A pet-grooming salon, Pawz & Relax has opened in Cooperage Green (unit 11), offering grooming, teeth cleaning and other health and hygiene services. We took the opportunity to catch up with the founder and owner, Lucy Fielding, for a chat about the business and her plans for the future.
Lucy has clients big and small. This German Shepherd was in for coat de-shedding
Q: This is very exciting news! What brings you and your business to Royal Clarence Yard?
A: I live in Gosport and have been looking around for properties in the area. I was familiar with Royal Clarence Yard through a friend who used to work here and when Unit 11 became available, I thought it would be perfect for me.
Q: Please tell us a little about the salon and the pet-grooming services you offer.
A: I offer a full range of grooming for various breeds (mostly dogs and cats), including de-shedding and hygiene treatments such as teeth-cleaning and claw-trimming. The toy poodle in the photo below was a bit shaggy when she came in (top-right photo) and looked a lot neater when I had finished (left photo).
We also work with puppies, getting them familiar with the grooming process. The gorgeous 13 week old Shih-Tzu puppy at the top of your article came in for a puppy-groom.
Cats can also need a bit of grooming and attention from time to time. The beautiful cat below came in for a tidy and a coat de-shed.
And then there are the main hygiene treatments, like teeth-cleaning. Keeping pets' teeth clean is so important for their long-term health and well-being. Here's a "Before and After" photo:
Q: Can you tell us little bit about yourself, your training/expertise and your background?
A: I've always loved dogs and animals. I've just been obsessed with them from a very young age. Originally I wanted to be a vet but struggled a bit at school with undiagnosed dyslexia and did not stay on. Instead I went travelling after I left school, then started a family.
I was then facing the question of finding something I could do to support me and my daughter in between being a mum. I was offered a part-time job with a pet-groomer, which then became full-time for a few years and I decided that this was something I would really like to do as a career. So I took a calculated side-step into a much better paid job in sales (selling phones) - really for the money - and found that I was quite good at that and enjoyed the work. However, I still held to my ambition to have my own pet-grooming business. The sales job allowed me to save a bit so that I could get the Level 3 OCN qualification in pet-grooming, which I wanted to have for my own business. It's not a legal requirement for a commercial pet-grooming business - anyone can set themselves up without a qualification - but I felt that it was important that my customers would know that I had been properly trained and qualified.
Surprisingly, the Covid19 pandemic actually helped me, as I was furloughed from my sales job while I was studying for my qualification and the time was useful in helping planning the new business and finding the premises.
Q: So your business is all very new. Where do you get your customers from?
Word of mouth, social media, friends and family so far.
Q: Any thoughts about your plans for the future?
Long term I would love to grow the business into a franchise and I am also interested in teaching grooming in the future.
Q: Do you have a price list?
Prices vary according to the breed and size of the pet. Full-groom for a dog will start from about £25. Lucy is happy to offer Royal Clarence Yard residents 10% of a first groom session. For more information, prices and opening hours/appointments, please visit the Pawz & Relax Facebook Page or e-mail Lucy at pawzandrelax@hotmail.com.
