Earlier this month we caught up with the founders of The Paw Shed. Located on Lesbourne Road, The Paw Shed is Reigate’s very first dog grooming destination store, surprising when you consider the number of Cockerpoos on the streets and in the park!
How did The Paw Shed come about?
The Paw Shed was founded by Gaby Swan in 2018, after leaving the corporate world to pursue her own passions. Gaby has a wonderful but very anxious cockerpoo who hated being groomed, and this gave her the idea to launch her own one-on-one grooming service tailored at those nervous pups who had previously had bad experiences. Gaby built a small shed in the garden, trained at an award-winning center to receive her City & Guilds Level 3 qualification in Grooming, and The Paw Shed was born!
What has been your most popular treatment to date?
The 'full groom', usually with a cute poodle hybrid! Cockpoos seem to be the ''Reigate Special", followed by Cavapoos, Labradoodles, Golden Doodles, etc.! The full groom includes a deep-bathing session in our organic, hypoallergenic shampoo, a blow-dry and brush-out, pedicure and a tailor-made haircut...everyone likes something different, and we provide that with dog welfare at the forefront.
We also see a lot of Spaniels, Labradors, Frenchies etc... We adapt the pamper depending on the coat type and what the dog needs from us.
We have also just started offering ultrasonic dental de-scaling which works wonders and has been incredibly popular already.
Where do you source your products?
99% of our stock comes from UK-based businesses, in particular the ones who don't sell to supermarkets - such as Canagan and Happy Paws etc. We try and stay as local as possible and stock a curated selection of boutique products that align with our views on dog welfare.
What do you look for in the products you retail?
A low carbon footprint, a high-quality, safe ingredient list, and ideally eco-packaging.
Do you have your own dog(s)?
Yes! It was Gaby’s cockapoo (Pongo), who brought her out of insurance and into the dog grooming world! Many of the team also have similar stories as to how they entered the industry. The hardest thing is trying not to take all our clients home with us!
What are your plans for the future?
We have so many… we believe that there is a lot that can be done to move the industry forward, with the reminder that ultimately our client is the dog and therefore we should always keep their welfare and needs at the top of our agenda.
We have just started creating an exciting range of house products, starting with dog shampoos and fragrances. Our own tote bags with tasteful humour are being designed with the help of a fantastic specialist who came up with our new logo and tagline - "Love, Care & Awesome Hair".
We are looking to launch e-commerce on our new website, selling the products we have in our shop, and delivering them to our customers to try and make the shop even more accessible.
We are creating membership for our regular customers, which will include a range of benefits from grooming appointments and shop discounts to hosted events with industry experts. And, we will soon have our first in-house dog nutritionist, once Sophie completes her course in December. Alongside others in the team Sophie is a qualified behavioralist and this is something that we lead with in all our internal training.
There will also be day care and training facility launching in 2023 alongside out own dog grooming academy, where we will offer intensive, hands-on, OCN accredited Level 3 Dog Grooming diplomas to enrollees.... The world needs more dog groomers who carry our ethos of love and care.
For us, the crucial part is to grow the business, keeping our reputation as the people who REALLY care about every dog whilst genuinely trying to have a positive impact on the industry as a whole.
We’d like say a big thank you to Gaby Swan at The Paw Shed for the wonderful insight into her new dog grooming location. It’s great to see another successful independent business in our town.
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