Meet Dara & Jennifer

Dara Forleo is an entrepreneur, educator, and business leader dedicated to helping grooming and pet care professionals protect what they have built. As the founder of multiple pet grooming businesses, Dara understands that ownership is personal. A grooming business is often more than a workplace, it is where family, clients, pets, team members, skill, service, and reputation all meet. Her work is rooted in one belief: pet care business owners do not need to be corrected. They need structure, standards, education, and support that respect what they have already created. In 2015, Dara founded The Whole Pet Grooming Academy to raise professional standards in the grooming industry and give pet care professionals access to career-level education, practical everyday training, and a community built on growth. WPGA now supports groomers, salon teams, and business owners who want safer practices, stronger standards, and a more professional path forward. Dara’s own education reflects …

Jennifer Oppel is a career groomer, former salon owner, and founder of Growing Groomers, a structured training program built to help grooming businesses train bathers, groomers, and apprentices with more consistency and accountability. With 35 years in the grooming industry and 25 years as a salon owner, Jennifer understands the daily pressure salon owners carry the full schedules, staffing challenges, training struggles, client expectations, and the responsibility that doesn’t end when the last dog goes home. She is also the sponsor of Missouri’s first state-registered pet grooming apprenticeship, bringing a more formal training pathway to an industry that has often relied on informal, in-salon learning. Through her work, Jennifer helps salon owners turn experience into structure, so training becomes clearer, standards become easier to communicate, and employees have a better path to grow while making better use of the time, energy, and money owners are already investing in their…