Person of the Week Robin Riedel…Have dogs, will groom

“I’ve always loved dogs and asked for a dog every year growing up until age 15, when I brought a dog home, named him Webster, and he became my best friend!”

That was Robin Riedel, owner of Canine Creations located at 120 W. Boardway St. Robin grew up in New Hampshire, home of short summers and long winters, with lots of snow, trees, mountains, an Atlantic Ocean shore, and more snow. In high school, she decided she wanted to work with dogs and become a vet. However, after viewing a few surgeries on dogs, she considered switching and becoming a vet tech. Then, while picking Webster up from the groomer, she became fascinated with how it all worked: bathing, drying, grooming, brushing, clipping nails, and all that was going on there.

So, she changed her mind again and got a job at a grooming shop, starting with the most menial tasks. Robin says, “Back then it was learn-by-doing, so it was a slow process.” Now, she says, groomers are still not regulated, but she and her employees at Canine Creations are members of the National Dog Groomers Association. They continue their grooming education by attending the Association’s classes and seminars. Attendance at the annual meeting is a requirement for Robin and the other Canine Creation groomers.

Eventually, Robin ended up in Florida and met the man who would become her husband, an aeronautical engineer. They got married and began moving north until they settled in Troy. Somewhere along the way, they had two sons, who are now 25 and 27. Her husband works at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Her husband occasionally builds small planes which he flies, and she joins him…only occasionally.

After moving to Troy, Robin worked at another Tipp City grooming shop. She loves grooming dogs (and even some cats), so it’s not a surprise that in 2003 she opened her own shop, Canine Creations. Now, she’s been there for 22 years.

At Canine Creations, Robin says they do all kinds of dogs, and a few cats. She says cats are the hardest to groom, and some of them must be sedated (which Canine Creations doesn’t do). Cats also don’t like to be in or sprayed with water, which is the starting point for grooming. Robin says she makes sure the dogs they groom are vaccinated and puts muzzles on the ones with a tendency to bite. She also tries to place each dog with the same groomer every visit, so they get to know each other and learn each other’s likes, dislikes, and personalities.

So, after almost a quarter of a century at Canine Creations, Robin is looking into the future and considering retirement in ten years or less. She said these days it’s much easier to find good groomers, with more training available. For example, she loves working with Miami Valley Career Technical Center (MVCTC) in Clayton and the Upper Valley Career Technology Center (UVCTC) in Piqua. Students from those schools serve apprenticeships at Canine Creations, and Robin says she’s hired many of them. She admits that she wants to snatch them up quickly because they really want to do this.

As Robin sat at home recently with her two wirehaired dachshunds, her favorite dog breed, she was thinking, “I’m doing the math in my head, and wondering if my two dogs will live another 10 years. Then at what point do you stop getting dogs, so they don’t outlive you? But I can’t imagine not having one!”