Competitive Dog Grooming

Canine Couture gets a whole new meaning at these events that celebrate our obsession with dressing up dogs.

- Pancham Bhardwaj

If you search for the words “competitive dog grooming” on the internet, it throws up over 95 lakh results, which is an astonishing number considering how little people know about it in most parts of the world. The whole concept of dog grooming in itself seems like a very first world idea, let alone taking it a step further by adding colours and characters to the mix. Yet there is no denying that there is an international community of dog groomers who are using their pets as a canvas to explore their artistic side and maybe earn some money in the process as well.

We are talking about competitions where the goal is to ‘dress-up’ dogs in the best possible ‘costumes’. If the pictures aren’t a dead giveaway, this means using lots of paint and dye to draw characters from your imagination, onto the body of the animal. Since the limits are only the imagination of the creators, it means that you get to see all sorts of looks and designs; including, but not limited to film characters, other animals, human costumes, and even weird hybrid creatures that will probably haunt your dreams for weeks together.