Ashley Sherman’s passion is pups.
Sherman, of Laurens, launched Pawsably Perfect nearly 10 years ago. She offers dog grooming and boarding at her home and on the road.
“I offer grooming for dogs and cats — nail trims, salon grooms,” she said. “The things I don’t offer for grooming would be show-style cuts. I’m more puppy cuts and basic groomings, but I also do large dogs, and that’s a hard thing in this area. I have a very large shower and a large table that holds up to 150 pounds and it moves up and down. I can do it at my house, or I do traveling grooming. Typically, I do a lot of older folks that can’t leave the house or can’t drive, but they’ll have a little Shih Tzu, or there are dogs that don’t like to leave their house, or are wiggly and need their owner to hold them.
She decided she wanted to work with animals at a young age.
“I went to college and I work at Community Vet Center full time and I’m a licensed vet tech,” she said. “On the side, in college, I was doing nail trims and stuff like that for friends, so that’s where the grooming started. I had a Bichon cavalier mix, and he required a lot of grooming, and I took it on. That jumpstarted me doing more than just toenails, and I learned a lot from him, and then I started doing it more and more. It was 2015 when I really started doing consistent clients. Working at the vet clinic, they started promoting me, so it became one after another.”
Sherman also does pet sitting, at the client’s house or her own.
“At their house, I do drop-ins, and I could stop a few times a day, depending on the location,” she said. “Sometimes, I will stay the night at their house for a short time or, for people that are gone a week or two, I’ll do pet sitting at my house. I do have a boarding bedroom if they do not like other dogs or cats … and I have a fenced-in yard. I also have my AKC license, so I do puppy classes on and off, and I try to do that once or twice a year.”
Sherman said she covers Delaware and Otsego counties.
“Because of me working full time, I book out, depending on the time of year, anywhere from two to four weeks,” she said. “I have Thursday, Saturday and Sunday off, so I typically do my groomings Thursday, and one day over the weekend. I will do anywhere between three to eight grooms a week, and a lot of those do come from the vet clinic.”
Attention to detail and one-on-one care, Sherman said, have earned Pawsably Perfect positive reviews.
“The majority of people really like the idea that, when they come for grooming, their dog is the only one in my facility downstairs,” she said. “We don’t have to worry too much about exposure, and they’re the center of attention and not stressed out. They’re the focus while they’re here, and that goes for boarding, as well. That’s one thing most people generally like about me, compared to other groomers: the dog is here for an hour and a half and not four or five because they’re doing multiple dogs at once.”
Sherman said she plans to expand services.
“I would love to expand, especially the boarding,” she said. “I’d love to expand to a building … and that is down the road, that is the goal. Over the years, I’ve updated my grooming room and I have a very nice kennel, so, slowly but surely, I keep expanding more and more. I use my basement for grooming and I do my training down there.”
Sherman, who said she is accepting new clients, encouraged interested pet owners to call or text 607-376-3992 for more information.