A young pet groomer from Co Antrim has triggered a huge reaction to her live animal artwork after she transformed a model dog into a big cat.
Emily Knox, 20, entered a creative grooming competition online last month and with her friend's dog Duke as her subject, she spent a total of six hours changing his appearance with tiger stripes.
Now complete with whiskers and tiger tail, Duke is literally stopping traffic with his make-over as members of the public queue up for a selfie with the new tiger king.
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Emily's boss Lisa Rea who runs a successful grooming business Absolutely Barking, said she was thrilled with Emily's success but added that not every dog was suitable for this type of modelling.
Lisa explained: "It takes a special groomer and a special dog with a specific type of personality to do this successfully because it takes time, patience and then it attracts a lot of attention. Not every dog will want to be a part of that type of thing and not all owners will either. It's not something I do myself but Emily is passionate about it.
"For Emily and Duke and Duke's owner Michelle, it worked out really well. Duke loves to get groomed regularly and enjoys the adoration he gets after he jumps up on to the grooming table. Like a lot of people, he loves a good pamper.
"The time spent doing the colouring was not in one sitting of course and he had lots of breaks. But he is an exceptionally chilled and patient dog. He just craves the attention he gets from everyone and is happy to stop and pose for photos.
"To say he has stopped traffic is no exaggeration. His personality is great for this type of work in all sorts of ways but not every dog is like Duke, and not every dog would be right for this. It's really always down to the dog to see if they will allow a groomer to do this work, and it's down to the owner if they will allow it."
Lisa said she and Emily talked over all the issues around the competitive grooming, knowing it would likely spark some debate.
Lisa said: "Emily is young and talented and just starting out. I warned her this type of work is not for everyone and that she may get some very negative reactions.
"We spent a lot of time going over if she and Duke's owner felt it would be right for Duke, and how they would handle the look afterwards.
"I wouldn't be interested in this type of work myself but I support Emily and I think she did a terrific job from the research to the preparation and finally the actual groom and colouring."
Emily from Glengormley started getting interested in creative grooming during lockdown when she was unable to carry out her day-to-day work.
She said: "I watched a lot of tutorials and online seminars and really got a taste for it. I felt I would be able to do quite well if I had the right dog who would be happy to be my model and my friend Michelle was happy for Duke to take part.
"He was the perfect model, just happy to be getting lots of attention on the table and even more so when we had finished.
"The Asian Fusion competition allowed me to let my imagination go wild and I decided on the Tiger King theme. All the shampoo and other products introduced by Lisa to Absolutely Barking when she opened 10 years ago were animal cruelty free and have stayed that way. And the Opawz dyes I used on Duke are the same, safe for the animals and non-toxic. They wash out after about 20 washes.
"I love the affect I got with the Tiger King theme and Duke's patience and relaxed modelling. I don't know the result of the competition yet but I feel happy with the results."
Lisa Rea said: "Creative grooming is just getting started in Northern Ireland but it is massive across in many parts of the world from the US to the Far East.
"No doubt there will be a lot of talk about this and I agree it's not for everyone, but I'm satisfied that every care was taken over Duke's welfare.
"Good welfare is such a big part of our work every day. We get some dogs brought into us for grooming in a terrible state, matted so badly that their bodies are bruised, their skin damaged.
"We get people who cut off dog's coats who are not mean to be groomed like that such as Shih Tzus who are meant to have long flowing coats. We get all sorts of problems that come from neglect or lack of knowledge and experience and we do everything in our power to help the dog.
"So it took a lot of discussion to work out if entering Duke into a creative grooming competition was the right thing to do and it wasn't taken lightly.
"Duke is such a big personality that he loves all the attention he has been getting since his make-over and like all the products I use at my salon, the dye used was not toxic and not harmful to Duke or Emily.
"After investigating the pet-safe products she let her imagination run wild and created a tiger with Duke the Golden Retriever. He's such a happy boy, Emily is delighted with the result of all her hard work and I'm very proud Emily who had the confidence to enter a big competition and produce and fantastic groom and colour transformation."
How it started
The first forms of creative dog grooming date back to the 1960s and 70s during the Vietnam War era. Hippies inspired by the introduction of tie-dyed clothing, mohawk haircuts and brightly coloured hair dyes extended to dressing and painting their pets. The dogs were given mohawk hair-dos, spiked hair, wigs and dyed hair.
The first national grooming contest was held in Atlanta, Georgia in 1973 and by 1980, the creative stylist contest was in full swing. Today competitions held across the world for dog groomers to showcase their designs including the British Creative Dog Grooming Championships.
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