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Dog Grooming courses offering high quality dog grooming
tuition.
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INTRODUCTION |
Hello, my name is Lesley Garratt and I am the
proprietor of Canine Design Academy of Grooming in Evercreech,
Somerset.
I would like to give you a brief introduction to us as a
company and how I came to be teaching other people to groom. |
These are my own dogs,
Parsley & Herman
Parsley sadly died
in September 2005 |
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| Lesley with Herman (Affenpinscher) |
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I have always had a
great love for and affinity with animals and from a very early age
my ambition was to become a dog groomer. Having said this, it
wasn’t until 1992, when I was 31 years of age, that I actually
realised |
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ambition, having spent my years previous to this working as a
secretary for a large company and then as P.A. to one of the
Directors in an Estate Agency |
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Lesley with new addition to the family Isaac
a Shar Pei cross |
| I had done a dog
grooming course some years before, but only groomed a few dogs for
friends and family in my spare time. I always, at the back of my
mind, however, held the ambition of setting up my own business and
becoming a full time dog groomer. Over the years while I was
doing office work I continued with my dog grooming training,
studied for my City & Guilds advanced which I achieved with credit and
attended lots of seminars, shows and competitions in order to
improve my knowledge and skills. |
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| Eventually, after some 15 years or so,
I finally decided to take the plunge and start my own business,
which started slowly at first but soon blossomed into a thriving
concern, and after having been running it for approximately a year
I was offered the position of Grooming Tutor at a local college, a
position which I held for some three years or so, until I became
pregnant with my first daughter. During this time, many of the
grooming trainees whom I taught achieved their City & Guilds
level 3 and
several of them went on to run their own businesses. The private
students who have attended our dog grooming courses have been equally as successful.
Hundreds of our former trainees have gone on to run successful
grooming businesses both in the UK and abroad. We have trained
people from as far afield as Japan, New Zealand and Bermuda. |
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Lesley and Kelly in
reception |
We are proud to be able to say that one of our former trainees, Abi
Boyce, won the coveted title of YKC Groomer of the Year 2006. My
eldest daughter Millie was runner up YKC GOTY 2008 at 11 years of
age. My youngest daughter Lotte has been placed every year in this
competition, won the under 12s category in 2009 and was crowned YKC
Groomer of the Year 2010. Also, another of our ex-trainees, Kelly
Gayler, held the title in 2009. |
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I am very interested in dog
behaviour both within the grooming salon and in general and
have successfully completed a course with the Animal Care
College in the Canine/Human Interface. |
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Lesley helping a student |
| Together with having my City & Guilds in Dog
Grooming this meant I was qualified to become a Charter Member
of the Institute for Animal Care Education (ChMIACE). I have
also now achieved my city & guilds Licentiateship in dog grooming (LCGI).
We have also been selected as one of the top 3 grooming businesses
in the UK in the 2009 Pet Industry Awards. We believe very strongly
at Canine Design that all dogs should be treated as individuals and
we always make every effort that every dog which enters our salon
should have the most pleasant experience possible – |
Lesley and Kelly helping students |
| we constantly monitor the stress levels of every
animal in our care and alter our handling methods accordingly.
Handling and control is a subject which we feel is very important,
as it is one of the most important skills of being a groomer – it
doesn’t matter how talented you are with the clippers and scissors -
if you don’t have a good rapport with your canine clients, you may
as well leave your tools in the box! I started out with a completely
‘non-doggy’ background, albeit from a family of great animal
lovers. It was never expected that I would enter a career working
with animals, as all my family had always gone down the route of
office work, but I feel my story gives hope to all you people out
there like me that you can break the mould and turn your hobby
into a career. I could never have dreamed where venturing
into the world of dog grooming would take my life and I have such a
lot to thank dogs for.
You don’t have to be born into a long line of dog breeders in
order to make a career out of dog grooming. All you need is a love
for animals, patience and a little artistic flair in order to
realise your dream. All it takes is 20-35 days out of your life
attending a high quality dog grooming course such as ours to
completely change the direction of your life. It is not a job, it
is a vocation and could be a completely life changing experience.
What have you got to lose? Just pick up the phone or complete our
enquiry form and one of our knowledgeable, friendly staff will be
very happy to help you. I feel very lucky to have a job that I love so
much. I have to pinch myself every
now and again to confirm that it really is happening! Going to
work is a pleasure for me and I look forward to Monday mornings.
How many people can say that?!
If my story has inspired you and you would like to find out
more about becoming a dog groomer by attending one of our dog
grooming courses, please visit the rest of our
website and we will be happy to answer any questions you may have,
either by email or telephone. We look forward to hearing from you. |
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Some Examples of our
work showing before and after pictures |
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A new addition to the
family:- |
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Paddi is a parti
colour poodle puppy, born mid March 2007 |
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Paddi with Isaac
and Herman |
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