“A love for animals doesn’t just happen overnight, it takes a life time to acquire.”
I have always been an animal lover. Some of my
earliest memories are of the many pets I “dragged home”, foundlings I could not
resist. Once I even brought home a kitten and kept it hidden in my bedroom
closet for a week until it was discovered! There has never been a period in my
life when I did not have at least one pet.
I have always had a soft spot in my heart for any living creature, and could
never harm a living thing. I was always trying to find homes for the homeless
pets that I brought home but could not keep. We always had a “mutt” or two in
the house, and a couple of cats, along with turtles, fish and hamsters. In 1980
I graduated from nursing school and began work as a nurse in a local hospital.
It was fulfilling, but something was missing. I got out of nursing and into pet
grooming in early 1991, and have not looked back. I do keep up with the
continuing education I need, to keep my nursing license up to date, but I hope
that I can continue to work with pets for the rest of my life. This is what I
was born to do.
For a while I used to show and breed yorkies, and did some yorkie rescue through a local breed club I belonged to. That is when I discovered that there are so many dogs, cats, birds, and other little animals that need to be rescued. I decided to stop breeding dogs, and to instead promote animal rescue. As a groomer I hear about people who can no longer keep their pets, and I meet a lot of people who are looking for a new pet… A win/win combination for sure. At some point in the future I hope to breed dogs again for the people who are looking for a quality pet. I do miss being a responsible breeder and I know that there is a need for quality pets for people who want them.
I (along with a wonderful group of internet friends) also put on a local pet expo and donate all of the profits to national pet rescue groups that we believe in. The 2009 event is in the early planning stages.
I will also add some personal pages to this website with information about yorkies in particular and all dogs in general where I will have tons of advice for yorkie lovers, and dog lovers in general, in addition to unique items for sale, and instructional video’s on grooming specific breeds of dog, therapeutic dog massage, and bow making. It will also contain a lot of useful information for anyone considering buying a pet.
I began to learn grooming at a local school for groomers, but, in my opinion, the guy in charge was very abusive and harsh to the dogs in his care. He was teaching his students how to dominate the pets they worked on, and told us it was “the only way”. After about a week of going home crying about what I witnessed, I quit the school and decided that if you had to be mean to be a groomer, it was not for me. I worried every night thinking how he treated the poor dogs that came there, and wondered if their owners even had a clue as to what went on there after they dropped their doggies off. My sister in law told me about a nice groomer that she went to at the time, and urged me to go and talk to her. After a while I did, and Jill Smith of “Persnickety Pups” in Macomb County agreed to take me on as an apprentice. It was slow and steady progress, and I learned patience and compassion towards my clients from her. After about a year, I was ready to go out on my own. I wanted to do mobile grooming, so I bought an old (23 years old!!) nearly used up grooming van, and I was on my way! I laugh about it when I think back on those early days in my grooming career. Soon I was buying another older camper van and re-fitted it myself, along with the help of my young but very handy nephew Kevin. He did the electrical wiring, and my brother Don did the flooring and the plumbing. It was a stepping stone to bigger and better things. Two years after that I bought a brand new van and we also built the entire thing ourselves. I had tons of regular clients, never had to advertise, and was as busy as I could be. Life was good! Then, in 2001 I had a terrible surgical problem and could not continue working in the mobile van and had to sell it, along with my business. After a 23 month long recuperation, I decided I was ready to return to grooming, and opened a small grooming shop and doggie boutique in my neighborhood. I was there for 4 years before I was able to open “Posh Paws” with the help and support from a wonderful friend, and business partner, Bruce Seguin. This shop would not exist if it was not for his kindness and generosity. Together we hope to build this business into something very special.
My theory of compassionate grooming is to simply put myself in the pets place. How would I feel if another animal, 10 times my size, and coming at me with loud, scary, and “not so fun” equipment while I did not understand what they were going to do and why…and having memories of unpleasant things happening at this kind of place before??? How would I feel in that poor creatures place? I try to keep them calm by speaking calmly to them, acting in a confident and upbeat manner while handling them, and letting them know that grooming is not such a bad thing. I do this with lots of praise, and keep talking to them in a reassuring happy tone while doing the required task at hand. Mutual respect soon follows and the pets I groom usually react in a positive manner. I do not believe that yelling at or hitting a defenseless animal will make them more cooperative, and that a reward will get me a lot more cooperation from them than a punishment would. While some animals have been mistreated or even inadvertently hurt at a groomers in their past, to a point that they just cannot trust or calm down, I try to always keep in mind the fear they are experiencing and treat them with compassion, even if I do have to use a muzzle or an extra pair of hands to get them groomed.
So this is how and why I became the groomer that I am today. I hope and pray that I can continue the work that I love for many, many years to come...