Hound Therapy: Building a Family Legacy in Pet Grooming

Send us a text

How Did Hound Therapy Evolve?

From cutting her dog's hair with household scissors at age 15 to building North Texas's premier pet grooming destination, Shannon's journey epitomizes passion and perseverance against remarkable odds. Her story unfolds like chapters in a well-loved book—apprenticing for free as a teenager, purchasing her mentor's business at 18, pivoting to barbering for fifteen years, then returning to her grooming roots during the pandemic's darkest days.

When COVID forced Shannon's barbershop to close while pet businesses remained essential, she recognized an opportunity disguised as catastrophe. Amid divorce, relocation, and adopting a new puppy, she secured an SBA loan and launched Hound Therapy—despite skepticism about opening a grooming business in a challenging economic climate. What began as a solo venture naturally evolved into a family enterprise when Shannon's daughter-in-law Tanya, who had independently developed grooming skills under a retired poodle show professional, joined the team.

Today, Hound Therapy has expanded beyond services to education, offering a comprehensive 1,500-hour grooming academy that stands in stark contrast to typical brief training programs. Shannon and Tanya provide students with the support system they never had—helping them relocate, find employment through industry connections, prepare resumes, and navigate career transitions. Their "humanity over vanity" philosophy permeates everything from client interactions to teaching methodologies, creating an authentic, hands-on experience in an increasingly digital world. Have you considered how your own passion might transform into a multi-generational legacy? Visit Houndtherapy.com to discover what makes this family-owned pet care center so special, or call 469-367-0009 to experience their exceptional service firsthand.

To learn more about Hound Therapy visit:
https://www.HoundTherapy.com
Hound Therapy
3509 E Park Blvd.
Plano, TX
469-367-0009

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to Tail Talk Grooming Chronicles with Hound
Therapy, the podcast where wetalk all things pet grooming,
daycare academy and more.
Hosted by Shannon and Tanya ofHound Therapy serving pet owners
across North Texas, we're hereto share expert tips, hilarious
pet stories and the inside scoopon keeping your furry friends

(00:25):
happy and healthy.
Our motto humanity over vanity.
And don't worry, we don't bite.
Let's get started.
Who let the dogs out?
Who let the dogs out.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
From humble beginnings to full-service
grooming, daycare and academyhub, hound Therapy's journey is
one of passion, grit and a wholelot of fur.
Shannon and Tanya share theorigin story behind their
mission of humanity over vanityand how it continues to shape
every snip and tail wag.
Welcome back everyone.

(01:01):
I'm Sophia Ayiveth, co--hostand producer, back in the studio
today with Shannon and Tanya,professional groomers at Hound
Therapy.
Shannon and Tanya, how are youboth today?
We're amazing, Amazing.
Well, I've honestly beenlooking forward to this one.
Today we're learning how HoundTherapy came to life and grew

(01:22):
into the heart of North TexasPet Care.
Let's get a story time from youboth.
Tell us how Hound Therapyevolved.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
I'm going to start, since I'm the older one and
started way before, so welcome,hello.
Everybody here has heard thisstory multiple times and they
continue to as we get new peoplein and out.
So I started out when I was 15years old, loving animals, as a
lot of people do, and I decidedthat I wanted to groom my dog.
I didn't really know much aboutdog grooming at the time, so I

(01:54):
just put my dog up on thecounter and I took my home
scissors and I was like I'mgoing to do what I can do.
And it was peaches and I did anokay job.
I then kind of moved out lateron towards getting a job, moving
out where am I going to work?
And I ended up with a ladynamed Claudia who owned a

(02:14):
grooming salon and said that shewould teach me to work if I
worked for one year for free forher.
And I was like, okay, you know,almost 16 years old, and I
thought well, what's a year?
It's just a year.
I've got nothing else to do andso that's what I did.
She showed dogs, so I kind ofwas thrown into the show world
there.
Um, we'll speed up to the.

(02:35):
I ended up buying her business.
I did work the full, solid 365days for Claudia and she made
sure that.
You know I I worked um by sixmonths in felt I could run her
business.
You know I knew everything andhere I am, 40 plus years.
I still learning um multiplethings on.
You know how we've gotten fromthere to here.

(02:58):
I took a little hiatus andbecame a barber, got a barber's
license, I stopped dog groomingand I did men's haircuts solely
with straight razor shaves, andI did that for 15 years.
I ran that business and it wasvery rewarding for a long period
of time.
But it clearly became, as I gotolder, very clear that it was
not going to sustain me, youknow, physically just being able

(03:21):
to stand there all day and beable to like there's no other me
.
I'm one person and as I getolder and stop cutting hair,
it's not like they're just goingto mail me money in the, in the
, in the you know slow mail.
Hey, we feel bad for you.
Here's our haircut money.
So I decided in the middle ofCOVID to open up and go back to
what I knew best, which was doggrooming.

(03:42):
I do hair very well always haveand I love what I do.
Opening in the middle of COVIDwas eye-opening.
My barbershop was shut down bythe government and dog grooming
shops and boarding facilitieswere not, and it was just
absolutely amazing to me thatthey could take my independent
business and say look, you can'tgo into work, you can't earn

(04:05):
money, and they didn't send me acheck, I didn't get a bonus or
I was a self-employed.
It was difficult.
It also, just so happens, I wasin the middle of a divorce
through all of this and so I gotdivorced, moved out of my house
, got a new home, I got a dogWhiskey Time who's a beach slut,
and she was seven months, sevenweeks old when I opened my shop

(04:30):
in here, went throughconstruction, got an SBA loan,
just so many things that wereagainst me, and I didn't have a
groomer.
I'm like I was turned down fromanybody who wanted to open a
shop for me, because doggrooming is associated with
boarding and associated withfleas and poop and smells.
We're very clean in here, wedon't have a problem.

(04:51):
But I also didn't have aconcept, so everything was
against me.
Just from the here.
I am uneducated, 15 year old,trained by some other groomer.
You know who did everythingwrong in my first business.
Cause what did I know?
I was 16.
I was 18 when I bought my firstbusiness and you were 18 and
knew everything and I kneweverything.

(05:12):
So it was.
It was a transition for sure.
Then I very quickly learned howhard it is to, you know, have
an employee, not just to workmyself, but how do I have an
employee to, how do I have anemployee who's specifically
trained to do exactly what I do,that has the same passion, that

(05:33):
believes that, hey look, hardwork is how to progress in life.
And being bitten and gettingpeed on it's not for everybody
and we are unregulated, so it'snot like I can pull from a
student where I'm notwell-trained with social media.
I wasn't any of these thingswith social media.

(05:54):
I wasn't any of these things.
It was just a hurdle restartingover again in my late forties.
So it was hard.
I turned 15 in my first year ofopening here and it was
difficult.
Tanya came in, my son who waslaid off of work.
It really quickly turned into afamily business.
I never, ever would have lookedat you seven years ago and said
I am going to have a family ofdog groomers and this is what my

(06:16):
life is going to be in my old,never in a hundred years would I
have said that Um, and that'sexactly what we are.
This is Tanya's mydaughter-in-law.
She's married to my oldest son.
She moved away when I firstopened this business and wanted
to get into grooming also, likeme, started, I think in the same
fashion.
I was um, also worked for aretired poodle show groomer and

(06:40):
kind of learned the ropesthrough that.
I was actually offered herbusiness.
I didn't take it.
I came back here but I startedout.
I originally started out innutrition and then it just went
from there.
She you worked with animalsdecided she you liked it, wanted
to continue to do it and kindof faked it till you make it
like a lot of groomers do at agrooming facility.

(07:01):
Luckily we're close.
Yeah, and you know, and I toldher she would call and say how
do I do this?
I told her I knew how.
Or she started literally withmy old grooming equipment that
was retired.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
I still have your first scissors.

Speaker 3 (07:18):
So it was nice to have it full circle.
And now we are putting thatinto an academy where we're
training new young minds thatare kind of like where we were,
you know, 40 years ago, 10 yearsago, and they're on their their
journey of how do I get startedinto this awesome world Like we
were, but better, yeah, theyhave support.
They do, and our school is ayear long.
Here we take a full, solid 13to 14 months because we have

(07:46):
some break, but it is a 1500hour course on how to groom, how
to fix your clippers, maintaingood clientele.
You know basic business.
It's a lot crammed into oneyear but compared to the three
month and eight week classesthat people are offered, it's
been hard.
But we have a family.
People come from all over theworld here and they drop their
young children off or we feelresponsible.

(08:08):
We help them find jobs.
We work very closely with a lotof other grooming shops and vet
clinics so we can help themtransition into work.
We help them with resumes.
We have people who have leftcorporate, who have come in here
.
They're just tired of corporateand we do a lot of consulting
for corporate businesses thatare transitioning into adding

(08:29):
grooming because, yes, it can belucrative.
We don't do this for the money,we do it because we love it.
I love hair, I'm good with hair,I love animals, I don't mind
being bitten and I feel likewhat we do really matters and
I've always believed that doingthe best that you can has served
me well, staying true to whoyou are and we try to keep that

(08:50):
alive and hopefully for manyyears to come, keeping that, you
know, that type of a mentalityin what is a lazy work from home
.
I'm only dressed from the topup.
There's a lot of differences inwhat we do.
It's hands-on, it's not goingto be replaced by AI.
You have to learn it.

(09:10):
You've got to be able to talkto people.
You've got to be able to have aone-on-one and it's.
It's a lot to learn.
So we love what we do.
It was a struggle to get hereand we're still we're still
learning every day but we, wetry to improve every day on what
we already know and that's, Ithink, kind of our goal.
So we do appreciate all of ourbeautiful clients, our lovely

(09:31):
dogs, and you know everybody whosticks and stays with us and
you know the banks who loaned usthe money when we didn't have
credit and all of that stuff.
It was hard, it was verydifficult.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
Wow, thank you so much for sharing about your
journey with us today.
It sounds like you certainlyhave come a long way, but you've
kept the heart of the businessthroughout the entire process,
leaving a legacy for your familyand with pets forever.

(10:03):
That's the goal.
Well, shannon and Tanya, it'sbeen a pleasure again having you
on and we will catch you onyour next episode.
Have a fantastic rest, thankyou next episode.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Have a fantastic rest of your day.
That's a wrap for this episodeof Tail Talk with Hound Therapy.
Ready to book your pet's nextgroom daycare stay or grooming
academy tour?
Call us at 469-367-0009.
That's 469-367-0009.
To schedule an appointment, orvisit us online at
wwwhoundtherapycom.
Serving North Texas with expertpet care.

(10:46):
Until next time, keep thosetails wagging.