Consolodate.
Improve.
Formalise. 

Industry Certification for groomers
who've already done the hard yards

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You've been grooming for years. You know your breeds, you know your coats, and your clients keep coming back. What you may not have is a qualification that says so.

That's the gap this course and qualification closes. Consolidate what you already know, sharpen the parts that deserve it, and formalise the lot into a credential the industry recognises.

First, the short version

The Industry Certification Pathway runs across five blocks, taking a groomer from the foundations through to Senior Dog Groomer. Blocks 1 to 3 are the foundation training phase. Blocks 4 and 5 are the advanced certification, and that's what this page is about.

If you'd like the full picture of how the whole pathway fits together, read about the Industry Certification Pathway here. Otherwise, here's what Blocks 4 and 5 involve.
INDUSTRY CERTIFICATION

You've got the skills. This is the recognition.

Being good at your job and having something that proves it are two different things. Your skill lives in your hands and your reputation, and neither is easy to show a client, an employer, or the wider industry when they ask what you can do. Certification is assessed against breed standard and marked on a rubric. It puts your skill on the record, where it can be seen.
Trained elsewhere?
You did a course, but not one that leads to industry certification.
Self-taught?
Years on the job, no formal training, and nothing on paper to show for it.
Experienced and ready?
You can already groom. This is where you prove it against a standard.
—   CONSOLIDATE

You don't start from scratch

The pathway runs across five blocks. The first three cover foundations you've most likely been working with for years.

So you skip them!
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The Direct Entry Assessment lets you prove what you already know and start at Block 4. It's free to sit. Once you're through, you'll be sent a private enrolment link for Blocks 4 and 5.
—   IMPROVE

What's in Blocks 4 and 5

The advanced end of the pathway. Breed standard grooms, hand stripping, colour, Asian Fusion, show trims, and the behaviour and business know-how that comes with years but not always with a certificate.
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Block 4 | Professional Dog Groomer
Refines your technical skills and covers the parts of the job beyond the groom itself:
  • Challenging grooms: reading anatomy, body language and energy well enough to work with anxious, senior, disabled and aggressive dogs
  • Refining your scissoring, oodle styling in depth, and popular trims like the lamb and Miami, plus an introduction to hand stripping and colouring
  • Breed standard and coat maintenance grooms across the breeds you see every week: bichon, west highland white terrier, scottish terrier, miniature schnauzer, cocker spaniel, pomeranian, japanese spitz, maltese, shih tzu and the poodles
  • Safe de-matting,  blending a matted coat, disguising a home haircut, 
Block 5 | Senior Dog Groomer
The senior end, taught by some of the best groomers in the country:
  • Advanced scissoring and thinning, creative colour and airbrush work, advanced Asian Fusion, and expert hand stripping
  • Breed standard grooms across standard schnauzer, lakeland terrier, australian terrier, wire fox terrier, american cocker spaniel, kerry blue terrier, afghan hound and bedlington terrier, plus poodle german and continental trims
  • Canine psychology and learning theory, and leading and managing a team
  • Advanced terminology and the deeper breed knowledge that comes with senior-level work
This is your chance to take your breed standard grooming to the highest level, on the breeds that ask the most of you.
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A real commitment, paced around your work

This isn't a tick-and-flick certificate. Each block runs over twelve months, with a further six months to complete your assessments, so the full pathway is a serious undertaking spread across a few years.


That's deliberate. The content is released steadily rather than dumped on you all at once, which means you can keep grooming full-time while you study, and you're never cramming. It's built to fit a working life, and to be worth something at the end of it.
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—   FORMALISE

How assessment works

You won't be sitting an exam in a hall somewhere. The assessment fits around the work you already do.

The theory is released over twelve months for each block, so you can fit study around a full diary. Once the theory is complete, you have six months to finish your practical assessments, then the same again for the next block.
  • The practical assessments are submitted by video and photo. You film and photograph your grooms wherever you work, on your own dogs, in your own time, then submit them against the rubric. No travel, and no assessor present to change how your dog behaves.
  • Each assessment is marked against a detailed rubric. You need to meet the standard on every criterion, not just an average. You're assessed on preparation, breed standard, handling and safety.
  • You won't be filming four-hour grooms. For the longer grooms, and hand stripping in particular, you capture the key stages: photographs at the important points, short video of technique and handling, and a written note on what you did and why.

Support along the way

Both blocks include Feedback Pitstops. At each one you upload your work and someone from the igroomhub team reviews it, tells you what's working, what isn't, and what to adjust before you move on.

It means nothing at assessment comes as a surprise. By the time you film a practical assessment, you've already had feedback on the work leading up to it.
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A step towards your masters

If a master groomer title is on your horizon, Blocks 4 and 5 are strong preparation. Four of your five Block 5 assessments align with the FCI competition categories, hand stripping, spaniels and setters, poodles, and scissored purebreds, so you're working to the same breed standards the recognised master pathways are built on.
The fifth is a special care dog, and it's the one that matters most to us. The senior who can't stand for long, the anxious dog who needs you to slow right down, the dog whose history means the standard groom doesn't apply. No competition tests for this, but it's the most common work we do, and the most important.


If competition isn't your goal, that's fine. Certification stands on its own.

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What it costs

$1,595
for both blocks, or $595 upfront then $39/month for 26 months.
That covers everything →
All of Blocks 4 and 5, including all theory and video content
All assessments, marked against their rubrics
A three year membership to igroomhub
—   THE PROCESS

How you get certified

1

Direct Entry

Show what you know

Sit the free Direct Entry Assessment. It's how you prove you're ready to start at Block 4, without repeating the foundations.

2

Enrol 

Get your link

Once you're through, we send you a private enrolment link for Blocks 4 and 5. Your place is held from there.

3

The work

Blocks 4 and 5 

Content is released steadily over each block, submit your assessments by video and photo, and get feedback at every pitstop along the way.

4

Certified 

Make it official 

Pass your assessments and earn your certification, from Professional Dog Groomer to Senior Dog Groomer.
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