Pantops Pet Salon & Spa
Charlottesville's Professional Dog Grooming

Hi, my name is Laura Sapino, and I am the new owner of the Pantops Pet Salon. My husband and I have three children, and currently live in Crozet. I am 40 years old, and the only time I did not groom was for a four year stint in the military as an air traffic controller. I am very excited about taking over the business, and providing you with the services you already enjoy. I have been grooming under Dad’s guidance from the age of eleven. I am familiar with every aspect of the business, and have probably had my hands on most of our customers already.

I am looking forward to offering you some new options. We are now on Facebook and invite you to join our site as a friend. Come enjoy pictures of the week, quotes, funny videos, discounts and more. We hope to expand our blog on the main website to include a “Pet of the Week” with a brief update and photos of your pets to enjoy. I have three children, ages eight, twelve and fifteen so I am going to keep up with the times by incorporating technology while maintaining the quality and friendly service that have kept our customers loyal through thirty-five years of business.

I look forward to seeing you soon, and having my hands on the day to day business. Please feel free to share any thoughts or ideas here on our blog!!

Dorothy Thomas has been a great customer of ours for years. Last spring, her children got together and gave her a unique and much appreciated gift certificate that she could share with her Toy Poodle, Rene. They pooled their money and bought her a certificate for $200–the equivalent of four haircuts.

If you have a special someone with a dog and can’t quite figure out what to get them, keep us in mind. You don’t even need to come in, simply give us a call and we can have the gift certificate mailed to you or your recipient.

 .

Natural Plum Shampoo

We use a natural plum shampoo as our default selection to revitalize dull, lifeless coats.  Moisture-binding silk proteins penetrate every strand to restore moisture and shine and add texture and body. Fortified with conditioners, it helps repair brittle hair and adds resilience and strength. This gentle shampoo is highly concentrated and leaves a lasting, pleasant plum fragrance.

Additional Shampoos – available on request

Tearless

We use this shampoo for puppies and around the face.  With a special soap-free formula that is gentle on an animal’s sensitive eyes, our Tearless Shampoo is mild enough for frequent use, even on puppies and kittens. This shampoo battles dry skin by restoring its natural moisture.

Luxury

Hypoallergenic

Made especially for pets with persistently sensitive, dry and allergic skin, this extra-mild, tearless shampoo is so gentle that it won’t irritate while it cleans. Pure and emollient-rich, it also helps to repair dry, brittle coats.

Treatment Shampoos – $5

De-odorizing Shampoo

This proprietary, one-of-a-kind blend destroys foul odors through an exothermic reaction synthesis. The environmentally friendly formula attacks the molecular structure of offensive odors and completely removes them. Odors caused by urine, feces, vomit, decaying organic matter and skunk encounters are eliminated almost immediately upon contact.

Moisterizing Oatmeal

This hypoallergenic shampoo contains Baking Soda, a proven cleanser and deodorizer which absorbs and fights odors while washing away ground-in dirt and unwanted oil. Its exfoliating action gently removes dead skin cells while exposing softer, smoother skin. The formula also contains Colloidal Oatmeal and Aloe Vera, two soothing ingredients that help calm redness and reduce inflammation. This soap-free formula is excellent.

Soothing Melaleuca

Relieve the itching, scaling and dry skin resulting from seborrhea dermatitis, skin bacteria and fungi with this all-natural shampoo made with soothing tea tree oil. The synergistic combination of Vitamin E, Wheat Germ, Rosemary and Coconut oils, plus proteins and mild organic cleansers, provides rapid relief and deep skin penetration resulting in healthy, shiny coats.

A Welcome Tour of our Salon

Brushing out a Dog

The Bath Process

Shaving a Matted Dog

If you would like to ease the anxiety your pet may feel during a visit, bring in a towel that has been in their bed for a few nights for them to lie on while here. The familiar smells will comfort them so their stay is a more relaxing experience. Highly recommended for smaller breeds—like Shih Tzus, Yorkies, and Poodles. Be aware though, that some dogs are chewers or pee-ers (especially when nervous) and we are not responsible for how well your dog takes care of the fabric!

The name Goldendoodle says it all. It is a hybrid dog–a first generation cross of the Golden Retriever and Standard Poodle. According to dog behaviorist Stanley Coran, Poodles are ranked 2nd and Goldens 4th in intelligence. The purpose of the cross was to take these two highly intelligent dogs and breed them for the best characteristics of each. The coat of the Standard Poodle is known to be hypoallergenic and non-shedding….combine that with the endearing personality of the Golden and you can get a pretty nice dog. This is the ideal.

Keep in mind that not every dog is representative of the breed(s!) standard. There are Goldens that are far too large in size, hyper in behavior and difficult to train. Due to their great popularity, some breeding is done just for the money with less attention devoted to maintaining good character and shape in puppies. Once again, back yard breeders damage breed genetics. In addition, there are no 100% guarantees as to how the Poodle-Golden genes will line up. You may get more of that long-legged Poodle shape and have a rather odd-looking dog…or you may get the Golden half of the shedding!

The Goldendoodles we have seen are very friendly, intelligent and calm. That double coat of the Golden is quite thick and requires weekly brushing–we definitely see this undercoat with the Goldendoodle. Don’t believe a breeder who tells you that since there’s Poodle in the mix, that a Goldendoodle doesn’t have any undercoat!

Below is a picture of Rascal Sanders during his brushout–note the hair on the table. No scissors were involved in that, it all came out of the brush. To the right is a picture of Rascal after his full groom including the bath and some trimming around the paws.

We encourage professional brushing and coat thinning at least every four weeks with a full body clip at 8 week intervals. If left natural, the coat typically grows to a length between 3-5 inches (but this may vary as those Poodle genes can have the hair growing out quite far). You can maintain this length with a good bi-weekly brushing, checked with a comb to the skin. If you choose to shorten the coat to an inch or so, home brushing won’t have to be so frequent.

For the Goldendoodle haircut, we have done everything from 1/2 an inch up to 2 inches all over. Keep in mind that anything over 1 inch in length must be hand-scissored and costs more due to the time and skill required. We usually scissor the tails but keep them full. We scissor the faces full with a long beard but of course we can shorten or lengthen any area as you please. Ask about our Benji cut–it is a nice look.

To the right is Jazzy Sanders in a 2.5″ scissor cut. Looks great but be aware that it’s difficult to maintain. That’s a lot of brushing you need to do at home and if your dog comes in with matts–forget about it.

Below you can see an example of a “clean face.”

As of 11/10/07, I need to make a minimum of $35.00 an hour to operate the business.  The profit after labor, rent, utilities, etc is not enough for me to be employed solely as an owner—I have to groom as well.  Not as much as when the kids were at home, but I can’t sit and just supervise—yet.

Our top groomer salary is $16 an hour—add benefits, medicare and vacation to that and I need to budget $18 an hour.  Labor for our industry should be around 50% of cost—that’s where the $35 an hour comes from—the remaining $17.50 per hour goes to rent, utilities, insurance, supplies, equipment, etc

Our groomers can do 5-6 dogs a piece per day by themselves and that’s it.  They can’t do more and maintain quality.  I can increase that production by hiring a bather-dryer and I do.  When she is employed, the groomers can do between 7 and 8 dogs (but then I have an extra salary to meet).

So, the first consideration in determining the cost of a haircut is the per hour fee.  The second consideration is the skill required—full coated dogs that are scissored by hand require much more skill than a clipper cut.  Take a Bichon Frise for example.  A scissor cut between 1.5 and 2 inches costs $68 and that’s if there are no tangles.  A clipper cut to ½ an inch is $48 and takes almost an hour less time.  If you bring in a Collie and it takes 2 and a half hours to brush, bathe, and dry him, expect a charge of $87.  Add trimming of the feet, tail, and feathers—it’ll be closer to $100.

A third consideration is the density of the coat (whether it is matted or packed with undercoat).  Dogs that come in once a year to be clipped short for the summer cost more than those dogs who get the same clip but come in every 6-8 weeks.  For example, a 6-8 week short cut on a cocker is $48.  It will be more like $55 if the Cocker has a full coat.

Another very important cost factor is pet behavior.  Puppies and seniors generally require more time and patience, thus cost more.  Some customers expect that since their puppy is smaller that it will cost less, but it usually takes as much time or more to get them acclimated to the grooming process.

So, there you have it—time, skill, condition and behavior are factors considered in price.  Clients can get the best value for their buck by keeping the coat in a matt-free condition to reduce the labor charge.  Our posted price is based on a good condition—if we have to brush your dog an extra 15 minutes, expect a corresponding increase in your bill.

This is one of the best bargains going when I consider costs per hour of other service industries—called a plumber lately?

Archived from “The Paw Report:” Issue #14, August

These statistics are valid as of 8/10/07.

We have 1304 active customers.
576 of them live in Charlottesville—we get quite a lot of out-of-towners!

434 of our dogs get the shortest haircut—about a quarter of an inch all over.
39 of them have had a hand-scissored puppy cut—one of our most difficult grooms.
85 of our dogs have gotten a flea bath and 117 need hypoallergenic shampoo.

AKC’s top 10 dog breeds are below.
Compare that to our top 10 breeds to
the right.

1. Labrador Retriever
2. Yorkshire Terrier
3. German Shepherd
4. Golden Retriever
5. Beagle
6. Dachshund
7. Boxer
8. Poodle
9. Shih Tzu
10. Miniature Schnauzer

The chart below compares the most common names of our customers with the most common names from a Pet Tag company which serves thousands of dogs. Casey, Maggie, Charlie, and Lucy tied for our 10th place spot. We have 12 of each.

Our top name and their top name is Max. We have 23 dogs named Max and one named Maxine. Other top names include Bear (we have 7 for Bear and 2 for Bearly) and variations on Sam (5 for Sam, 5 for Samantha, and 9 for Sammy). We also have one Summer, one Sundance, two Sunnys, one Sunshine, and one Soliel!

Click here for a chart of dog names.