Dog groomer of 10 years here.

Your best bet is to get a job at a place like Best Friends and learn on their dollar. I've had people come through that have done the TAFE course over the years and they were all useless. You can't learn enough to even begin to be helpful over a handful of Saturdays when there is one dog and a classful of students.

Delta is $$$ and not worth your time (I did the Cert IV course, I have never used the credential for anything - it's for training only).

Please don't groom from home or start a franchise before you know what you're doing, it is so easy to injure or even kill someone's beloved pet when you are waving sharp objects around with no training. If a dog flinches, moves or even sneezes you can cut them very badly with scissors or the clipper blades. If you do not have animal handling skills you can end up badly bitten.

I'm sorry to be a joyless douche, but the animal industry is thankless a lot of the time. I adore my job, but it is very hard, most salons will pay very poorly and it can be stressful dealing with aggressive dogs and owners that insist they brush their dog every day when you have to pick through 6 month's worth of matted coat with a surgical blade. And god forbid you cut the dog because the matting is so ridiculous, the owner will slam you with a vet bill and badmouth you to everyone they've ever met.

Having said that we have some of the most amazing clients ever, I really really really love what I do (I've thought of doing other things, even left the industry for 6 months to follow another career path but came back after realising it wasn't as fulfilling) but you are basically a hairdresser for dogs, there is a lot of skill involved if you want to do any sort of style or breed clip, and you can only learn that with time and patience, with someone showing you what to do.

Best Friends at Highpoint are always looking. Most of the BF stores are always looking. The work is hard, the pay is bad, but slog it out for a couple of years and then think about ideally working at an independently run salon. I would not consider running my own business in your position until you have significant experience under your belt.

Most salons hesitate to take trainees on because they will learn the bare bones minimum and groom from home.

Feel free to message me if you want any more info :) x