Accentuating Natural Color
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Watching the Queen of Color, Dawn Omboy, work on this dog took me back to my competitive grooming years. I worked with a great little dog that had an abundance of coat. As she matured, her rich black coat faded to gray. I wish I had Dawn’s knowledge and products back then!
In this lesson, Dawn is not working on a competitive level dog. Our model for this lesson is a client dog, in a haircut created by its owner. His owner does not want gray to show as he ages. With a coat this dark, getting bold and creative colors is not an option, but enhancing his natural black certainly is.
Dawn shows you the steps required to keep a natural black coat truly black. You’ll learn about the products and techniques to make it happen. Even though she is limited by the natural coat color on this dog, she’s still able to unleash her creative spirit. She shows you ways to have fun with a tone-on-tone application.
Granted, the haircut is a little unconventional to those of us looking for traditional balance and style. However, the client loves the work Dawn does. It is very typical for “Chewy” to join his mother at the gym where she works as a personal trainer. Thus, he turns into a walking advertisement for Dawn and her salon in Columbus, Georgia.
Whether you are trying to enhance the natural color of a competition level pet or are experimenting with creative styling, a dark coat doesn’t mean you can’t enhancs its natural shades.
Why should people have all the fun? Join Dawn as she shows you the safe and effective pet products you can use to bring up the natural black coat color this dog once had in his younger years.
In this lesson, you will learn:
- what products work well to bring up the natural black.
- how to apply the product for full saturation.
- how she uses subtle marketing techniques to encourage clients to embrace creative styling.
- how to charge for this type of service.
- how to add some creative flair to a black on black coat.
Dawn Omboy
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 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.
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 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.
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Accentuating Natural Color
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