With Scented Shampoo in a Sudsy Bath, It's a Dog's Life

The white vans are a familiar sight crawling through neighborhoods in South Jersey displaying the blue-and-black-lettered name Bathing Beauties Mobile Pet Grooming, as they make their way to appointments to primp, shampoo and fluff Fifi or Fido.

Inside the van, each pooch is pampered in a hydro-jet bath, blow-dried with an air-fluff dispenser, and given the equivalent of a canine manicure. Then man's best friend is returned to its owner smelling as fresh as a flower on a spring day, and looking as pristine as a doggy contestant for the Westminster Kennel Club.

Owner Tim Kenney entered the mobile animal bathing business after holding jobs as a circulation district manager at different times for the Burlington County Times and The Philadelphia Inquirer. 

With cutbacks in the newspaper business, his job security became unstable. 

Having owned dogs, Kenney initially thought about opening a kennel. But then he took a dog grooming course sponsored by the American School of Dog Grooming, and he thought he could develop his newfound skills into a business. 

According to the American Pet Products Association, there were 78.2 million dogs owned as pets in the United States in 2011. 

That's a lot of pups to gussy up.

He set off to distinguish himself from the typical storefront or pet store grooming center. So he bought a trailer—which was outfitted with a tub, hot water heater, a grooming table and generator—and he pulled it to the comfort of each customer’s property. That was in 2001. 

Reports show mobile dog grooming units have boomed around the country as a result of a smidgen of dogs suffering heart attacks or dying because of overzealous grooming techniques given by groomers at some big-box pet stores.

Within six months, Kenney says, business boomed.

“I was working at capacity, and I knew I had to expand the operations,” says Kenney, 45, who has never needed to advertise, but has built a solid database of 3,500 clients mostly by word-of-mouth.

“I hired help and then added my first mobile van,” he says. “And each time we would get to capacity again, I would buy another van.”

The biggest advantage to their services, says Kim Kenney, Tim’s wife, is they offer each dog individual treatment within proximity to its home. So in the event a problem arises, the groomer can easily notify the dog’s owner.

“Dogs in any situation may feel stress. For instance, clipping nails is one of those services that will make some dogs anxious. We will let a dog take a breather, if it is showing signs of distress,” says Kim, 37, who is a trained architect, but these days helps out with appointments, the finances and staff scheduling.

Two years ago, Kenney relocated his business to Cinnaminson. He now has five groomers besides himself, and five mobile grooming centers. 

The bulk of Kenney’s customer base is in Camden and Burlington counties, although Kenney and his staff members have driven as far away as Florence or Medford to indulge a client’s pet, which typically costs $75. 

His staff cares for as many as 650 dogs (and the occasional cat) a month, which Kenney says is far more rewarding than overseeing the distribution of newspapers in his previous stints. 

Kenney and his wife, Kim, live in Riverside with their two children, Caitlin, 7, and Sean, 4—and of course, their two dogs: Mariah, a Lab mix; and Coco, a golden retriever.

“It’s not often you get to do a job that you love,” says Kenney. “I’m pretty fortunate.”