Humanity Before Vanity
Since 2006
Our Story
The Passion
I have always loved animals. Period.
As a teenager, I volunteered at the local animal shelter and then the local wildlife rehabilitation center.
As a high school student, I worked at the World-Famous San Diego Zoo so I could go on site tours for free.
As a college student, I majored in Biology with an emphasis in Ecology, Animal Behavior, and Evolution. I worked on the flagging behavior of flamingos, tracking the waggle dance of honeybees, and quantified the social behavior of ant colonies. I studied abroad in Australia to study Tropical Ecology and Marine Biology at James Cooke University.
I still could not get enough of animals.
After completing college, I snagged the first job I where I could continue to work hands-on with animals… which turned out to be a dog trainer job at my local PETCO. The manager also offered me a job as a part-time dog bather as well.
I adopted my first dog, Addy, a 10 month old Border Collie Mix. We discovered she had been crated 10 hours a day and given away twice. We found that she was reactive on leash and anxious.
I enrolled her in Reactive Dog training classes. I picked up recommended reading from other dog trainers for reactive dogs. I watched shows that could tell me more about dog behavior specifically. While at work, I was learning more from all the various dogs I groomed and trained on a day-to-day basis.
Then, I was the Grooming Salon Manager and the District Dog Training Mentor. I had also taken up being a Dog Wrangler at the Downtown Dog Lounge.
I realized though that as much as I knew about behavior, knowing behavior on it’s own wasn’t the whole story.
Addy the Border Collie Mix
My daughters Penny (left) and Abbey (right) with clients Willa & Clark in the first years of my new business
The Business
I started my own service. I wanted more control over the environment, not just focusing on changing the behavior of the dog.
What environments were dogs most comfortable in? Their home.
There was less noise and dogs didn’t need to be separated from their pet parent. I could minimize the groom time. I could work on their pace instead of juggling them between other dogs. I could even break up the groom and make up all my own rules so that the service centered around the animal’s well-being. I had more space to treat them with the respect, compassion, and kindness they deserved. I could craft a service customized to better serve the animal more than I ever could before.
The difference it made for the dogs in my service was dramatic.
Creating my own business also granted me a more flexible schedule so I could prioritize spending more time with my children while they were young. It was a winning solution all around for both my personal and professional life.
Now with my growing family, I changed the DBA recently to “Groom Positive” to better reflect what this service has become over many years.
I’m now approaching 20 years of working with dogs —- almost half my life!
I am still completely enamored by animals, but now I have a special place in my heart for our closest live-in companions… dogs.
“My sweetest boy, my long-haired Corgi, had a bad experience at the local groomer. At a party I spoke to another dog lover whose dog had a similar bad experience. They recommended Jasmine and it has been the most gratifying experience!!
Through Jasmine’s patient and gentle handling, my Brutus has become the dog he was before! Jasmine never rushed the process, taking time every step of the way. We are so grateful we found her!!”
- Pati Casebolt, Pet Parent to Brutus the Corgi