Meet Dede Croy of My Favorite Groomer in Fort Worth

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dede Croy.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Dede. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I grew up in a United States Air Force (USAF) family and have lived in all parts of the world from Japan to California. I enlisted in the USAF right out of High School. It also took me to places around the world like Germany and Guam. After I got out of the USAF I traveled some more and found my way right here to Fort Worth, TX.

With the move to Texas, I found my true passion was working with pets. I worked for a couple different pet industry employers when I finally decided to start my own pet grooming business. I graduated college with a Bachelor’s in International Business. I have worked in Government positions and many jobs in the service industry. I started My Favorite Groomer in June 2005.

In September 2008 I decided that my happiness in working with pets outweighed all other jobs I had at the time (USAFR and FAA). I then decided to go full time with my grooming business. In the meantime, My Favorite Groomer became an LLC. In 2014, after being in a warehouse building since 2005 I finally landed myself a really nice store frontage. In the meantime, I also invested in myself by getting my Real Estate license. This has helped me in so many ways for myself and for my clients. You know you can trust your Realtor with the biggest sale and purchase you’ll ever have if your Realtor has been someone that has cared for your furbaby’s! I do that part time because I focus on military worldwide moves and/or transitional moves since I’m a pro at moving around.

Now in 2017, I have since built a huge fan base on my youtube.com/myfavoritegroomer channel, educating and entertaining pet parents and other groomers, I have along with my brother n law Tim Lee, also invented the Dogup Stand (dogupstand.com) because of my specialty with working with animals they are aggressive, senior, or disabled. It is an assist stand that helps three-legged dogs stand up during the grooming process as well as helps every dog that consistently sits down, to stand up during the groom, and I am thrilled that after demoing it for one year it is on the market and I hope to continue helping other groomers across the world that also work with senior and disabled dogs use this product.

My business is one of a kind since we groom pets by appointment, which is rare for this industry, and I am well known for being referred by other groomers and Veterinarians in north Texas for pets that are aggressive, too old for sedated grooms, or pets that just need that much more quiet environment and one on one compared to another salon. In 2016, I also took my business mobile to accommodate the many pets that are too old to get into the car anymore. Senior, disabled, and aggressive pets still must be groomed and I am that groomer that steps in and helps. I absolutely love what I do. I have also spread my appreciation to my fellow military by offering discounts to military, first responders, and teachers. On top of that, I offer special free services for our Military service pets.

I love to help where I can, being a one-person business for many years makes this tough, but I give where I can and work with many rescue groups when they need me. I have also helped the North Texas Humane Society by sending trainees to groom weekly for free when I did have more staff.

Other joys I have in life are fundraising, contributing to pet rescue groups, networking, traveling, dancing, writing, motorcycling, fishing, spending time with friends and my boyfriend David who has taken on so much at the Salon to help me, cooking and enjoying the little time I have left with my family and pets.

Has it been a smooth road?
Definitely have been challenges. I don’t think most people know how much work goes into a pet groom. Without watching first hand, and I mean, not even comparable to a video, truly watching first hand, me trying to explain how painful matts could be or how fleas have just spread throughout the entire store and I will be closing the store for the day to spray, or how important it is to have vaccinations for a pet being groomed comes short to say with some cuss words, phone hang-ups, and more.

On top of that, knowing some of my counterparts have told me that I couldn’t succeed in a business offering one pet groom at a time, or for that matter, to lower my standards to compete with other much busier salons, by not requiring the vaccinations I DO feel are important. There was even name calling and pure attacks from a group of Groomers in a group called Uncensored Groomers, and/or Uncensored Pet Groomers who literally spent hours between just a handful individuals leaving unkind and inhumane comments on my Facebook page and Youtube channel in hopes to damage my success.

Yes, there have been times where I almost doubted if I was doing the right thing. But, when I work with a client that reminds me they were turned away by more than 3 or 5 groomers because their pet was too difficult, aggressive, or couldn’t stand up, I know why I’m here. When I am reminded by the client how it took 2 years to find me, I know. So, I grew from haters and I know the meaning of why I’m here helping this furbaby’s and it changes lives and I am there for so many people! I have helped so many people.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
See question one. I specialize in a one on one experience with the pet, it creates less anxiety for the pet and the pet then is caged minimally because the appointment time frame is usually one hour long. Something else that I am very well known for is my ability to do pet nail trims so fast. I followed a low-cost vaccination clinic across the metroplex and beyond for over 10 years and every Saturday and Sunday, I would do nail trimming. I have done a lot of nail trimming and I am a pro at it. I am not afraid to work with that severely aggressive chihuahua or the gently 200# Mastiff. I am fast and well known for it and people also travel far for the nail trimming.

A weekend ago a lady found me from word of mouth, she drove out from Dallas where she told me many people turned her away and said to get her pet sedated. Granted with pets like this it’s not easy and it doesn’t look easy and the pet parent must assist, but we got the nails done in under 5 minutes. It was amazing. The dog wanted to kill me the whole time, but that’s beside the point, we did get those nails done 🙂

Is our city a good place to do what you do?
The Dallas Fort Worth area is amazing. It is thriving and growing so fast. Everywhere I look and drive I see “now hiring” signs. I think the cities will continue to grow. I think my business is needed and I wish I could open up more. So many senior pets who require a quiet grooming experiences do not have that choice on every corner right now.

I have clients come from Dallas to Haltom City for the one on one service. (usually done in an hour). Our cities are beautiful. The one thing I’d love to see would be the cities investing in cleaning up the not so great looking parts of both Dallas and Fort Worth improving older buildings and communities and I’d love to see the city investing in caring for the homeless situation.

Pricing:

• Mobile Grooming near haltom City for 15# pet starts at $85+tax – usually done in an hour all based on the pet
• Salon Grooming at Haltom City location for 15# pet starts at $65+tax usually done in an hour all based on the pet
• Mobile Grooming is based on radius of our drive and where we are going and can go from $85-$145 but I would go to any location, pet parent pays for the distance fee for me to accommodate.
• Grooms include bath, brush, ears nails, hair cut. Fleas, disability, senior pet, matted pets all extra $$.
• Salon Grooming at Haltom City location for Large pet 50# and up starts at $90+tax usually done in an hour – hour and a half all based on the pet

Contact Info:

• Address:5413 Denton Hwy. Suite 100, Haltom City, TX 76148
• Website:http://www.myfavoritegroomer.com/
• Phone:817-676-1585
• Email:dede_grooms@yahoo.com
• Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/myfavoritegroomer/
• Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/onehourgrooming/
• Twitter:https://twitter.com/DedeCroy
• Yelp:https://www.yelp.com/biz/my-favorite-groomer-haltom-city
• Other:www.dogupstand.com

Image Credit:
petclix.com

Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.