Bonnie Peregoy

In the spring of 1997 I left the kennel business and moved to Anne Arundel Co while starting a pet grooming business on Capitol Hill in Washington DC.

The original location of the pet grooming business was over a pet supply store on 7th St SE, but I moved the business to its current location in August of 1998.

I sold that business to one of the staff and his husband on January 1 of this year and it continues to thrive with great Google reviews and organic SEO results.

During the 25 years of running my grooming business in DC the staff grew to 10 people with a customer base of several thousand. I personally trained all 9 of the groomers currently working in the salon and over the years I have trained dozens of individuals to groom.

I was the first presenter at Groom Expo (Convention and seminars in Hershey PA) to espouse and demonstrate using positive reinforcement behavior shaping to manage difficult grooming dogs. The following year I presented the same principles as they applied to staff management. I developed a unique pay structure which is becoming popular in many salons, of an hourly rate plus commission.

I purchased Bay Country Kennels as a sole proprietor and managed all aspects of the business with a small staff of 3-5 people. During this time I was also the President of the TKC (Talbot Kennel Club - 6 years) and the Potomac Afghan Hound Club (6 years) and a member of the Capitol Dog Training Club in Silver Spring MD. I was the obedience chairman for the AHCA (Afghan Hound Club of America) and the obedience trial chairman for TKC and AHCA.

Besides running the kennel and supervising the kennel staff I was the primary groomer for the business and trained 2 other individuals to groom while working for me. Both of those individuals continued in the grooming profession for many years.

In the fall of 1983, with a business partner, I purchased Shagg Bark Kennel. We ran the kennel and took care of the daily cleaning and feeding tasks in the morning and groomed client dogs every afternoon. In the evenings we taught pet dog obedience classes and when we could have a day off we went to dog shows and competed in conformation and obedience. During those years we also bred a few litters; one each of Shitzus, Standard Poodles and Afghan Hounds.

In addition to working full time as a groomer starting in 1997 I produced multiple audio and video dog training resources using behavior modification and positive reinforcement. Healthy Dog began as a Sole Proprietorship in 1997 but became a MD LLC in 2006. These products feature multiple presenters but I have done the filming, editing and most of the scripting. They are all still available on the website: https://healthydogstore.com/classic-behavior-amp-training-media/

For several years while I was working full time as a food service administrator additionally as a hobby and part time vocation I trained, groomed and exhibited Afghan Hounds in multiple AKC performance and conformation events. I worked occasionally at L.C's Dog House in Springfield MA as a groomer in addition to grooming my own dogs for competition. I also bred several litters of Afghan Hounds and was active in the Nutmeg Afghan Hound Club as a board member, Show Chairman and AKC match show judge.

I began my pet grooming career at the age of 20 when I paid to apprentice with a working groomer in 1973. This was an opportunity to handle pet grooming equipment and a variety of dogs in a salon environment.