My 16 year old daughter wants to become a professional groomer. She is a successful junior handler and has been showing for several years in breed and handling. Also used to clip her own poodle till she died. Can someone advise the best path to follow. I have enquired at a couple of places near us but opportunities seem hard to come by. What about courses etc. She leaves school this summer.
Thanks in anticipation
;)

Not sure exactly the way, but why not try asking the YKC now they are involved in grooming they might be able to help you.

get your daughter to go and talk to groomers and ask them the way forward, not you asking, your daughter, if mummy asked then why can't daughter? is what will go though peoples minds!

Good luck, and there is more to grooming then being able to do a poodle! :D

There are college courses you can do. My local agricultural college do one (ABC LEVEL 3 CERTIFICATE IN PROFESSIONAL DOG GROOMING ). They do not require certain grades to be accepted on the course they just want someone that has an interest in dogs and has a little grooming experience. I suppose it just depends on how she wants to do it.

Hi Star

My daughter did exactly the same thing that yours is doing, she was successful in handling, and decided to make her career dog grooming.

Try your local Agricultural Colleges, most now have courses in dog grooming, but to be honest she could do a lot worse than contacting all the reputable local groomers and asking if they would be interested in having an apprentice. If jobs are hard to come by, how about her offering her services free on a Saturday, just so she can learn and if she does well they may well want to employ her when she leaves school.

Experience in my opinion is the best way to learn so long as you have a good groomer to teach you.

My daughter worked for a groomer and took day release for the course.  The two things combined gave her all the experience and knowledge that she needed.  She has now been running her own succesful business for 5 year.  Unfortunately though she is not able to work at the moment as she was badly bitten by one of her dogs a few months ago (one of the pitfalls of the job but luckily she was insured, one of the things she learnt was important at college).

She has found that although a proportion of her clients are prepared to come to her, she also runs a mobile grooming service as a lot of elderly people are not able to get their dogs to her.  this has proved very successful.

In view of the pressure being brought to bear by the PCT and others for Groomers to be licensed, and that the C & G will be the only acceptable qualification, I think it is vital for anyone thinking of becoming a groomer to make sure that any training they do is C & G based, there are a lot of people out there charging an awful lot for grooming courses, who have no qualifications themselves, and sadly, some of them also have little skill too.  I fully appreciate that a lot of very capable and talented groomers are not C & G qualified, but the legislation being pushed forward will allow for a "Grandad clause" for these people who are valuable to the trade.  But from a new trainee, it is the only sensible way forward, to ensure quality training and not wasting the cash!
bye
Gwen

Very good point Gwen!  best to have a qulification in anything, more chance of getting somewhere, and if you have a certificuit, people are more likly going to want you to groom their dog, even if they can't groom, the certificate "SAYS" their better then everyone else!

thats exactly why I suggested the courses at Agricultural Colleges Gwen, they are usually C & G based.

Whereas a lot of the grooming courses advertised in the Dog Papers aren't.

I fully agree that there should be a system of licencing, at the moment, anyone with no training whatsoever can set up as a groomer and I personally think that is scandalous.

Don't you find that the untrained sheep shearers go out of business in no time Lady Dazzle?  I know that doesn't help the dogs that they CUT in the meantime, but in my area, they didn't get repeat appointments!

Very true Val

The grapevine soon lets owners in the area know about the bad groomers who set up.

But we as I am sure you have, have seen the results of untrained groomers, which are brought to us to rectify.  Unfortunately, its not only coats that they spoil, its the dogs trust in being groomed, coats will grow back in a matter of weeks and can be put right, but being treated badly by a groomer may never be corrected, or if it is it can take years for that trust to come back.