South County — As owner of Pittsfield’s Shamrock Dog Grooming, 10 Lyman Street, for the past 20 years, Paula Phillips has witnessed a dwindling supply of colleagues in her field. She has been a dog groomer for about four decades. “A lot of the groomers in my age bracket are retiring, and there’s nobody to fill the spots,” Phillips said.
High rent for brick-and-mortar shops or trouble finding the right location might contribute to a lack of newcomers entering the profession, she said.
Phillips is currently booking three to four months ahead for grooming appointments, with clients often signing up for their next session at the end of their appointment. “The reason they do that is because they know that if they don’t, the chance is they won’t get in for a long time,” she said.
Phillips is still open to new clients but works solo as finding good employees is difficult, but that depends on “how booked up we are and how long the customer is willing to wait.” “I have a business that could have two or three groomers, but I can’t find anybody,” she said, adding that the trajectory of available local groomers has steadily declined.
In Massachusetts, pet groomers aren’t required to be licensed, although legislators have explored adopting such mandatory certifications in the past. Many groomers and salon owners choose to obtain a certification.
Robin Mallory opened the doors of Great Barrington’s Wash & Wag Pet Grooming, 325 Stockbridge Road, about 25 years ago. She and her husband first started the endeavor as a mobile grooming business before pivoting to a storefront. “We had a van, and we traveled from New Marlborough all the way to North Adams,” she said of the salon on wheels. “Everybody thought we had a fleet, but it was just one van.”
A costly mechanical issue forced the couple to look around for another option when a spot in the business’s current building opened “and we took it,” Mallory said.
According to a March 8, 2023, article in Pet Product News, the shortage of groomers relates to the pandemic, a time when stay-at-home workers accumulated dogs as companions, with those pets needing grooming. “That’s what happened with us,” Mallory said.
During the COVID pandemic, Wash & Wag was closed for three months. Upon reopening, business was booming. “All of a sudden, our customers, we had absolutely no openings for them,” Mallory said. “We didn’t realize how many new customers we got; we can only do so many dogs a day.”
Her staff works just four days a week—“everybody’s exhausted.” “It’s very, very difficult to get groomers who know what they’re doing,” Mallory said. “It’s very physical.”
Wash & Wag is currently booking grooming appointments six months in advance. “This month, we’ll be booking through December so our old customers can get in,” Mallory said, adding that new customers could be included should cancellations occur. “It’s actually very stressful because we want to help everybody, but we can’t.”
Newcomer to the South County grooming scene, Nikki Varriale founded Curbside Pet Spa after 13 years in the business. Following a move to the area in February from Connecticut, the Canaan, N.Y., resident now operates a mobile grooming van serving Stockbridge, Richmond, Lenox, Pittsfield, and Lee pets, offering bathing, brushing, haircut, and nail services.
Although Varriale —who has a degree in animal care from the Commonwealth’s Becker College—began her career in a traditional grooming salon, she noticed vans that were adapted for the profession at expositions she attended.
“I liked the idea how [a mobile pet spa] is just one-on-one; it’s just you and the customer’s dog,” she said. “The dog doesn’t have to worry about being around other dogs if they are older and stressed or anxious and don’t get along with other dogs.”
Varriale’s Sprinter-type van has been converted to accommodate her pet grooming business, complete with a washtub, and “is self-sufficient,” without the need to use a client’s water supply or power.
She counts traveling to the customer’s home as a great convenience to both the owner and pet, especially if the canine isn’t fond of car rides.
Back in Connecticut, Varriale’s time slots were filled, and she wasn’t accepting new customers, with those customers booked for the entire year on a recurring schedule. Now, she is “pretty flexible” in terms of appointments and, currently, Curbside Pet Spa is booking out two weeks as Varriale builds her client base.
That schedule allows her to really get to know her four-legged patrons, building relationships with the clients and the dogs. “Over time, you become family,” Varriale said.
For Varriale, the goal in her new surroundings “is to build up the same clientele that I had and keeping everyone on that regular schedule,” adding that her services can accommodate dogs weighing up to 40 pounds.
She said she is surprised at the shortage of dog groomers in the Berkshires, relative to Connecticut, and admits her mobile process could be the future of dog grooming.
Hair of the Dog Pet Grooming owner Carol Terry agrees that, with its shortage of grooming services, the business has veered toward the mobile component. “Part of it is what you like doing and what works best for you,” she said.
In 1990, she opened her pet spa business out of her Church Street house in Lee and has been in the profession since 1971. The home-based operation provides Terry with flexibility in her daily schedule and allows her to personalize services for individual customers.
Now in her mid-70s, she has noticed the decline in the number of pet groomers over the years, with several groomers in Berkshire County retiring after the pandemic. “There is a shortage [of pet groomers],” Terry said. “Grooming is a very hard thing to do, it’s very hard on the body, and people feel it, a lot.”
As with many businesses these days, finding employees—groomers—is difficult, so she works alone.
Just entering the busy summer season, Terry is booked solid for two weeks, and last summer was booked out a month. “A lot of it is just convincing the clients that it’s a good idea to plan ahead an appointment or two, especially during the busy season, especially if they have more than one dog,” she said. “If you call at the last minute, you’re less likely to get the date or the time you want.”
Terry’s seasonal clients are well aware of the difficulty in getting a salon day for Fido and call her in the winter to book all their appointments for Berkshires summers.
“There are more dogs to [groom] and fewer of us to do it,” she said.
