Chesley is the groom with a view to winning at Crufts

Chelsey Foster-Johnson and Rudy

A master dog groomer from Cambridge has won herself a place at next year’s world famous Crufts show.

Chelsey Foster-Johnson came second in the young kennel club competition for 18 to 24 year-olds at the British Dog Grooming Championship in Stoneleigh, near Coventry, this month.

And her careful combing of 9-month-old miniature schnauzer Rudy also won her second overall and guaranteed the pair a spot at Crufts in March.

Chelsey, 22, who runs Poochie Parlour groomers in Arbury Court with her mother Maxine, bought Rudy from a breeder in Leicester earlier this year.

She said: “Your dog has to be 8 months to enter so he was just old enough and it was the first competition I could enter with him.

“I was competing against 24 others in my category so it was tough.”

The competition required participants to set up and spend two hours grooming their pets by whatever method they felt most comfortable, with judges watching throughout, before the dogs’ coats were finely combed at the end for knots and tangles.

Chelsey, who lives in Cambridge’s Meadows Estate, said: “I took a bit of a risk by grooming him by hand stripping, which can take many hours.

“But I managed to do it in the two hours and the judges were very impressed that I had gone for such a full groom.”

And now Chelsey, who has been a part-owner of the Arbury parlour for three and a half years, will be more than a spectator at Crufts.

She said: “We always go to Crufts anyway but now I am very excited about competing.

“I have always wanted to run my own salon – ever since I was small and I had a Yorkshire Terrier.”

For more information, visit www.poochieparlour.co.uk or call (01223) 309829.