Hollister
– The Diases love dogs, enough to end each workday covered in
their hair and smelling like a wet pooch.
Hollister – The Diases love dogs, enough to end each workday covered in their hair and smelling like a wet pooch.
Lathering Petey, a 140-pound Newfoundland dog, Rhonna Dias paused while the dog shook his massive body, splattering soap suds and wet hair all over her newly cleaned van.
She laughed and continued to wash Petey. This Tuesday afternoon was just a typical day for a mobile pet groomer.
Dias started her Doggone Dirty Mobile Pet Wash three years ago with her daughter Mimi Dias, 20. The mother-daughter team has been escapading through the Hollister area since then – washing, drying and styling San Benito County’s pooches, and even a few felines.
Mimi Dias had worked at a pet grooming shop since she was 12, helping out with the drying and clipping nails, and earning enough money to buy her first car.
In 2004 Rhonna Dias, who previously had worked as a hairdresser, decided to start her own dog grooming business.
“I saw what (my daughter) was doing, and we’d always had dogs. So I figured we’d put our resources together,” Dias said.
During her research into pet grooming businesses, Dias came across Wag’n Tails, an Indiana-based company that creates pet wash vans.
The vans come complete with tubs for washing even large dogs, a table for grooming, and built-in dryers. Dias decided the pet grooming van – the first and only in San Benito County – would create the perfect opportunity for her business.
Since that time, the Dias women have established a firm client base – booking clients a year in advance and washing and primping around 40 dogs a week.
Last month they added a second van run by Dias’ other daughter, 22-year-old Dayna Dias, who just finished school at Madeline’s Institute of Pet Grooming in Santa Clara. Dayna Dias will concentrate on full grooms for smaller dogs such as poodles, which require more detailed attention.
The Diases own seven dogs – including three who come along in the van each day – and said the pet grooming business seemed like a natural choice.
“We always have had dogs, all different shapes and sizes,” Rhonna Dias said. “That’s our life. They sleep in our beds. My husband comes to bed and says, ‘OK, how many in here tonight?'”
She explained that Mimi Dias used to bring home stray animals on a monthly basis, begging her parents to let her adopt them.
“Animals just come to her when she enters a room,” Dias said.
But despite their love of four-legged creatures, all three Dias women agreed they did not realize how hard the work would be.
“The hardest part for me is that it’s very physical. I never realized how hard the groomers work,” Dias said.
Mimi Dias said that on days they groom a lot of dogs, she’ll just go home, lie down and barely be able to move for the rest of the night.
But the physical pain is nothing compared to the occasional family quarrell.
Rhonna also pointed out that working with family can sometimes prove difficult, though most of the time it works out well.
“It’s hard to be the boss and the mom,” she said. “But we’re all growing up together and we’re all maturing, and the business is really coming together.”
Even with the aching backs and occasional family spats, though, they said it’s all worth it. Mimi Dias put a Fourth of July-themed scrunchy around the neck of Petey, who was fully dry, his black coat gleaming.
“You feel better once you shave a dog that can’t see,” she said. “It’s all worth it.”
