In 1995 I decided to take up grooming and found a really good teacher in Julie Steven – Smith, at Paws-a-while in Southport. I completed a four-week; live in grooming course where I had the opportunity to work on approximately 50 different breeds. At the end of the course I had to complete, to a satisfactory standard, a Spaniel, a Poodle and a Terrier all of which I passed.

Since then I have groomed at home, to start with on a part time basis, but nowadays, I am more of a hobby groomer, only doing the occasional dog. But the experience has helped me in grooming my own dogs for the show ring.