As the front door swings open, wind blows dog hair across the wooden floor, dogs bark from the back room and Jenn Morgan, owner of Downtown Dogs, trims the fur of a shaggy 8-month-old puppy and greets everyone with a cheerful “Hello.”
After working alongside other pet groomers for the past 18 years, Morgan said, she stumbled upon a building at 401 W. Jackson St. that was up for sale. While the timing wasn’t perfect, Morgan said, she knew the opportunity was something she would regret passing up.
“The location … just kind of seemed pretty perfect for what I would need,” Morgan said. “I wasn’t necessarily looking to do it, but I was trying to think about my future.”
Building and prepping the location started in June 2020, and by Aug. 3, Downtown Dogs was open for business.
Since she was 16, Morgan said, her jobs have all been related to the pet industry. After taking a job at PetSmart, she went on to grooming training while taking a full class load at Ball State. When she couldn’t decide what to major in, Morgan took time off from school and has been grooming ever since.
Elizabeth Koontz, one of Downtown Dogs’ clients, met Morgan in 2011 and has been taking her dogs to Morgan since 2013 for grooming.
“She does a great job with our dogs,” Koontz said. “It’s not just a good haircut ... I can tell that [my dogs] are comfortable with her. They don’t panic when we go to see her. They’re just happy with her.”
Because of how much time Morgan has spent in Muncie, Koontz said, she understands how the community works, which makes her business different from others.
“She gets it,” Koontz said. “She understands Muncie and what it needs, and I think that plays a huge part in making her business special because she’s part of the fabric of Muncie.”
Grooming, Morgan said, is a simple step-by-step process for each dog that comes through the door. After a bath and blow dry, Morgan places the dogs on the table where she brushes and trims their fur. She then sees her clients in six to eight weeks for another appointment.
Despite the length of time between each grooming appointment, Morgan said groomers in and around Muncie are backed up. Downtown Dogs is currently booked halfway through September.
Happy Dogs, an established grooming business that has been in Muncie for over a decade, is in a similar position. Katie McIntire, director of customer relations, said Happy Dogs has appointments booked throughout the next month.
“We have open appointments daily that we usually fill every morning,” McIntire said. “We have other appointments booked in upcoming weeks.”
At Happy Dogs’ peak, McIntire said, there were five professional groomers working daily. Based on each groomer’s skill level, some were able to groom between 10 and 12 dogs a day, while others groomed between four and six, McIntire said.
Morgan hopes to grow her business to be able to achieve similar numbers.
“Some of my goals are to get more groomers — more people working and a higher volume of dogs,” Morgan said. “I hope to eventually open a grooming academy or grooming training because of the high demand of groomers in the area.”
For those considering using Downtown Dogs as their new groomer, Koontz said, “Do it, 100 percent.”
“Don’t be afraid to tell [Morgan] what you want,” Koontz said. “She wants to give a good haircut and make you happy.”
Morgan said her biggest challenge with her new business is time management. Between taking phone calls, booking appointments, working with clients and grooming all of the dogs, she said, her time can slip away.
But, she is thankful for the success of her business so far, and she looks forward to the future.
“To me, [Downtown Dogs] means the future for my family and my kids, a way to provide and have control over it,” Morgan said. “For Muncie, it’s a safe place to take your dogs and know that they’re going to be well cared for.”
Contact Taylor Smith with comments at tnsmith6@bsu.edu or on Twitter @taynsmithh.
Read More
Ball State hires Butler's Mike Uremovich as Cardinals next head football coach
By Staff Reports / 7 hours agoBall State has hired former Butler football head coach Mike Uremovich to become the program's 19th head coach.
In our restless dreams…we go back, to that town, 'Silent Hill 2'
By Aaron Picklesimer / YesterdayBloober Team’s remake of iconic Silent Hill 2 is near a masterpiece. It might not achieve the same status as the original, but the game builds upon the foundations of what Team Silent originally designed over two decades ago, giving players, new and old, a fresh lens through which to experience the sorrowfully psychological story of James Sunderland. Any fan of the franchise should look to this game as the potential that the franchise isn’t dead—that hope may yet still reside within the town of Silent Hill.
Indiana Capital Chronicle: Indiana Supreme Court weighs death row inmate’s final plea
By Indiana Capital Chronicle / YesterdayAbout two weeks away from scheduled execution, Indiana death row inmate Joseph Corcoran’s last-ditch attempts to quash his capital punishment sentence are still up in the air.
