Jitka Krizova Averis - What I learned during my dog grooming career

Jitka is renowned for hand-stripping in the UK. Find out more about Jitka below before tuning into our next episode of the Savvy Podcast to learn more. 

I have been passionate about dogs and have been in the dog grooming industry for over 20 years. Including winning international dog grooming competitions: Eurogroom three times in a row, Groomania, Mastergroom, British Groomer of The Year, representing England at the World Dog Grooming Championship for six years, winning the UK Dog Grooming Salon of the Year award, and The Congeniality Award at the World Dog Grooming Conference UK twice.

I was a part of the Saredon Terriers team for 20 years.

During my dog grooming career, I specialised in hand-stripped terriers and shared my knowledge via numerous seminars, workshops, and one-to-one sessions. I'm also an EGA judge for hand stripping.

The knowledge I gained over the years working with dogs and my diplomas in canine massage and clinical aromatherapy have led me to be a proud founder of Vita Canis - natural aromatherapy products for dogs, which I ran for ten years.

After 20 years of living in the UK, John, our three dogs, and I moved to Slovakia.

Now, I work with cellular health regeneration product technology called Asea, develop cosmetic products for Belgium dog grooming brand The Sentinel, and teach art classes for kids. Pretty diverse, but I love it!

Since 2018, I have organised a charity dog grooming competition, Style to Rescue, to raise money for dog rescue centers.

Style to Rescue is a charity dog grooming competition. It is an innovative way of supporting rescue organisations.

At our first competition in 2018, we raised over £4500; in 2019, over £7500; in 2022, it was over £13k; and in 2023, we donated almost £12900, and this year about £11k.

Over the years, we supported the following dog rescues:

• Many Tears Animal Rescue
• Spaniel Aid
• Wheels to Paws UK
• ​Doodle Aid
• Hessa's Homeless Hounds
• Petwelfare Stafford
• ​Scottish Terrier Emergency Rescue (STECs)
• U- Hearts
• Underdog International
• Poodles from Portugal

Style to Rescue's calm, friendly, relaxing atmosphere attracts many dog groomers and beginners, and that's wonderful.

Knowing there is so much to learn can be paralysing, frustrating, and daunting. But we all started like this. No one was born with an impressive skills of scissoring, hand stripping, or even handling. We all had to learn it, and it took time and perseverance.

Here are a few things I have learned during my dog grooming career:

1/Dream big and take little steps towards your Dream every day. I worked on my technique, speed, and neatness daily in the salon. Analysing other people's work. Taking photos, making notes, and using them.

2/ Do things that scare you – scissoring was scary for me for so many years. To improve my scissoring, I got my Kerry Blue Kimi. Even though I got her to learn and practice my scissoring, I was still trimming her with comb attachments … too scared to do a full scissor trim. Then, when I did my C&G Level 3 practical exam, I asked my examiner, Zoe Duffy, if I could compete with a Kerry Blue but with comb attachments … she said yes, but I would be marked down on the technique … but her face was saying "why would anyone do that?!" (Or something like that, lol!) So one day, I closed my eyes (not literally) and trimmed Kimi with scissors … the whole dog … a year later, I won British Groomer of the Year with her. So be brave and persevere!

3/ Don't listen to other people … or at least not all of them. You will come across people who will tell you you should do something else, you can't do this or that, you are too old, you are too young … When I opened my first salon in Slovakia, so many times I cried in my empty salon, praying for clients

… and slowly I built the business, the reputation, simply by following my passion, and not giving up. My parents used to tell me that you can't have a job looking after dogs (at that time in Slovakia, it was the reality, unless you were a vet), and I was happy to show them a few years later I could.

4/ Don't take criticism personally. Take it as feedback, something you can learn from. I know it's hard not to take it personally because it makes our ego scream. But be honest, listen, be grateful, and learn from it.

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