Pet World Insider Radio Segment – Dawn Omboy – Creative Dog Styling + Grooming + More
On this Pet World Radio Segment we sit down with Dawn Omboy about Dog Styling and Creative Styling competitions for Dog groomers and their dogs. We talk about the ideas, the grooming, the inspirations and more!
Enjoy this Pet World Radio Segment in case a station near you does not currently carry Pet World Radio on the EMB or CRN Networks!
For more great information: Klippers
From the Site:
We are all creative in our own right, we are pet groomers, there is a deep love for the art that is in our hearts and heads and hands that give us the ability to do the things we love to do. I am a self taught pet groomer; it is something I always knew that I would one day do.
I thought how cool it would be to do hair, I just happened to be able to relate to dogs better than people, so to be a hairdresser was out of the question.
At 15 while I was babysitting the neighbor’s child I noticed this pet matt that was in the house and as my little charge lay sleeping I got a pair of scissors out of the kitchen drawer and went to work on Misty the pet matt. I found that she wasn’t a matt after all, hiding inside I found a little white poodle. Really, I thought I had done a wonderful job of freeing her from her captor, the matt. Misty on the other hand had grown quite attached to matt and hid sulking under the couch for 3 days.
My Great Aunt Vera who lived in Tennessee, had been a dog groomer for a hundred years (a slight exaggeration) but as a small child, I remembered her little poodles and how pretty she made them.
At 19 I talked my way into a grooming shop. The owner said to me “Do you have scissors?” oh yes I replied and pulled out my big black singer sewing scissors. Oh no Honey! This is more like it she said and put a small shear into my hand and then pointed me to the grooming room. I had no clue. A lady in that room sent me to the kennel room to retrieve a dog from a cage along with the information card that I would find clipped to the front of the cage. That was about it as far as instructions would go, poof I was now a groomer. Back then I didn’t know there were things such as grooming schools.
After a few years and job changes I opened my own shop, but I still wanted to get better at my craft. I was so delighted when I heard of this Pet Fair that was going to be in Atlanta. The first few years I only went on Sunday to buy things for my store since I had to work on Saturdays, I saw the competitions going on. I really wanted to do that to improve my skills, but being the big chicken I am around people; I put it off, until I could no longer stand it. I told so many of my clients that I was going to compete that there was no way for me to back out of it. I called Ann Stafford and registered. I competed in 3 classes and brought home 3 placements! Wow. I can’t think of a better way to get such valuable grooming lessons. To do the dog right there in front of (ugh) people and then get a critique. Then I found out some of these folks are certified! I mean I had been told that I was certifiable, but I didn’t know that groomers were.
Soon I began my quest for the NCMG It gave me a wonderful feeling of confidence and pride. I learned so much along the way. Oh but then I saw a most wondrous thing at this Atlanta Pet Fair, It was a form of art like I had never seen, Kathleen Putman had turned a standard poodle into a carousel horse. I knew right then, THAT is what I am supposed to do.
On the day I took my last test for my NCMG which I proudly passed, I was given a gift that would change me forever, Seasongs Ocean Pearl, a beautiful 12 month old Standard Poodle who had been a puppy of Shirley McBride’s. The bond between us was instant. A week later she was sporting pink ears and tail. She opened up a whole new world to me. Together we experimented with lots of coloring methods and at the next Atlanta Pet fair Pearl and I competed and won a 3rd place. I found that living “Works of Arf” are addictive and began to evolve each creation into the next as I continued to compete in creative with that 1st place always just out of reach. Donna Holtzer was now so amazing to me and I learned so much from her. And then came the day she said to me, I know it’s your time to shine. And shine I did. It was so wonderful, I was in Hershey, I was on stage, and I had a big trophy and had just tied with Donna for the Peoples Choice Award too! Pearl like gourmet jelly beans, once while in full color in her Jester trim I was asked, how did you get her like that? I tossed a jelly bean and as she caught it I replied,” color seeds”
There is a creative side to all of us weather we decide to do color or not. Everything we do is a Work of Arf! As a multiple Creative winner, I have gone on to teaching classes and have judged the Creative Competition in Hershey the past 3 years. NBC’s Today Show recently flew me to New York to be on the show where I put the NBC peacock on the dog live in the studio. There is a link to see it on the Klippers website. I have a DVD set available called Creative Canine Color & Design with Dawn Omboy available directly through Klippers.com. And the 4 hour Pizzazy class filmed at Hershey 2005available from Barkleigh. Last year I was even nominated for a Crystal, it was such an honor to be nominated.
It had been 3 years since I had done my last Creative competition and 7 since I had done any of the regular classes. I felt that it was time to get back out there to work on my grooming skills again. I would highly recommend doing this periodically just to keep your skills up to speed. It was really scary for me getting back in the ring after a 7 year absence. But I needed it, I learned from it and I am a better groomer for it. My goal was to walk out of the ring with knowledge. And that in itself makes me a winner.
The Creative part of it, well that’s just me, Making the World a more colorful place, one dog at a time.
Dawn Omboy NCMG has owned Klippers in Columbus, Georgia for 24 years.
