If pampering pooches doesn't work out for Wanganui's Bianca Carmichael, she can always go back to her former job ... building America's Cup yachts.
An animal lover, Bianca, 36, has just started up a dog grooming business called B's Hotdogs.
She reckons she has about 50 clients, but there's room for more.
The
dogs can expect nothing but the best: a flea rinse, nails clipped, ears plucked, a bath and blowdry ... the full works starting at $55.
It's a dog's life and their owners are only too happy to make sure they're getting the most out of it.
Wanganui-born and educated, Bianca has not long arrived home from 10 years' abroad where she worked for two years in Britain being a dog's best friend. She had gained some experience with a kennel in Wanganui before she left and built on that knowledge working for a high-class dog grooming firm in London. Its services included a swimming pool and an underwater treadmill.
Soon Bianca was preparing candidates for the canine world's showpiece, Crufts.
Just as she was leaving her employers, they landed a prize contract of caring for former Spice Girl Gerri Halliwell's fluffy companions.
On either side of her dog's life in Britain, Bianca helped build boats for America's Cup campaigns and the Sydney to Hobart race.
For the first four years of her OE, she worked in Sydney for McConaghy boats.
She answered the advertisement for a labourer, got an interview and the job.
Four years on she had built the steering wheel, rudder and mast for an America's Cup boat and Alfa Romeo, which has dominated the Sydney to Hobart for several years.
She has clippings of royalty and other luminaries pictured behind "her" America's Cup wheel.
After Britain, McConaghy hired her again for a job in China ... building that country's first America's Cup yacht.
Bianca can be contacted by phoning 348-2021 or 021-261-0091
