VERONICA FROSCH

Veronica Frosch has been an animal lover her whole life.  As a young child she would spend weeks at a time on her Grandparents dairy farm helping her Grandfather milk cows, and caring for and playing with the farm dogs.  This love for animals continued to grow over the years.  When she was old enough to groom the family poodle, about 15 years old, her parents allowed her to do it instead of the local groomer.  It took her hours, but she insisted that she be the one to do it.  When she was a senior in high school, her chosen path was to become a groomer.  In the Fall of 1991, following her senior year in high school, she went on to grooming school.  She graduated at the top of her class, scoring 100% on her poodle test dog and in the high 90’s on the rest of her test dogs.  This seemed to be a natural path for her!

After graduating from grooming school, she got a job at a local vet/retail/grooming store.  It was short lived, but a start.  From there she went on to a small home based shop working for a gal who was very much a perfectionist.  She worked there for several years until she too was able to be a perfectionist!  A few years later, she bought her own home and opened a home based shop, The Paw Shoppe.   

Her competition career started when she went to a local grooming show.  She watched the competitors and thought to herself “I can do this, I can groom better than most of the competitors in the ring!”  So the next year, she did, with five dogs, one in every class.  She won a second place on her standard poodle, and a second place on her cocker in beginner division.  She learned a lot from that competition…that she wasn’t the best groomer ever, and she had a very long way to go!  She went to that show a couple of times, then stopped competing for several years.  It was too nerve wracking!  She had a child during her hiatus from competing, and a couple of years later, she built up the nerve to try it again.  She asked a poodle breeder friend of hers to come and help her groom her standard poodle “Spike,” and off she went six weeks later to the show.  She won the beginner division poodle class, won the group, and won Best in Show at that show.  She was elated, and hooked!  She ventured to the All American in Chicago after that, won a few placements in intermediate division, and eventually had enough placements to move up to Open!  She basically took a few more years off, but still competed at small shows here and there.  On a whim, went back to Chicago with her standard poodle “Winter.”  She won second place in the open division poodle class among a sea of seasoned competitors!  She was shocked to say the least!  From there she went to three more shows that year, and managed to get a spot on Groom Team.  Getting that Groom Team jean jacket was one of the biggest highlights of her career!  She competed on the circuit for two more full years and earned enough points to make the traveling team for the 2007-2008 season.  She garnered many placements and several Best in Shows, a couple of Best All Arounds, and two Winners Circle wins.  She will be going to Germany soon to compete with the world’s finest.