Yorkshire expert joins quest to find best dog groomer
SHE MAY be canine crazy, but it is not such a dog’s life for Harrogate’s Verity Hardcastle.
The mother- of- two will hit television screens tonight as a judge on new BBC One show Pooch Perfect – her first major role on the small screen – at 8pm.
Presented by actress Sheridan Smith, the show aims to find nation’s best dog groomer, pitting 16 contestants against each other – four in each heat – across eight weekly episodes.
Mrs Hardcastle, who co- judges alongside Colin Taylor, hopes that the show will give an insight into the industry’s hard- working and creative professionals.
She said: “It really does shine a light on what beautiful people they are, inside and out.”
Mrs Hardcastle, 35, is a member of the Guild of Master Groomers, has won a number of awards at The Grooming Show, Great North Groom, Master Groom, Premier Groom, Love to Groom Scotland, and she even won first place at Groom Expo in America.
She has her own business called Verity Hardcastle Grooming and Training, which she set up in 2010. The company has won business industry awards, including twice winning Pet Industry Federation’s ‘ Grooming Salon of the Year’.
She is mother to Luella, three, and Jenson, one, alongside husband Andrew, and has three miniature poodles, Lily, Olive and Alice. Her love of dogs was sparked by her first, a doberman called Angel she got when she was 19.
“She was a dog in a million,” she said, “a wonderful, wonderful breed.”