HI from Brissy

Hello all,

Hi may name is Emma I live in QLD Brisbane I am 18 and have been grooming dogs since I was 14.
I have 6 dogs of my own two needs grooming......... BETHANY (Chinese crested powderpuffXmalteese) and CANDY (red toy poodle). The others are all short haired. KIMBA (bullmastiff), ZENA (basset hound), MOLLYWOG (Chihuahua unknown) and JENNA (pug).

I have had no professional training for dog grooming and am looking for a course close to home, to learn the art of creative grooming.

I love all animals and have no fear and that seems to come in handy when handling dogs.

I hope to meet lots of likeminded people and get some good info from people that have been doing this for years.

Here are my babies.
sorry about the links .... pics and forums don't go well with me....

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/9520/pa180605ux3.jpg
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/9721/nnnuc2.jpg
http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/6860/p7110360wj7.jpg
http://img9.imageshack.us/img9/3315/p1120545fu1.jpg
http://img25.imageshack.us/img25/254/pc100667qh5.jpg
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/5839/pc250435zz6.jpg

Welcome Emma to our friendly forum. You will makes lots of friends here and also learn alot from all of us. Enjoy. I am Vanda from Melbourne.

No Anthony i am not from a showing family.


My mum got a toy poodle when i was around 12 and we had lots of trouble finding a good groomer. So she got me a pair of small face a feet clippers to maintain the clip she was in between visits.
Finally mum got sick of trying to get a groomer that could groom poodles so she got me a pair of WHAL clippers and said you do it. Suprise to me i wasn't that bad.
Soon enough i had some friends asking me to groom their dogs .
I am looking for a training corse that is worth doing so i can start up a business professioanly but no luck yet.

Hi Emma. I'm Barb from St Leonards. Good on you pursuing something you love. I hope you find a good course, in the meantime watch all the grooming DVDs you can and get some good grooming books like "Notes from the Grooming Table". There are groomers with years of experience on this forum who are very helpful and supportive so enjoy!

Love your pups! Esp Jenna, I am a huge pug fan. Mine's called Monty, he's a Pug-JR. Possible the naughties dog in the universe

Hi Emma, I am Brooke and I am a Brissy girl too. I wasn't happy with the courses here in QLD so I went to NSW to do mine, I still didn't learn as much as I needed to but I have picked up a lot from forums and Jodi Murphy DVDs. I now operate a small grooming business from home, I do 2 to 3 dogs a day which is plenty for me as I also have 2 children. I look forward to chatting with a fellow Queenslander

Hi Emma. Welcome to the forum. My name is Trish & I am from Berwick in the South Eastern suburbs of Melbourne. I have been operating a Mobile Dog Grooming franchise for 16 months now. You will find this forum very friendly and you will learns heaps from other groomers here. I did not have the opportunity to attend a formal grooming course, anything that I have learned, I have learned from other groomers, or from DVD's and books.

Welcome Emma! I'm Jill from Bribie Island. Whereabouts are u?You'll find the forum a great source of info and great friends. Just dont hesitate to ask heaps!!!As the others said get your hands on as many books and dvd's you can. I worked for a groomer in the city for six years. I think this would be your best way of getting hands on experience and training. Maybe be prepared to travel as a local groomer may not want to help train someone who may be in opposition at a later date. Try all vet clinics too. You'lll do well. Starting with poodles is a bonus . Dont hesitate to get in touch or even visit if you can...I usually work only part time but you're more than welcome to come .Cheers

Hi Emma, you've got a real little doggie family there haven't you??

I am Lisa from kalgoorlie. I work from home too full time Mon-Fri and only started about 9 months ago. Loving it, everything about it, other than the sore backs! LOL. Welcome to the forum.

Hi Emma, I'm Sarah from Melbourne and this is my forth year out mobile grooming. Love grooming, love the forum and wish it had been around when I started. Great to have you aboard.

Hi Emma, I love your red poodle. I love the reds. I started the same way as you did. With my own two poodles. I did not ever give grooming as a job a thought., until all my friends wanted me to do their poodles. Then I just seemed to slip into it somehow.
Started up my own part time business here in Brissy too., and loving it.
I bought grooming books and DVD`s. I only groom small and med size dogs, mostly poodles, poodle crosses, maltese and shih tzu`u.
You dont need to do a course. Spend your money on some good grooming equipment, books and DVD`s instead. And just be patient, you will learn as you go.

Hi Emma,
Welcome aboard !!

I'm Michelle from Sydney, I started out well over 25 years ago grooming my own toy poodles as I didn't like the way the "groomer' was doing them then everyone I ran into wanted me to groom their dogs, I then got into showing, while I was working as a rep and groomed on the weekends, got retrenched and went into mobile grooming for a few years and a large salon and Do-It-Yourself was vacate so took the BIG step and reopened it, started out with 2 clients on day one, sold it 6 years later with 6 staff and 4000 clients on the books (alot of work) took 18 months off, and missed grooming so much that hubby and I opened a small salon 12 months ago and we work it together, no staff I didn't do a course but read everything I could get my hands on , watched others and now I can do a maltese from start to finish in 25 to 30 mins (rough clip,bath,dry, finish clip, back into holding cage) I would hate to think of how many dogs I have groomed over the years as we would do 36-45 dogs just on a saturday in the salon - two clipping, two bathing/drying, one in the DIY and one in reception.

I only groom small to medium dogs and all cats as I have a back injury, so my advise is look after your back, its the only one you have !!!!

thanks for the stories guys really gives me confidence and shows me i am not the only one out there trying it with out professional training.