Words from a worthy winner

We are delighted to announce our 
​
​'Spirit of Mary Toland Award' 2021 is AJ Joyce

I began my grooming career in 2017 after starting to work in a dog daycare centre, and fell in love instantly with the whole process. I worked there for 2 years grooming part time, gained as much experience as I could, and then 1 year later I set up my own business and salon called K9 Design. 

I entered my first grooming competition in 2019 and even though I was super nervous, I got so much encouragement from other local groomers, and I loved it in the end. After that, I started doing workshops and seminars whenever I could, and learned so much from some pretty amazing groomers. I’ve entered at least five grooming competitions since then, both in person and online, and have seen so much progress in my own work, and have even won a few as well which has been amazing fun! ​​

In early 2020 myself and a group of other Irish groomers went all the way to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to “Pets Icon Grooming Academy” to do a 2 week intensive course in Asian Fusion Style grooming, as well as some show style grooming on Miniature Poodles and Bichons specifically. I loved everything that I learned, found it to be an amazing experience and when I came home it was all I wanted to do! 

Since becoming a dog groomer, I’ve come to find that it’s an amazing supportive network of kind hearted like-minded people that are always willing to help out, encourage, mentor and teach no matter how long you’ve been in the industry.  ​

With lockdowns and restrictions over the last two years, my first few years in business have been very… interesting to say the least, but I couldn’t imagine doing anything else with my days and can’t wait for the world to regain a bit more normality so that workshops, demo days and seminars can resume, as well as the get togethers between us all.
​I am so happy to be apart of such an amazing network and was so excited to have been nominated for The Spirit of Mary Toland Award and have been even more humbled to have won it.