Millions are watching this Niagara Falls pet groomer’s ‘how to’ videos

A 30-year-old dog groomer is quickly becoming one of the most well-known people in Niagara Falls, if not Ontario.

Vanessa De Prophetis has more than five million followers on TikTok, and over a million subscribers on YouTube.

De Prophetis got into dog grooming about 12 years ago, in a unique way. “I went to hairdressing school first, I realized shortly in it that I didn’t like working with people all day long,” said De Prophetis.

Animals have always been a huge passion of hers, so she took the haircutting skills and applied them to pets at a grooming salon in Niagara Falls. Within two years she opened her own salon called Perfect Pooches Dog Grooming.

Using the social media handle “Girl with the Dogs” she started posting “how-to” videos online, to help her customers groom their own pets at home during the lockdown.

“There was a lot of people struggling to maintain their pets at home so I started making pet grooming videos just to help pet owners so they can do it themselves,” said De Prophetis. It didn’t take long to get millions of followers on both TikTok and YouTube.

“I couldn’t believe it. It was very shocking,” she said.

De Prophetis makes good money from her YouTube videos and says her business has picked up as well. She is fully booked for the entire year. Vanessa says she started doing the videos at first to show people some of the challenges that come with grooming more difficult animals. She recommends bringing your puppy or kitten to a groomer from a young age so they can get used to the experience, it’ll make brushing them at home a lot easier.