatomy, different coat types, different styles of grooming, clipping angles, scissoring, just holding the scissors correctly is harder than it sounds, and only repetitive, structured training can teach you this. Most schools that are well established and are run from salons will be able to provide you with knowledge that comes from years of invaluable experience. If you can find a course that will offer you a work placement on completion, even better. LOOK FOR THE BEST AND YOU WILL BE THE BEST.

A quote from a student… “I have worked hard to get the best out of my training but I know that I wouldn’t be grooming as confidently or to the same quality if I hadn’t done my research on where to train” A.B

Lastly

Don’t assume every course offers you what you need in order to succeed. One way you can do this is check that the course criteria meets the qualification standards. This information is readily available online by searching for the qualification homepage. Check the course matches both the Total qualification time required, which includes work placements and time taken for private study and the Guided Learning hours which should match the hours of supervised or directed learning on your course.

You get out what you put in and I wish anyone wanting to become a dog groomer all the best. Just remember … Do your research!