000-000-0000 · Tue–Fri 8–6, Sat 8–5, Sun 10–4
The people
All seven, and you can ask for any one of them by name. Whoever starts your pet finishes your pet — it matters for the haircut, and it matters far more for a nervous dog, who has to trust one person for two hours rather than three people for forty minutes each.
Owner & Senior Groomer
Grooming since 1998 · here since 2011
Dana opened the 61st Street salon in 2011 after thirteen years working in other people's shops, mostly because she wanted to run a book with time in it. She still grooms four days a week, still takes the difficult coats herself, and is the person who will tell you plainly that your dog needs clipping off rather than sell you two hours of de-matting.
English
Lead Groomer, Dogs
Grooming since 2007 · here since 2012
Rosa runs the dog side of the floor and takes most of the doodles, which in this neighbourhood is most of the work. She is unusually good at getting a curly coat back to a length you can actually maintain at home, and unusually blunt about how often it needs brushing to stay there.
English, Spanish
Feline Groomer
Grooming cats since 2011 · here since 2015
Mei-Lin only grooms cats, and only in the quiet room. Her appointments are booked at nearly twice the length the job needs, because a cat that is not rushed is a cat you can finish, and one appointment you complete is worth four you abandon. She would rather do half a cat today than a whole frightened one.
English, Mandarin, Cantonese
Groomer, Hand-Stripping & Terriers
Grooming since 2009 · here since 2016
Amir does the hand-stripping, which is slow, unglamorous work that almost nobody in the borough still offers. He will explain exactly why a stripped wire coat feels and looks different from a clipped one, and he will also tell you honestly when your terrier is thirteen and would rather just be clipped.
English, Arabic, French
Bather & Junior Groomer
With us since leaving school · here since 2021
Kayla bathes and dries most of what comes through the door, which means she is the person who first notices the lump, the sore ear or the flea dirt in a coat. She is training on haircuts under Dana two days a week, and she runs the walk-in nail clinic on Saturday mornings.
English
Groomer, Large & Double-Coated Breeds
Grooming since 2013 · here since 2018
Tomas takes the big dogs and the double coats — the shepherds, the huskies, the newfoundlands and the bernese — because he has the patience and the back for them. He is the reason we bought the second low hydraulic table, on the grounds that nobody should be lifting a 90lb dog anywhere.
English, Spanish
Salon Manager
Managing the salon since 2019 · here since 2019
Priya runs the book and the front desk, which makes her the person who decides whether you get in this week. She writes the prices, and she has a standing rule that any figure she cannot explain to you in plain English in one sentence does not get quoted.
English, Malayalam, Hindi
Continuity
Most of what makes a second or third visit better than the first is a person who already knows your animal's normal — which ear flares up in August, which leg does not like the clippers, exactly how much handling a particular dog will tolerate before it has had enough.
Whoever starts your pet finishes your pet within a single appointment, and wherever the diary allows it, the same person sees your pet every time it comes back. Say the name at booking, whether it is the groomer who saw your pet last time or one you were recommended by a neighbour, and the desk will match you to them.
Learning the trade
Pet grooming is not a licensed trade in New York State, so there is no exam and no certificate waiting at the end of this. What there is instead is time: an order of jobs that has to be done, and done well, before anybody hands a new starter a pair of scissors and somebody's dog.
A new groomer here bathes and hand-dries for months first, because that is where you learn how an animal actually behaves under water and a dryer, long before it matters for a haircut. Nails, ears and sanitary tidies come next, then assisting on the table, then a supervised trim on the easiest coat in the book. Kayla Brennan is on that path now, training under Dana two days a week, and nobody moves to the next stage on a calendar — only when the person training them agrees the last one is solid.
Questions
Say the name when you call or in the contact form, and the desk will book you with that person wherever the diary allows it. If your usual groomer is away or fully booked on the day you need, you will be offered the next available appointment with them or a sooner slot with someone else — your choice, not ours.
No, and neither could they claim to in any meaningful sense — pet grooming is not a licensed trade in New York State, so there is no government licence or exam standing behind the word. What each person here has is time actually spent grooming animals, which is written next to their name on this page rather than replaced by a badge.
On the bath table first. A new starter bathes and hand-dries for months before touching a clipper, moves on to nails, ears and simple tidies, then assists on a table before doing a supervised trim on an easy coat. Nobody is handed scissors and a nervous dog in the same week they arrive.
Mei-Lin Chow grooms every cat that comes through the door, and only in the quiet room. If you ask for her by name for your cat's appointment, the desk will book you with her wherever the diary allows it.
You will be told, and offered a choice: wait for them to be back, or be seen sooner by somebody else on the floor who has read the notes from your last visit. Nobody currently on staff has been here less than a few years, so this comes up rarely, but we would rather you heard it from us than found out at drop-off.
Between the seven of us: English, Spanish, Tagalog, Bengali, Nepali and several others besides. Tell the desk which language you would prefer when you book and, where the diary allows it, we will match you with someone who speaks it.
Yes, and for most full grooms it is the same person throughout: whoever checks the coat, baths it, dries it and cuts it is one groomer from arrival to collection. The exception is the newest members of the team, who bathe and dry while learning, with an experienced groomer doing the haircut.
No. Rotating an animal between people to save time is exactly the kind of shortcut this salon was built to avoid. It may occasionally mean a slightly longer wait for a specific person's diary to open up, and every client we have asked has told us that is the trade they would rather make.
A price agreed before the clippers come out
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.