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Happy Dog offers both grooming and training

Stacey Lewis gives a haircut to a dog named “James Brown” at her new business, Happy Dog Grooming and Positive Training.
Stacey Lewis gives a haircut to a dog named “James Brown” at her new business, Happy Dog Grooming and Positive Training. Photo by Cindy Klepper.

Stacey Lewis started out as a dog bather for a local groomer.

Armed with the skills she’s developed over the years, she’s now opened her own full-service dog grooming and training business.

“I had dogs on the books even before I opened,” Lewis says as she gives a haircut to a small fluffy dog named “James Brown” at her Bracken Road shop.

Lewis opened Happy Dog Grooming and Positive Training in mid-July, building on a career that began when she went to work for another local dog trainer, Susan Sharpe, in 2011.

“She was looking for someone to just do baths,” Lewis recalls.

Over the next couple of years, Lewis learned the grooming trade and began working on the training side. When Sharpe became ill, Lewis helped keep the business going until Sharpe’s death in 2013.

She has also provided grooming services at County Line Kennels, but says she decided to open her own shop so she’d be more available to her family.

“Training is my passion, really,” says Lewis, who has four rescue dogs of her own.

She specializes working in the areas of separation anxiety and resource guarding, she says, but also offers basic obedience training. She also collaborates with other area trainers on dogs that need training in other areas, she says, such as aggression.

Training is done in private sessions and emphasizes positive reinforcement, she says. Sessions are customized to deal with any issues the dog is having or anything the owner wants to accomplish, she says.

Dog training allows the dog and owner to interact responsibly, she says.

“With the dog parks going in, the potential for issues is there,” she says.

The grooming shop accepts dogs of all sizes, but large dogs are scheduled only on days when Lewis has lifting help. Grooming appointments are possible on Saturdays and later in the day, and Lewis can provide transportation when necessary.

“I try to minimize confinement and waiting” for the dogs, she says. “And I want to keep the number of dogs really manageable.”
Lewis also volunteers as a groomer at area shelters.

Appointments are by appointment and can be made by calling or texting 355-8282.

Happy Dog Grooming and Positive Training is at 8993 W. Bracken Rd., Huntington.