Sector Spotlight: Becky Gibson, Dog Groomer

In our second Sector Spotlight on Land-based Industries, we hear from Becky Gibson, who is a self-employed Dog Groomer doing business under the name Pawfect Pamper.

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Can you describe a typical day in your role as a Dog Groomer?
I prep the salon for the day, meet my clients and their dogs and find out if they have any special requests for their groom. Following their groom I take their photo for social media in my "VIP Lounge" and get them ready to go back to their owner. At the end of the day I clean down and disinfect the salon, edit photos, reply to emails/messages, make new bookings and order products. Being a business owner, I've found my day never really ends.

How did you end up in this role?
After leaving school without very good grades (I struggled a lot academically) I fell into cooking. I was a chef for 10 years and did my training at Balfour Castle. I worked at various places in Orkney including my family's business Hoxa Tearooms. Lockdown came and it was a wakeup call that I didn't really want to be cooking for another 10 years so I took the plunge to do my training and start up my own dog grooming business, something I had always wanted to do being a dog lover.

What is the best thing about your job?
The best thing about my job is that it's very rewarding. I like to see the dogs leaving looking better than when they arrive. It's also nice to see their owners reaction to seeing their dog when they come to collect and hopefully liking what I have done for them. It gives me a nice sense of achievement.

What is the worst thing about your job?
The poop, pee, spew etc, I won't go into that too much. My job can be quite stressful, the dogs are booked in under quite a tight schedule so if there are any issues near the start of the day then it can have a knock on effect and I end up chasing my tail for the remainder of the day (pardon the pun).

What skills do you need to undertake your role?
You need to be organized, have some people skills and good attention to detail. You need to be very patient, some dogs find the grooming environment very stressful so you need to have a good understanding of when the dog has had enough.

What qualifications do you have?
I have a SVQ level 3 in Professional Cookery from my previous job and for dog grooming I did a 4 week course in Stirling and have done various short courses since. I do have plans for doing some more short courses to learn some new skills and methods.

Would you recommend this job to young people? If so, why?
I would, it's hard work and some days are better than others but that's like any job. It's not all about playing with puppies all day and not all dogs are little angels but it's incredibly rewarding and the fluffy cuddles definitely do help.

Visit Pawfect Pamper on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100068413671548