How it started
A groomer who wanted her own book
Dana Whitfield spent thirteen years grooming in other people's shops before she opened Woodside Pet Grooming on 61st Street in 2011. The shops were ordinary ones, not bad ones: a full book every day, a haircut every forty-five minutes regardless of what actually walked in, and a bay in the back where dogs waited between the bath and the trim because the schedule had no room for them to be seen straight through. Nobody was unkind. There simply was not time built into the day to do much else.
So she opened her own, and gave it something the others did not have: room. Fewer appointments booked than the floor could technically hold, one groomer with one animal from arrival to collection, and a written price said out loud before the clippers came out. 15 years on, she still grooms four days a week, still takes the difficult coats herself, and is still the person who will tell an owner plainly that a coat needs clipping off rather than sell them two hours of de-matting it may not survive.
What the salon believes
Three ideas the salon has not moved off since 2011
None of these are unusual to say out loud. What is unusual, in our experience, is a salon that still means them on a Saturday afternoon with a full book.
One groomer, one animal, the whole time
Whoever starts your pet finishes your pet. It is not passed between three people over the course of a morning, and it is not put away half-finished while somebody else's dog gets a turn. For a calm dog that mostly changes the haircut; for a nervous one it is the difference between trusting one person for two hours and trying to trust three people for forty minutes each.
Welfare comes before the haircut
If finishing what you asked for would mean hurting your animal, we do not finish it. A coat matted tight to the skin gets clipped short and grown back properly rather than dragged through with a comb for two hours, and an animal that has clearly had enough gets a rest and an honest conversation instead of a finished trim.
The price is agreed before the clippers come out
You are told the number and the finish time out loud, before anything is switched on. If the coat turns out to be worse underneath than it looked from the outside, we stop and call you rather than carry on and add it to the bill. Nobody collects a pet here and meets a figure they have not already agreed to.
What we will not do
Five refusals, and why each one stands
A grooming salon can promise almost anything to fill the book faster. These are the things this one will not do to get there.
No heated cage dryers
Every animal is hand-dried at the table by the person grooming it, and nothing is ever left alone with a dryer running. It takes longer and it costs us money. It is not negotiable.
No sedation
Sedating an animal is a veterinary decision made by a veterinarian who has examined it, not a grooming shortcut for a nervous dog or a difficult coat. We book longer and take breaks instead.
No anal gland expression
Plenty of salons offer it as a matter of course. We take the view that it is a veterinary job, that doing it routinely on an animal that does not need it is not harmless, and that a groomer is not the right person to judge which is which.
No shaving a double coat without a veterinarian's advice
A double coat insulates against heat as well as cold, and clipping it can change how it grows back for good. What it needs instead is the undercoat properly out, which is what a de-shedding treatment is for.
No conveyor-belt day
Nobody is dropped off at eight in the morning to wait in a bay until mid-afternoon because the book is overfull. You book a time, and your pet is groomed at that time, from arrival to collection.
By the numbers
2011 to now, in four figures
None of the numbers below are dressed up. They are what is actually true about one floor on 61st Street: how long it has been open, how many stations fit without crowding an animal that needs room to stand still, how many languages the desk actually speaks, and — every single year of it — zero heated cage dryers owned.
- 14
- years on 61st Street
- 6
- stations and a separate cat room
- 0
- heated cage dryers, ever
- 9
- languages spoken at the desk
The neighbourhood
Three minutes from the 61st Street–Woodside station
Woodside is one of the more linguistically mixed corners of a linguistically mixed borough, and a salon that can only explain a price in English is not really serving the block it sits on. Between the desk and the grooming floor, this building speaks 9 languages.
Three minutes' walk from the 61st Street–Woodside station — the 7 train, the Long Island Rail Road, and the Q32, Q60, Q66 and Q70 buses all stop within a block. There is metered parking on 61st Street and a short loading bay outside the door for drop-off. The entrance is step-free, and there is a bench and a water bowl in the shade by the door for dogs who need a minute before they come in.
How we describe ourselves
What we do not claim
Pet grooming is not a licensed trade in New York State. That is exactly why a salon should tell you plainly how it works instead of showing you a badge, so everything we do is written down on these pages: who handles your animal, what we use, what we will not do, and what happens if something goes wrong. Ask us about any of it before you book.
We do not claim anyone else's approval. Woodside Pet Grooming, LLC is not certified, accredited, inspected or endorsed by any grooming association, school or industry body, and this site does not claim otherwise. What we describe on these pages is what we do and how we do it, in plain language, so you can judge it for yourself and ask us about any of it.
Questions
About the salon — what people ask before their first visit
Is Woodside Pet Grooming taking new clients?
Yes. There is no waiting list — call or use the contact form and the desk will usually find you a slot within a week, sooner for nails, ears or a quick tidy. Tell us your pet's breed, roughly how much it weighs and when it was last groomed, and we can often quote the price on the phone.
How long has the salon actually been open?
15 years, on the same stretch of 61st Street, under the same owner throughout. Dana Whitfield opened the doors in 2011 and still grooms four days a week alongside running the salon.
Is Woodside Pet Grooming part of a chain?
No. It is a single, independently owned salon with one location, and it has never been franchised or folded into a larger group. That is a deliberate choice rather than an accident of size — the things clients say they value here depend on the salon staying small enough for one owner to know what is happening on the floor.
Can I ask for the same groomer every time?
Yes, and we would rather you did. Tell the desk who groomed your pet last time, or whose name you were given, and you will be booked with that person wherever the diary allows it. Within a single appointment it is automatic: whoever starts your pet finishes your pet.
Do you claim any certification or accreditation as a salon?
No, and neither does anybody else in a meaningful sense — pet grooming is not a licensed trade in New York State, and the certificates you sometimes see framed on a salon wall come from private companies rather than a regulator. We would rather tell you exactly how we work than show you a badge, which is what these pages are for.
What does this salon deliberately not do?
No heated cage dryers, no sedation, and no anal gland expression. We do not shave a double coat without a veterinarian's advice, and we do not run a conveyor-belt day where dogs are dropped off at eight and left waiting until mid-afternoon. Every one of those is a choice, not an oversight, and each is explained further down this page.
Do you groom cats and small pets, or only dogs?
All three. Cats and small pets are seen in a separate quiet room with its own door, no dryer noise carried through and no dog within earshot, on an appointment booked longer than the job needs. It is a genuinely different part of the salon, not the dog floor with a cat fitted in.
What actually makes this salon different from a bigger grooming chain?
Four things, mostly: a firm price agreed before anything starts, two to three hours rather than a whole day, no cage dryers or sedation under any circumstances, and the ability to ask for the same groomer every visit. None of it is exotic. All four take a genuine decision to keep doing as a book fills up, which is why we write them down rather than assume they are obvious.
A price agreed before the clippers come out
Book an appointment
Call the salon with your pet's breed, weight and roughly when it was last groomed, and we will give you the price and the honest timing on the phone. Nails, ears and sanitary tidies are walk-in whenever we are quiet, and Saturday morning is a dedicated walk-in nail clinic.