Certified Master Groomer with 4 Decades of Experience
Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins has been a Certified Master Groomer since 1985. She has been professionally grooming, at least part-time, since 1981. But first and longest, Jennifer has been a teacher. She taught High School, Junior High, and as an adjunct college History Teacher, for the better part of three decades, including serving in administration as an Academic Dean. Jennifer has Masters Degrees in History and the equivalent in Education. Her love for teaching is reflected in the passion with which she always engages her audiences. Jennifer loves to share her enthusiasm for the inspiring story of the human-dog co-evolved relationship in our history.
Most of all, Jennifer is on a mission to make sure all dogs get groomed correctly for their natural coat types. Jennifer reminds groomers everywhere that groomers are in the Coat Preservation business, not the Coat Destruction business. She has built a movement that is changing the pet grooming industry through her widely acclaimed program on "The Fifteen Coat Types." #DogsNeedTheirNaturalCoatsToProtectThem
#StopTheShaveDowns #DogsNeedTheirNaturalCoatsToProtectThem
Jennifer started showing dogs right out of college, the same year she started teaching full time - 1981. Some of her earliest breeds required serious grooming, so she had to learn how to take care of her own show dogs. Soon she worked in grooming professionally as a great side gig for a teacher who had summers and long holidays off. She has shown, owned, and bred German Shepherds, Cocker Spaniels, Boxers, Great Pyrenees, Australian Shepherds, Shetland Sheepdogs, Standard Poodles and Miniature Poodles, and Himalayan Cats.
Jennifer is also a prominent victims rights activist and advocate for gun violence prevention and criminal justice reform after the murder of her sister Nancy Bishop Langert, her brother-in-law Richard, and their unborn child in Winnetka, Illinois in 1990. Jennifer was selected in 2010 for the Illinois Women's Institute of Leadership (IWIL) and led a successful six year campaign to amend the Illinois Constitution for enforceable victims rights #MarsysLaw.
Jennifer began grooming full-time in 2014 when she opened Love Fur Dogs in Glencoe, Illinois as a retirement project. By then, she knew enough about the grooming industry to be fully committed to doing it right. Everything at Love Fur Dogs was modelled on Best Practices - always the best for her beloved dog and cat clients. So it felt very good when, just a year after she opened Love Fur Dogs, she was named Best Groomer in Chicagoland by Chicago Magazine and the Chicago Tribune.
Jennifer's speaking, writing, and teaching career in the Grooming Industry has built a global audience. In addition to her ICMG Master Groomer certification, she is twice Barkleigh Honors Nominated and holds other credentials such as the PGC (Professional Grooming Credential) from WPA (World Pet Association), Certified Canine Esthetician, and other credentials. She went on to win numerous other awards. Jennifer founded the Illinois Professional Pet Groomers Association where she played a pivotal role in helping groomers to be defined as "essential" during the pandemic. The national Hulu Network television program Small Business Revolution on Season Three featured Jennifer as the "Grooming Expert" in the "Shampooches" episode.
Jennifer started speaking at grooming conferences in 2015, first locally then nationally, to great reviews. Jennifer may be one of the very few Certified Master Groomers in the USA who is also a Master’s Degree educated career teaching professional. The groomer who can teach . . . the teacher groomer. . . the Groomers Guide.
Jennifer and her college professor and author/husband Bill Jenkins live in Northfield, Illinois and in Powhatan, Virginia along with their Australian Shepherds and Miniature Poodles.