Groomer Spotlight: Pampered Pupz and the One-Eyed Shepherd Nobody Took Home

Will was looking through the Clay County Animal Shelter website when he saw him: a German Shepherd with one eye.

The dog had been at the shelter for 18 days. Nobody had been willing to take him home.

Will went that same day.

The last kennel on the left

Will had recently lost his previous dog to cancer. He walked the full length of the corridor and found the shepherd in the very last kennel on the left.

We made eye contact and I moved my hand over to the fence to allow him to smell me. After he did so, he threw his back against the fence wanting me to pet him, which I did. When I stopped, he started speaking — soft barking — to me, and I'm sure you can guess what he was trying to say.

Will, owner of Pampered Pupz

Will asked to meet him outside the kennel. In the greeting area the dog paid more attention to the staff member than to Will, and Will was fine with that. She was the person he knew. Watching how he behaved with her told Will how he'd be at home.

Cooper went home with Will that same day.

His vet found the cause of the missing eye: severe trauma to the head, possibly a gunshot.

That didn't slow him down a bit, though.

Will

Cooper was only with Will for eight months. For twenty years Will has been adopting rescue and shelter German Shepherds. Cooper is the one he chose to tell us about.

A lawn care owner who isn't a groomer

Will is upfront about this. He is not a groomer.

He ran a lawn care company for many years, until he decided to put his time and energy into something that would let him give back to his community. He has loved dogs since he was a child, so dogs were the obvious choice.

The grooming is done by Summer, his full-time employee. In Will's words, she is "responsible for all of our 5-star Google reviews."

Her work from the van:

What year one actually cost

Pampered Pupz found most of its first clients by word of mouth. The business also posts regularly on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.

The biggest surprise of the first year wasn't the dogs. It was everything that comes with putting someone on payroll:

All of the expenses that come along with having a full-time employee working for you: payroll taxes and workers' compensation, to name a couple.

Will

Lots of new owners don't see that cost until the first payroll. If you're weighing the same decision, we've written about whether to pay a groomer as a 1099 contractor or a W-2 employee, and about hiring your first groomer more generally.

A full day set aside for shelter dogs

From the start, Pampered Pupz has groomed shelter and rescue dogs for free.

We do give back to our community every chance we get by providing free grooming services to local shelters and rescues.

Will

The business has worked with several rescues across St. Johns and Clay counties and will soon start working with a shelter in Jacksonville. Will prefers not to name them, but he would like you to see the work. The Pampered Pupz Instagram has videos of it.

Asked why he started giving back so early, before the business had a track record, he answered:

I would not be where I am today if people had not mentored me and helped me along the way. I look at this as my opportunity to pay it forward.

Will

How it fits around paying clients

Fitting free grooms into gaps between paid appointments doesn't work well for a mobile business. Shelters often struggle to have a grooming van on site during normal business hours, so the visits have to happen whenever both sides can make them work.

So Pampered Pupz keeps a dedicated day for shelter and rescue work, with no paying clients booked. The team can then spend the whole day grooming as many dogs as they can, with no paid appointment to rush back to.

Any business that wants to give back regularly can borrow the idea. Shelter work that has to compete with paid bookings tends to be the first thing that gets dropped. A protected day keeps it from being dropped.

Will's advice to other groomers

Do it! You might be the only visitor that dog will ever see. A little bit of human contact and stimulation will go a long way as they await adoption.

Will

Find Pampered Pupz

Pampered Pupz is a mobile dog grooming business serving St. Johns, Duval and Clay counties in Florida.

• Website: weluvpupz.com
• Instagram: @pamperedpupzofst.johns
• TikTok: @pamperedpupzofstjohns
• Facebook: Pampered Pupz of St. Johns Mobile Dog Grooming

Are you a shelter or rescue in the area? Will would like to help, free of charge. Email him directly at weluvpupz@hotmail.com.

And if you're a dog owner in northeast Florida, Will has one request: book your own dog in. Every paid appointment helps pay for the free ones.

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Thank you to Will and Summer for sharing the Pampered Pupz story. Will's answers are lightly edited for typos and are published with his permission.