Tiffany grew up in Virginia in a home that had all sorts of pets, including dogs, cats and horses. She went to college for a degree in Equine Management, leading her to run a pony breeding farm in Great Falls. However, she soon learned that she could either work with horses or she could get a real job and buy her own horse. That is when she started grooming. But after a bad bite from a Chow, she had to switch over to being a vet tech, which aligned with another one of her dreams to become a veterinarian.

Ultimately, Tiffany moved with her then-husband to Tennessee, and later came back to her home state of Virginia, where she sold cars and then insurance. But when COVID hit, she reached out to her local corporate pet store and was immediately offered a grooming position. Upon grooming the very first dog, she had a great revelation—that she loved grooming; that she was “home.” She realized she never wanted to do anything else, wondering why she ever stopped.

Tiffany opened the Pink Poodle RVA in 2022, first grooming from home, but already envisioning her dream salon. The excellent online reviews grew her business quickly and soon she began work on her brick-and-mortar salon.

Tiffany’s vision during the building process was that each dog would have the private experience of her home-grooming in its own little room—no exposure to other dogs, no crates or kennels—but translated into a commercial space, in cubicles. And every groom would be executed straight through, from bath to finish work.

Today Tiffany runs her very successful salon taking quality extremely seriously, even being nominated for the “Best of Richmond 2024” by her first client, a senior dog who had inspired her to open the salon. Her clients with dogs that had been “fired” from other groomers for aggression are often amazed by how well they do with the Pink Poodle’s gentle, caring, full-service experience.

With pet wellbeing being a top priority, Tiffany refuses any client who wants a double-coated shave-down. She even fired a bather who raised her voice in anger to a dog once, saying, “I groom with a do-no-harm attitude.”

Malissa Conti-Diener was an enormous influence on Tiffany, training her how to use massage and other forms of positive energy in the workplace for every single dog. Tiffany, long committed to getting all the groomer education she possibly could, firmly believes in being the best, saying “We don’t set the bar, we are the bar!”

Also with a focus on groomer wellbeing, Tiffany did all she could to break unhealthy cycles her groomers were in. Every groomer has a private “suite” but with the walls not going all the way to the ceiling, which still provides a sense of teamwork and community within the salon. She pays for her staff to get groomer education and to go to trade shows, and also to be members of the the Virginia Professional Pet Groomers Association (VPPGA) which includes regular educational member events.

Cleanliness is another focus of the Pink Poodle, with veterinary-quality disinfectant being used everywhere. Tiffany even contracted for a professional towel service used also by local hospitals so that even the rugs, cleaning mops and rags were always sterile.

In October of 2023, Tiffany was told she was cancer free. But when the cancer later returned, the Pink Poodle was already thriving, so she continued grooming with cancer. Embracing what a cousin always used to say, “I’ll get over it or under it, one way or the other,” Tiffany decided that “as long as I am strong enough, I am grooming.”

She was taking chemo on a two-week schedule, and in the second week, she was still grooming five dogs a day, but would come home exhausted. Working helped her not to think about the struggle, and she reported that her most uplifting moments every day are the “dog kisses that do me a lot of good!”

Tiffany still has goals. She is working towards her NCMG and still competing, with her Cocker groom taking a second-place rosette at the Virginia Groom Show in late March 2025. She is now much weaker physically and only grooming some small dogs, with her son bathing for her and learning to groom. She manages her shop from home much of the time, as they are booked out months in advance.

Tiffany says she does not know how not to work. She glows when talking about how much she loves her shop, her staff, her clients, her family and her life. She is a true inspiration to many and hopes her story will reach groomers far and wide.

To conclude, Tiffany shares this earnest and emotional message to all of us in the grooming industry she loves so much: “Please, everyone, take care of yourself so that you can take care of those you love and all your beloved clients who need you.”