JOURNEY INTO FREEDOM - HOW I BECAME A GROOMING BEHAVIOURIST

My journey into freedom tells the story of how and why I became a dog grooming behaviourist after years of working in administration.

Journey Into Freedom: How I Became a Grooming Behaviourist

Some journeys begin with a single moment. Mine began when I was four years old, with a small toy poodle named Tina, given to me by a distant relative who recognised so early my love of dogs. Tina became my constant companion through a childhood shaped by shyness and the fear of getting things wrong. While friendships felt complicated, Tina never did. She was my safe place.

By the time I was eight, I knew I wanted to be a dog groomer. That dream stayed with me into my teens, right up until someone told me it “wasn’t a proper job.” Like so many young people, I believed them. And when Tina passed away when I was thirteen, it felt like the end of an era.

Dogs remained my passion, but life took me in a different direction. I didn’t have a dog of my own again until I was thirty‑six, when Kelly, a collie cross, came into my life. By then, I was well into a career in administration — a career I was good at, and one that rewarded me with promotions I never even applied for. When I left De Montfort University in 2016, I was managing a team of seven as a Research & Development Admin & Finance Support Manager. I loved it… until I didn’t.

When Everything Changed

In 2014, the cracks had already began to show. I was literally counting the days until I could take early retirement and small pension. Staffing issues, increasing workloads, and interference from higher management slowly eroded the joy I once felt in my role. Then, during a holiday in September that year, everything changed.

On the second morning, in the shower, I found a lump in my left breast.

That sickening drop in the stomach is something I’ll never forget. I kept quiet for three weeks before finally being pushed to see a doctor. At Glenfield Breast Centre, I was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer. Surgery followed in November, and fifteen rounds of radiotherapy in January 2015.

I was lucky. I found it early. I never truly felt like I had cancer — it was just my breast. But what came after was far harder.

The Breaking Point

I returned to work on therapeutic hours in March 2015, exhausted from treatment and walking into a team stretched to breaking point. The workload had grown, staff hadn’t been replaced, and I felt utterly overwhelmed. The stress was far worse than the cancer. By September, I was back on sick leave, this time with stress.

During that time, I had already begun exploring a future with dogs — a Tellington TTouch clinic, a puppy training course with the IABTC — but it was a meltdown during a return‑to‑work meeting that finally made things clear. I couldn’t go back. I handed in my notice without another job to go to.

It was terrifying. It was liberating. And I have never regretted it.

Returning to My Childhood Dream

In February 2016, I began my dog grooming course. Sixty days of training in a working salon. Over 135 dogs. Thirty‑eight breeds. I loved every moment.

While I studied for my TTouch practitioner status, my husband and dad were busy building a log cabin in the garden — my future salon. In July 2016, I opened my 1‑2‑1 grooming salon, finally bringing my childhood dream to life.

But this wasn’t just grooming. This was grooming with understanding. Grooming with empathy. Grooming with behaviour at the heart of every decision.

Becoming a Grooming Behaviourist

Since opening my salon, I’ve continued to study canine behaviour, earning multiple qualifications and learning from every dog who has stepped through my door. In 2019, I published my first book, Taking the Grrr Out of Grooming Your Dog, followed by the salon and puppy versions. They’ve sold better than I ever imagined, and I hope they’ve helped many dogs feel safer and more understood.

What I love most is watching dogs grow in confidence — seeing them reaccustom to grooming at their own pace, offering choices, using consent‑based methods, and listening to the quiet whispers of their body language. Every dog teaches me something new.

I no longer work to live. I live to work. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Looking Ahead

Although my official retirement age is only three years away, I have no intention of stopping. I plan to continue this work for many years, educating groomers so they can spread the love, the empathy, and the welfare‑first approach our industry so desperately needs.

This truly has been my Journey into Freedom — fittingly, the title of one of my favourite pieces of music from my brass band days. It feels like the perfect name for the life I’ve built: a life shaped by dogs, resilience, learning, and the courage to start again.

If you’re struggling in your job, facing health challenges, or simply longing for something more, I hope my story shows that change is possible. Dreams don’t expire. Sometimes they just wait patiently for us to be ready.