Good dogs go to Morrisville

“I’ve wanted to open a shop for the last 10 years,” Melissa Cooper said. “We moved up here and felt there was a need. It just seemed like a good option.”

The Coopers plan to offer a relaxed environment for any dogs dropped off for a bath, nail trim or haircut. Melissa apprenticed under a master groomer for four years, attended a grooming academy and spent several years grooming dogs at a veterinary hospital, learning more about the medical side of caring for dogs. Kara, who is filling in at the shop as needed, also has years of experience working as a groomer and is completing several certifications to become a licensed professional groomer.

The focus at Good Dog! is providing the “safest possible environment” in a spa-like setting, Melissa said, so a dog feels at home and less anxious. To that end, dogs are kept in open-air stables, not kennels, while they’re there; owners can bring along familiar toys; and someone’s always there to keep an eye on things.

Baths generally take between 40 minutes and an hour, Melissa said, and haircuts range from 75 minutes and two and a half hours, but both can vary depending on the dog.

“We take short-haired dogs, too; they need it just as much as long-haired dogs,” Cooper said, adding they will groom pets who are under sedation or suffer from anxiety, too.

“If not us, than who?” Cooper said. All are welcome, but Cooper admits golden retrievers hold a special place in her heart. She’s groomed goldens for competition, and to her “the more goldens the better.”

The shop dogs Presley and Dylan, the couple’s pair of golden retrievers, are always interested in meeting new people and showing off their owners’ grooming skills.

Only high-quality, hypo-allergenic paraben and sulfate-free products are used at the shop, Melissa and Kara say, and they never used heated blow-dryers after a pooch has been washed off.

Good Dog! Grooming is also a pet-CPR-certified shop, and along with baths and haircuts the Coopers offers de-shedding treatments, flea baths, de-skunking treatments, medicated soaks and nail trimmings and grindings.