Pawpad Applied Canine & Feline Grooming Certification (PACGC)

Who it's for

No industry experience required. No dog or cat of your own required.

• Aspiring professional groomers, starting from zero
• Career-changers looking for a hands-on, practical path into the pet industry
• Anyone who wants to groom dogs and cats — including anxious or reactive ones — without restraint or force

What you study

• Reading the Animal — body language and stress signals for dogs and cats, and the ethics of handling without restraint.
• Body Basics, Both Species — skeletal and muscular structure, coat and skin biology, and how discomfort shows up as behaviour, for dogs and cats.
• Consent-Based Handling — positioning, cooperative care, and knowing when to stop, practiced hands-on with dogs and cats from Week 2 onward.
• Grooming Technique — bathing and drying, brushing and de-matting, nail trimming, ear cleaning, and the basics of clipping and trimming, for both dogs and cats. Most skills: demo, then model practice, then live animal. Nail trimming is the exception — no model replicates a real nail closely enough, so it's demo then live practice directly.
• Integrated Practice — a full groom on a dog and on a cat, start to finish, supervised throughout: the course capstone.

How you learn

In-person, small-cohort, and heavily practical. Students move through live demonstrations, supervised model practice, and hands-on work with real dogs and cats under direct instructor supervision — theory in the first three weeks, technique in the last four. Nobody's first attempt at bathing, brushing, ear cleaning, or clipping happens on a live animal; nail trimming is taught through repeated live demonstration before you practice it yourself.

What you earn

On successful completion: the Pawpad Applied Canine & Feline Grooming Certification (PACGC), recognising comprehensive competence with both dogs and cats, taught at full depth for each. Grooming is a skill that develops at different paces for different people — Pawpad's advice, regardless of pace, is to gain supervised experience before working independently, and Pawpad offers placement support into a supervised role for graduates who want it. Graduates may also choose to sit an internationally recognised certification exam at their own additional cost, billed at actuals — a species-specific track for dogs, and a separate one for cats.

Commitment & fees

• 7 weeks, Monday–Friday, 11am–5pm (210 hours total, split across both species)
• Cohort of 3 students per run
• ₹95,000 per student
• ₹23,750 non-refundable deposit due upon acceptance to hold your seat; balance of ₹71,250 due before Day 1

How to apply

1. Complete the application form.
2. Have a short conversation with us about fit and expectations.
3. Meet us in person for a hands-on temperament and safety check.
4. If accepted, you're invited to pay fees and join the next cohort.