Dog and Cat Grooming Services

When pet owners pay a premium price, they receive premium service. Either my groomer or I pet nervous animals on different parts of the grooming area such as the face, feet, or nails, rather than allow one of us to struggle unnecessarily and stress the animal. We often use a veterinarian prescription shampoo for problem skin and allow the animals to soak in the tub for 10 minutes with the shampoo so the skin can receive the maximum therapeutic benefits. Some dogs are allowed to remain on the grooming table rather than be kenneled or run through the shop loose and possibly fight with other dogs, or potentially escape the building, which has happened at other shops.

 

Music is often playing on our business during the work day to lift everyone’s spirits. Some customers start dancing when they arrive and ask us not lower the volume of the music. Our establishment should be a fun place to visit with cheerful groomers to greet pet owners and with the shop owner, there can be a lot of comedic moments. For instance, a corporate executive brought his dog regularly for grooming and one day I was in a somber mood. 

"Your dog is finished and you can leave," I said.

He replied “I was waiting for you to play with me.” 

About six months later, his girlfriend who was a school teacher, charged back into my grooming area. 

I asked “what’s wrong?” 

She said, “why don’t you ever play with me?” 

Your experience at Lucky 3 is seldom lack luster or dull. The reason my groomer and I interact personally with pet owners in our own individual ways is because of our love of animals and the people who own them. 

One customer by mistake called the wrong grooming shop. The groomer tried to persuade the customer to come to his establishment. The pet owner replied, "You sound professional but the guy at Lucky 3 has personality. I want to go to someone who is entertaining and also skilled." It's good that the other grooming shop lost that customer's business because his dog bites when you touch or lift him and shops in his area refused to provide service. This owner's honest wife, who was out of town, warned me several years ago about his dog's behavior. We have groomed numerous dogs such as this for pet owners who were even scared of their own animal. That professional groomer who wanted the business could have gotten more than he bargained. He could be walking around without an arm.   

As for the business of pet grooming, we are not heavy handed with equipment, and grooming injuries are rare and minimal. In many grooming shops, animals are scissored, combed, clipped and finished. At Lucky 3, we will not brush pets excessively, or yank knots out or leave them in the fur for unsuspecting owners. 

We go to great strides to protect the animal’s skin and eliminate undue agony. For example, we groom an owner’s two Schnauzers in a scissor style. However, the animal’s legs always have soft, knotted fur. When they arrive, I scissor them thoroughly, brush, and then scissor again. After the bath, they are blow-dried and scissored intermittently about three times until they are completely fluff-dried. They are then given a finish clip and I repeatedly comb and scissor the fur until I have perfected the grooming. At Lucky 3, we know how to groom safely to accomplish the best results. Furthermore, we do not expect animal’s bodies to preform like a circus contortionist, because the legs could be injured.

One lady brought her loving long hair Chihuahua to us after leaving another shop also in my area. The groomer clipped just the stomach area with a blade length that looked like it was being prepared for surgery. Less than 30 minutes when the animal arrived to us it was already showing red marks and skin irritation from the groomer's clipping. The groomer at the other shop managed to clip only two nails and with the pet's stomach clipping the fee was $10. For us to clip an affectionate small animal's nails is relatively easy for us even if they put up a struggle. We completed a bath, fringe trim, and nail clip and grind service for this satisfied customer who was also elated when the dog greeted her with pink color on its eyebrows, cheeks and tail. It looked like it was ready for a royal fiesta.

No matter how time-efficient we groom, we average two hours for small to medium dogs for quality grooming. My assistant and I are the total staff. I do not hire bathers or telephone receptionists; the two of us do everything. We do not employ those who work in other professions and are moonlight workers, high school students, or apprentice groomers to groom your pets. On a busy day with the right combination of animals, we can groom a total of 12 to 13 dogs in one day of strictly grooming, but this requires a total of 12 to 13 hours each from my assistant and me. This is a grand total of 24-26 hours.

As this one day example shows, we can groom more animals with a longer work week but we spend less time on non-grooming chores. When we are busy, we usually work longer hours some weekdays and Saturdays, however, ideally our work week averages 35 hours. Within a 35 hour a week time frame we can clip and bathe a maximum of 30 small to medium animals which is a total grooming hours from the combined labor of each of us. This leaves the remaining work time left for the necessary tasks of cleaning, paperwork, paying bills, ordering supplies, shipping equipment for servicing and other non-grooming business chores. 

One Saturday, we groomed a total of only 6 animals in 9 hours. This consisted of one owner who brought in 2 animals. One dog pulled on his legs while being clipped, and one of us had to pet him at times while one of us groomed him, and the second dog aggressively lunged at the scissors or us or something that he didn’t like. It was a dangerous challenge trying to safely clip or scissor the face without a muzzle. The second pet owner who arrived with the third animal waited in the area while we groomed her well-behaved dog. The fourth animal was a very friendly, overweight Golden Retriever that required a lot of brushing and scissoring (over 3 hours of labor). The fifth pet that arrived was a cat for a haircut and bath. The cat can get aggressive and always manages to bite or scratch the owner of the cat, and we have to be careful that the cat doesn’t become dangerous and uncontrollable to handle in the tub; the sixth animal was matted and needed some restraining methods while clipping the legs to ensure the animal was clipped safely.

Many animals require special strategies to help ensure that there is less risk of grooming injuries or emotional trauma to pets. I have devised creative holding techniques that were never taught at the grooming school I attended in Manhattan. I have never seen these methods utilized by other groomers or those in the super pet stores grooming departments.

I spoke with a pet owner who claimed one groomer working alone who arrived in a grooming van to his house spent a total of 1 ½ hours clipping and bathing three large dogs. It is true that some groomers can clip an animal in a total of less than 15 minutes, but this is not adequate time for the service we wish to provide. Some pet owners expect us to clip and bathe their small dog for $35. If this were our standard grooming charge, then $1050 as total weekly business revenue for steady grooming would not be enough money to pay my employee, overhead, and provide a salary for my time as a working grooming shop owner and in addition, a business profit. 

In my first year of business, I did not have any financial or business experience and tried to charge low prices. Today, I strive to charge a minimum of $35 an hour for labor charges from each of us designated for the business; this is not total personal and discretionary income for wither me or my groomer. There are some grooming shops who charge less money than we do. Either they spend less time or count only the time of the commissioned groomer as one hour even for a complete grooming. However, if I counted grooming time such as this, I would be omitting the labor and time for bathing and necessary shop chores. I cannot boast that I can completely groom an animal in one hour if another staff member is bathing, blow-drying, handling other chores and is also providing an equal one hour towards the grooming.

Some owners believe they can charge less money by grooming in volume. However, I also groomed in volume years ago and have had another groomer and also as many as four bathers working in rotating work schedules in addition to me and my assistant. Beside the extended work hours, stress and added safety risk involved with more animals to groom, once the staff was paid and all of the additional labor and overhead costs were paid my net income was not much more than today taking into consideration the value of a dollar at that time. Nevertheless, even years ago my grooming prices then were higher than many other shops at that time.

Today, I pay $23 for a shampoo and a haircut which includes a $5 tip for my hair stylist. However, many people are satisfied paying prices starting at $50 to $100 elsewhere for these services. As of Dec 2018, it cost $500 for a haircut with hairstylist Jose Eber or $175 for one of his stylists at his Beverly Hills, California studio. It seems odd that I have to justify all these details to validate my grooming time and expense to ensure pet owners that I am not taking advantage of them. 

Some people think my services are overpriced. They often don’t realize the challenging handling problems that we encounter with difficult pets or how much time we spend on a pet’s grooming which is often twice the time as other grooming shops. Most pet owners are unaware of the expertise and care that their pets receive or of our years of experience.

One customer by mistake called the wrong grooming shop, the groomer tried to persuade the customer to come to his establishment. The pet owner replied, you sound professional but the guy at Lucky 3 has personality! I want to go to someone who is entertaining and skilled. Its good that the other grooming shop lost their customers business, his dog bites when you touch or lift him. Many shops in his area refused to provide service. The pet owner's wife, who was out of town, warned me several years ago about their dogs behavior. We have groomed numerous dogs such as this dog for pet owners who were scared of there own animal. The professional groomer who wanted the business could have gotten more then he bargained. He could be walking around without an arm.

Initially, some pet owners are apprehensive about paying my grooming fees. However, once the grooming is completed, most customers believe they got the best grooming for their pet's and customer service. If an animal's grooming cost more than $70 for a simple bath and clip because the animal is long past due, we issue a discount card for the next grooming service providing the animal returns in decent shape and a strenuous grooming struggle is not part of the normal service.

If you are searching for the lowest priced grooming service or have a conservative personality you may not be happy with the owner’s unconventional demeanor. However, everyone loves the assistant groomer, Beverly. Most people who have been to us believe they got the best service and grooming for their pets with little wait time for an appointment. It is refreshing for some people to realize that we often remember them and their pets even on their second visit and we are usually elated to see them. 

People enjoy talking to me and Beverly about details of their lives that they might not reveal to others. When we take time to listen to people, it’s amazing how intriguing many people are and we commend them for the sacrifices and accomplishments they have made.

We are different. At Lucky 3, you are not just some customer with an account number; you are a unique individual. Try us, you’ll like us.