We often hear about crazy cat ladies, but we don’t typically hear about dog ladies. Mrs. Brown’s hair stylist, Cindi Gauthier, proved this theory wrong when she came into Brown’s second-hour journalism class to tell them about her hair styling career, her life, and all the information she has on dog breeding.  

You never would guess that Gauthier, aside from being a business owner and a hair stylist, is also a dog breeder, and is the owner of ten dogs (soon to be eleven after another one from Poland arrives) and sometimes even more when there are puppies being born.  

Gauthier is from the small village of Pulaski and went to Pulaski High School for three years after she went to Notre Dame Academy for one year.

Gauthier graduated high school early at 17 years old and then graduated from beauty school at 18.  She had been cutting and styling hair for fun since high school for all of her friends for dances and parties.

She said, “ I wanted to be a hair stylist for as long as I can remember, pretty much my whole life.”

On top of the busy work schedule she has owning Tru Colors on Webster Avenue in Green Bay, Gauthier breeds Weimaraner dogs with her husband.

“I am a dog person because I am allergic to cats, and I have only ever owned hunting dogs,” said Gauthier. (Weimaraner dogs are normally hunting dogs).

“I have four male and female dogs and three who are not able to breed which gives me eleven dogs that I live with,” said Gauthier.  

Gauthier gave a lot of information to the class about dog breeding and basic information about dogs that not many of the people in the class were aware of.

Gauthier has grown up around dogs all of her life and has learned all of the information she knows about dogs from people or friends she has heard talk about them, like how there is a three-year process between getting a puppy and then breeding it.

Other facts that Gauthier told the class was that you breed dogs from a time frame from when they are two years old until they are seven years old and that even dogs need to have a passport when going to a different country.

            ANOTHER TAKE ON THE SAME INTERVIEW WITH CINDI GAUTHIER by Ava Vande Corput

“Everyone is a feature story,” says Carolyn Brown, Notre Dame Academy’s journalism and English teacher.

The second-hour journalism class definitely learned that about Cindi Gauthier.

Gauthier attended Notre Dame Academy for one year but transferred to Pulaski to finish out the rest of her high school years.

Gauthier graduated high school when she was seventeen years old and attended beauty school which she graduated when she was eighteen.

“I knew I always wanted to be a hairdresser. I was cutting and styling hair even when I was in high school. I would cut my boyfriend’s, friends’ and my family’s hair. When prom came, I would style all of my girlfriends’ hair. It was always something I just loved doing,” said Gauthier.

After beauty school, Gauthier started working at a hair salon and after a few years transferred to Tru Colors where she rented a chair for a year and a half before she bought the place.

When Gauthier bought the salon, she worked hard to expand it, and it now includes 35 stylists and five receptionists.

“The 35 hair stylists rent a chair or share a chair with other stylists meaning they only work part time. We pay for some things, and they pay us rent and have to buy their materials,” she explained.

Brown has been getting her hair cut by Gauthier for years and recently learned that Gauthier also breeds Hungarian Vizsla and Weimaraner dogs.

“I’ve always loved dogs, and I’ve grown up with them,” said Gauthier.

Gauthier started breeding dogs after her Weimaraner, Nickel, passed away from epilepsy.

“I never wanted another family to go through what I went through, so I decided to start breeding Hungarian Vizslas and Weimaraners,” said Gauthier.

Gauthier currently owns 10 dogs, but only seven are capable of breeding dogs at this point.

Bella and Patches, the first two dogs Gauthier bought from Iowa, are too old for the breeding process and another one of their dogs is too young to breed.

“It’s about a three-year process before you can start breeding a dog. You have to find a dog that is not related to your dog, so you have to go back about eight years. Then you have to wait until the puppy is about two and a half to three years old before you start breeding,” said Gauthier.

In November, Gauthier will be doing something that she has never done before.

She will be flying to Poland to pick up her eleventh addition to her family, her new little Polish princess, a Weimaraner puppy.

Gauthier has to buy 200 pounds of dog food every three days.  She has had 87 puppies in total.

The task of owning and breeding ten full-size hunting dogs is not easy, but, according to the tall blonde stylist/breeder, the hard work is definitely worth it in the end.