Hi Jessica-Lee, tell us a little bit about yourself!

My name is Jessica-Lee Corrigan, I am 28 years old and the owner & solo groomer of Clipper Canine – Dog Grooming based in a small village called Dunloy in Northern Ireland. My dog grooming career started in 2023 where I trained with Michael Sheils in Londonderry whilst on maternity and planning my 2024 wedding. I left with a level 3 diploma and totatlly fell in love with dog grooming and with extended knowledge in animal care. I set up my own home salon whilst working part time and having a 6 month old baby. Most of my larger equipment like baths and tables were second hand and years old, the hydraulic table actually stuck at one height the day we put it in and my Clipit Quattro was a birthday gift to get me started. But with a passion fueled work ethic we have made it into the salon it is today in 2025, newly renovated and still adding to it regularly. But adding to our salon isn’t where it ends as I have always tried to continue my education where possible, online seminars, in person demos or student nights put together by Christies Direct and other well known groomers from all over the world, in my short career I have been expectionally lucky and from attending one of those student nights I won some new equipment and was approached to become an ambassador for the company. They really liked the active social media presence and how I was promoting my business. This came as a massive personal achievement for me and I would recommend any groomers who would love to be involved with brands and pet companys not to forget you don’t know who’s watching your socials, don’t be afraid to tag the brands and products you use in your posts because that’s what they are looking out for. 

Clipper Canine has been proudly nominated for different awards via a public vote such as Pet Awards NI – newcomer of the year, Salon based groomer of the year finalist 2024/25 and ASA animal awards finalist 2025 with the awards ceremony this November. We have dipped our toe into the competition world of grooming shortly after qualifying at ‘Rookies got talent’ and placed 3rd in a respectable class this made me egar to learn more and get back into the competition room again, with the new year brang ‘Groomers got talent 2024’ where I competed with a second cockapoo and moved up the placings to a fantastic 2nd place spot leaving with the best advice from the industry’s highly respected Groomers. But with all this success I still often have spells of imposer syndrome, where I question my abilities,worth and often compare to where I want to be as a dog groomer. This is a personal battle I think every groomer can go through, but it’s just about taking a step back and recognising every small ‘win’ and looking back on how you started as a solo business owner and knowing you are not alone in these thoughts. If it becomes to challenging, reach out to your tutors and mentors and having friends within the industry can really help too.

Tell us a little bit more about how you started with Emmi-Pet Teeth Cleaning.

I thought about introducing emmi pet ultrasonic teeth cleaning as a service in my salon after finding Anastasia’s The Dog Tooth Fairy page on facebook for at least 7 months before I actually took the leap and done the online training in November of 2024. So from November – January I advertised on my social media pages this fantastic new service would soon begin, it began slow but by mid February I needed to order in more stock and had cilents traveling over an 1hr (52miles) to have their dogs teeth cleaned. I find that generally pet owners aren’t aware of any other dental services other than those provided by vets so advertising well, with eye catching before and after pictures attached can really get the attention of those intended and having a good information pack on all things Emmi-Pet ready to send to the interested party’s boosts their confidence in your professional abilities with the service. It’s been a great add on service, with beneficial income margins but it’s also so interesting learning more about canine oral health and it’s benefits. Its amazing just how the equipment works and truly makes a difference to a dog’s oral health, even within first sessions.

Thank you, Jessica-Lee, for sharing your success story with us!