Pleasure Doing Business: Reef Dog

Mary O'Malley has been grooming and caring for dogs for a long time but it took a wrong turn to bring her to Gulfport. The owner of Reef Dog on Beach Boulevard doesn't hide her love for dogs or the fact that she owns a local business, as evidenced by the bright blue “Reef Dog” pickup truck she drives around town emblazoned with the name of her store and painted blue flowers.

Reef Dog has been a Gulfport business for seven years now with more than 3,000 customers in its database. They come from as far as Gainesville and know their little family members are in good hands with Mary and her two assistants.

She builds her customer base through word-of-mouth but it helps to have a fun, beach-themed web site, a surf board planted in front of the store and a rolling advertisement that can be seen from a half-mile away. She speaks to the dogs like they're people and treats them as a hair stylist would a patron.

“It's never a dull moment. It's always something new,” she says. “I've been grooming for 36 years and it's always a new day, a new dog and nothing boring about it.”

Initially shy to boast of her business – contradicting the boldness of her advertising – O'Malley is more comfortable talking about her clients, describing the owners and dogs as companions or families.

“Every four to six weeks for grooming,” she recommends for the dogs. “The big thing is fleas. That's a big problem down here. There is no [weather] cycle down here like up north. It's something that we have to address all year around.”

How does she handle it?

“We use a product called Critter Oil, which is all natural. We turned it into a luxurious shampoo that soothes their skin and stops them from itching and kills the fleas at the same time.”

She warns that ticks are a problem too, with no simple fix, having to be picked out by hand. Matting is also a common problem that dog owners must face sooner or later.

“One of the most common misconceptions is that all of the mats can be combed out of a dog's hair,” she says. “They'll get so very tangled they just can't be combed out anymore. They have to be shaved. It would be torture to keep pulling.”

Reef Dog offers a variety of grooming services from the bath to the blow dry and can even set a dog up with dread locks or Bahama braids for the beach. The store is packed with treats from “penny candy” to toys, food and accessories.

The time required for a grooming session depends on the dog but typically lasts about two hours. As with humans, dogs make it obvious they feel better afterward.

“Oh god yes,” she asserts. “And they know they're done because we'll go and get a bandana to put on them and their tail starts going and they're jumping up and down. They know, and then they strut their stuff going out the door. They know they're beautiful. It's hilarious.”

As one of the founders of “Get Rescued in Gulfport” her first concern with any pet is safety and well- being.

“It's an umbrella organization that raises funds for rescue organizations that don't have the ability to raise enough funds for themselves,” she explains. “We'll come up with events and the proceeds go to them.”

Economic hardships have affected almost everyone but she sees it through the eyes of the pets.

“You're seeing dogs that you never would have seen in a pound before. It used to be that they misbehaved but now it's losing the job and the home. It's been awful and now we're trying to help those dogs.”

She tells the tale of little Sophia, a poodle she discovered last year when the owner was walking around looking for a new home for her. A friend agreed to take her and discovered she had lost most of her hair, suffered from sunburn and malnutrition.

Over time and with a lot of care she started gaining weight, regaining her hair and “she turned into the most beautiful little poodle.” It turned out Sophia had been blind from birth, that the owner was a breeder and that she was trying to dump her and had starved the dog nearly to death.

“She was saved that day,” O'Malley says. “It was a wonderful success story and it just made our work worth it to see her today.”

She warns there are a lot of unwholesome breeders around and that “people need to stop going into those puppy stores. Put them out of business. If you're not in there buying one they'll go out of business. It's very simple.”

Why should dog owners come to Reef Dog?

“We have a heart. It's about the customer and the dog. We see you as a team. It's not about snatching the dog out of your arms and telling you to leave. We care about you as well and your dog is your baby and that's the way we take care of you as well. You're a package deal and it's a family member that we have in our care.”

Originally from Chicago, Mary O'Malley always wanted to work with animals and started assisting a dog groomer at an early age. She enjoys living and working in Gulfport, is a member of the Gulfport Merchants Association, and still can't quite explain how she got here ten years ago.

“It was an accident. I came down here because I wanted to sail all year round. We came down here with a dog and a kitty and got to St. Pete and thought, you know, I don't want to live here. We went to get on the expressway and made a wrong turn and saw the sign for Gulfport and I knew I was home. We came down Beach Boulevard and saw the cute little houses and the marina and all that.”

Reef Dog works with VIP Rescue to help find homes for dogs and often donates its grooming services to make them more attractive for adoption. Anyone looking for a new family member can call VIP at 407-504-8318.