(sassy upbeat music) ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag."

My name is Rob Sharkey.

I'm a fifth-generation farmer from just outside of Bradford, Illinois.

They say a dog is man's best friend, but who grooms men is also going to groom man's dog.

I don't know.

It's confusing, but we're gonna figure it all out.

Today we're talking with Tammy Bonney.

How you doing, Tammy?

- Great.

- Yeah, you're from Canton?

- Yes.

- Now if people don't know, where is Canton?

- Canton is about 30 miles west of here.

- Okay, is that where you grew up?

- I grew up on further on the other side of Fulton County.

I went to Bushnell School.

I grew up around Bushnell/Avon area.

- Oh yeah.

Don't they make grain bins there or something?

- Schuld and Bushnell makes bins.

- Okay.

- They do, yep.

- You are the owner of Primped Pawz Mobile Grooming.

- I am.

- Okay, how long has that been in business?

- It actually incorporated.

I'm an LLC, and that was in January of '21.

- [Rob] You gotta be an LLC?

- You don't have to be.

- In case you nick a dog, take their ear off or something, you wanna be covered?

- Well, I'm insured.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- The limited liability corporation is basically tax purposes.

- Gotcha.

- Yeah.

- You grew up on a farm?

- I did.

- What kind of farm?

- Grain and beef cattle, a smaller farm.

My dad farmed all through the years.

Mom helped on the farm while me and my brother were smaller, and then when we got old enough to work on the farm, she went to work at the bank in Avon and worked there for years.

But I kind of joked with them growing up through the years that the only reason they really had kids was to bale hay and mow the yard.

- Yeah.

(Tammy laughs) This is a revelation to you, was it?

(laughs) I can't tell you the last time I mowed my yard.

It's probably been 10 years.

- Yep.

- Yeah.

- After me and my brother grew up and moved out of the house, dad bought a brand-new mower and a big round baler.

So instead of having to do square bales, he was able to do the big round bales because he didn't have the kids to help, so.

(laughs) - Did you show any as a kid?

- We did.

Me and my brother were both in 4-H and FFA, and we showed cattle all through the years.

- That's kind of the subculture.

Did you get all into it with the- - Oh yeah.

- The bling jeans and all that stuff?

- Well, it wasn't so much the jeans.

It was more the, I wanna buy a winning calf, you know?

I had a very big drive to...

I like to win.

- Yeah.

- I mean, but I also had good sportsmanship, and it teaches kids a lot.

My kids, I mean my husband's kids, showed as well growing up.

So, I mean, it teaches them the value of good sportsmanship, hard work.

- [Rob] Did you win?

- I did a few times, yes.

- Yeah, like state grand and all that?

- Not at state.

- Yeah.

- That was a little bit out of my league.

- [Rob] You're putting some money into it there, aren't you?

- Quite a bit of money, and there's a lot of politics that goes along with it.

- What?

- Oh, yeah.

- No.

- Oh yeah.

- That's just silly talk.

- It's gotten a lot worse than it was when I was a kid, which is several years ago.

But county, our local show in Avon, it had been going many, many years, and they had a traveling trophy that the rule was that if anybody won grand champion steer three years in a row, the traveling trophy stayed with them.

I've so far, I've been the only person to do that.

- [Rob] Oh, okay.

- So.

- Do you still have it?

- I kept the traveling trophy from, it started, I think, in the '50s.

- Is it displayed?

Is it an attic?

- It's at my mom's house.

- Okay.

- On the hutch.

(Rob laughs) So it'll be there until it comes to my house, but, yeah.

- FFA too?

- Yep, FFA.

- Still have your jacket?

- I believe I do, yes.

I don't fit in it anymore.

- Neither do I.

(Tammy laughs) I literally couldn't get my arm in it anymore.

- Right?

- It's whatever.

- I'm not even gonna try.

It'd be embarrassing.

(Rob laughs) - But again, it teaches you a lot.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

It kind of gives you responsibility and all that stuff.

- It does.

It does.

- [Rob] So then you got into Australian shepherds.

- We raised Australian shepherd puppies for several years.

- [Rob] They're the high-strung ones, aren't they?

- They can be.

They need to be busy.

- [Rob] Yeah?

- We bought our first puppy, the male puppy, in, I was a freshman in high school, and he was an awesome cattle dog.

I mean, we didn't have to teach him anything.

He would learn tricks with a bag of potato chips.

I mean, teach him- - [Rob] He would what?

- He would learn a trick like within 10 minutes just using potato chips to- - Oh, for a treat?

- To reward him, yeah.

Shake, roll over, play dead, all of that.

But as far as helping with the cattle and stuff, we didn't have to teach him a thing.

I mean, he just, he naturally had that instinct.

He was an awesome dog.

But we bought a female and had several litters of puppies, two litters a year for several years.

And people all over the country would come and buy 'em.

- This was at your family farm?

- Right, when I was growing up.

- I gotcha.

- I have an Australian shepherd at home now too.

- Do you?

- Yep, he's quite spoiled.

- Did you appreciate him back then when you were a kid?

- Oh, yeah.

- Yeah, you always loved him?

- Yep.

- Okay.

- It was hard to get rid of the puppies.

They're also cute.

- Because you, yeah... Yeah, I could imagine.

Although I remember we had lab pups at one time, and I couldn't wait for them to be gone because they reach a point, and there's literally nothing you can do with them because they won't stay in one place, and then there's just, oh, they just wind 'em up and go.

- Yep.

- Yeah.

But what did that teach you, raising the puppies?

- Well, it taught...

The first thing it taught me was, you know, people would show up, and they'd be asking questions about the puppies.

And a lot of people would buy 'em for either herding or, you know, on the farm.

The first thing they'd ask is, "Well, you know, how smart are they?"

And the whole time we're having a conversation, our dog Duke was standing next to my dad there in the driveway.

And dad said, "Well, I can be talking to you, you know, just having a conversation with you, in the middle of my sentence, say, 'Duke, go get that bull,' and he's listening."

So it got to the point where when somebody would pull in to look at puppies, and Duke would stand there, and Dad would be talking to him.

He's say, "Duke, go get that bull."

The dog would run down and go underneath the fence and get the bull up that was in the lot south of the driveway and run him to the shed.

So it got to the point where anytime anybody drove in, the bull would get up and go to the- - [Rob] (laughs) You trained the bull too.

- Go to the shed.

(both laugh) And it kind of taught a lot about business, you know, responsibility, taking care of animals.

I mean, we learned a lot about just basic animal care growing up, whether it was dogs or cattle.

Or when I was really, really small, they had hogs, which, they got out of the hog business when I wasn't very old, so.

- [Rob] It's probably for the best, - Right.

- Yeah.

- Right, that's a lot of work.

- A nurse, how come you wanted to become a nurse?

- I don't know.

(laughs) - [Rob] Really?

It wasn't like a, I don't know, some TV you're watching, "ER" or something as a kid?

- I started out in high school probably like most kids when you're getting close to graduation, and you have no idea what you wanna do with your life.

My grandmother on my mom's side always wanted me to go into nursing.

That's something that she wanted to do and never had a chance.

And I never really thought about it at the time.

So I went to Galesburg to junior college in secretarial science, and I graduated from there, worked in a couple offices after that, absolutely hated it.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- So I decided that I think I'm just gonna go back to school, and at that time, I thought, "You know what?

I can do nursing."

So I went, graduated in '93 as an RN, worked in a hospital setting for a little while, did home health for several years, long-term care for a long time.

Even had my nursing home administrator's license for several years.

Don't wanna do that again.

It's stressful.

- [Rob] Yeah?

What does that involve?

- The administrator?

- Yeah.

- Basically you're running the nursing home.

I mean, you run all the departments.

You're the manager.

- Oh yeah.

- You deal with- - A lot of bookwork?

- Yeah, you deal with all of, you know, the state surveys and making sure, you know, residents get cared for and just a lot.

It's a lot.

And then you also have to deal with corporate, you know, the companies that own the nursing homes and budgeting and all that fun stuff.

- [Rob] Yeah, you've been a nurse for 30 years?

- For 30 years.

- Did you start when you were five?

- (laughs) No, I... Let's see.

Like I said, I graduated in '93, so I just...

It was just 30 years this past year, so.

- [Rob] Okay, did you like it?

- I did up until about COVID- - Really?

- Hit, yeah.

- Why is that?

- Just because of, it was just, it's a lot.

I mean, it's all of the rules with COVID and the restrictions and the testing and, you know, it was... At that time when COVID hit, I was working in supportive living in Tazewell County, which I really liked.

I had been there for several years.

It was just hard.

The hardest thing I think was seeing the residents that lived there having to stay in their room.

- Yeah.

- You know, and they get...

Seniors and the interaction and socialization is a big thing.

And they had to stay in their room, you know, for fear of getting sick, and it was rough.

- Yeah.

- Besides the nursing aspect of it, if anybody was sick- - [Rob] Oh, they couldn't have even have like the family come in.

- No.

It was a two-story building, and a lot of time, a lot of family would come to the window and talk through the window or talk on the phone so they could see each other.

It was months.

I mean, it was a long time, and family couldn't visit.

It was really, it was sad.

It really was.

- That was enough for you?

- Yeah, and we could literally, the staff could literally see people decline, just their mental status- - Yeah.

- You know, decline.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- That part of healthcare, and then healthcare is not what it used to be.

You know, and I hate to say that because it's a good profession, but it's not what it used to be.

I mean, it's gotten so much faster.

It's more about paperwork and all of that than when I first started.

It was bedside care and, you know, more patient-oriented.

- Yeah.

Well, I think it's something everybody knows, but we don't- - Yeah.

- You still don't like to hear it.

- Right, right.

- So.

All right, well, let's switch gears, something happier.

You say at age 55 you make a complete career change.

- I did.

- Tell me about that.

- I was still working at supportive living, and I left that position not by my choice, we won't get into that, in August of '21.

It was right at the end of COVID time, but I had jokingly said several times, "You know what, I'm just gonna get out of nursing and just be a dog groomer."

And my friends and coworkers would just kind of laugh at me, and I'm like, "I'm really serious.

I'm gonna go groom dogs."

- [Rob] Have have you been grooming dogs on the side?

- I did my own dog- - Okay.

- At home.

At that time, I used cattle clippers on him.

So sometimes he didn't look, you know...

I didn't have all the right equipment at the time, but I figured if I can groom a steer, I can groom a dog, so.

- [Rob] Well, I mean, okay.

(both laugh) - So, you know, I was used to handling clippers all through the years and stuff, and so it really wasn't gonna be a big stretch for me.

You know, it was a learning curve, definitely.

But they didn't think I was serious.

So when I left the nursing job, I thought, "You know what, now is the time."

And I searched online and I found this trailer.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- It's a used trailer.

It's actually a 2008.

It was built for grooming, so it's a grooming conversion.

- It's an actual grooming trailer?

- It is.

- Okay.

- A company out of Indiana.

- Did you paint it?

- I did.

I painted it myself.

- With a, like spray (imitates spraying)?

- Spray can.

- Really?

- I did.

- That looks really...

It looks really good.

Okay, and the paws and all that stuff?

- Yep, the vinyl graphics was done.

Some friends of mine own a graphics company over by Bushnell, and they did the graphics for me.

But I bought that trailer over by Indianapolis.

- Okay.

- And it took me five months to get it ready to use.

I almost didn't buy it because it was in such poor shape and had a lot of issues.

Put quite a bit of money into fixing it, and I did all of the fixing myself.

- [Rob] Okay.

- My husband helped with the generator and stuff like that 'cause I'm not... Electricity scares me, so I let him help me with that stuff.

But as far as like the inside, I had to replace some panels and painting and stuff like that.

I did all that myself.

Replaced water pumps, ceiling vents.

- Wow, so do you, like, bathe them too in there?

- Mm-hm.

- So it's a whole- - Mm-hm.

- So if you... Do you pull up to somebody's house?

- I do.

- So you pull up to my house.

I give you my mutt.

What's gonna happen?

- So I either come to the door and get your dog, or you bring it out to the trailer.

We go in the trailer.

I get 'em on my table, my grooming table.

- I do whatever.

I trim their nails, clean their ears.

I do whatever sanitary trimming's needed.

And then they go across a...

I raise the table.

They go across the gang plank into my bathtub.

It's right there.

And they get their bath.

I bring 'em back on the table.

I dry 'em completely with a, basically it's a cattle dryer.

And then if they need a haircut, they get their hair cut.

We get all done, spritz a cologne, and out the door they go.

- [Rob] Just like a barber.

- It is.

- Do you ever get bit?

- I have.

- Yeah, do you bite 'em back?

- No, not usually.

(laughs) I try not to.

- Not usually, okay.

(laughs) - Yeah, I try not to.

- I mean, that has to be kind of a hazard, right?

- It is.

- 'Cause, I mean, you get a mean dog.

- It is.

- Yeah.

- You learn to read their body language and their, just their behavior.

- Yeah.

- I mean, I... And I, usually, before I groom anyone's dog, I send them like a pre-grooming questionnaire that has questions like, "Has your dog been groomed before?

You know, do they have any behaviors?

Are they aggressive in any way?"

And most people will tell me, you know, they don't like the blow dryer or, you know, they've had to be muzzled before, but this is what they did.

- [Rob] Ours doesn't like when you do the nails.

- Yeah.

- My wife has this, it's the dumbest animal in the world.

It's a french bulldog, and it's not even like- (Tammy laughs) I don't know what it is.

It's not even like a canine.

It's so, so dumb.

And she does the nails on it, and they're like (growls), you know?

Like, acts like the world's ending.

- They act like they're dying, yes.

I have several that do not like their nails done.

A lot of the smaller dogs, I have several that are difficult.

And I actually have a, it's a nylon sling that I put them in the sling, and I hang them from my grooming arm.

And so they're basically hanging there.

They can't spin around, (Rob laughs) and you can just do their nails while they're hanging there.

- Okay.

Do you do anything with cats?

- I have.

- Oh, that's a different deal there.

- That's a completely different can of worms.

- Dogs are dumb, and they might bite.

The cats the whole time, they're sitting there thinking how to take you out.

- Right, they're plotting your death.

- Yeah.

(both laughs) - I have one cat that I do a bath on every six weeks.

- Really?

I didn't think they liked the water.

- Gilbert.

Cats actually, they don't mind water.

They just choose not to be in it.

- [Rob] Okay, that would be the same.

- Yeah, pretty much, but Gilbert had been done before.

- Yeah.

- So- - [Rob] Do you dunk him?

- No, no, no, I put him in my bathtub.

He has a grooming loop on him like I do the dogs, only it goes around one leg- - Okay.

- One shoulder.

And so it doesn't pull on their neck.

But he does not mind it.

He don't care for it, but he doesn't try...

He doesn't have front claws.

He doesn't try to climb up me and rip my eyeballs out or anything.

And he has gotten used to...

I use the blow dryer on him too.

- Really?

- He'll lay right on my table and let me blow dry him.

- Huh.

- Yeah.

- You must be doing a good job.

Tell me about your award.

- This, I've seen the community's Choice Awards, I've seen it posted on Facebook.

And it's pretty much community votes on different areas like restaurants or best bars or best grooming companies or construction.

There's several different categories, and I had shared that on my Facebook page and ended up...

It's for all of last year, but they ended up...

The voting was through like the very end of the year, and then they announced the winner.

So I ended up getting best grooming company, and that was for my first full year of business, so.

- Well, that had to make you feel good.

- It did.

- Yeah.

So like, are you getting...

I don't know how it works.

Do you get repeat customers or?

- I do.

I have... Well, I started grooming full-time October 1st of '22.

At the time, I was still taking new clients.

By April of '23, I was to the point where I had so many routine clients that I had to start a wait list, so- - That's good.

- I was booked out for like two, three months.

- Nice.

- And most of my people were repeats, or I had a lot of people that would just, they needed their dog.

They might live on a farm, and they only get their outside dog done twice a year.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- So I started a wait list in April, and I had probably 50 people on the wait list, and my wait list wasn't moving.

All of my repeat people kept coming back to where I had like no openings, so.

- Honestly, that kind of surprises me.

Did you know there was gonna be that much demand for what you're doing?

- I knew there'd be a demand, but I didn't know it would happen that fast.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- It was just crazy how quickly it took off, a lot of word of mouth.

My biggest advertising was the minute I put the graphics on that trailer.

- [Rob] Yeah, yeah.

- I did run with it for a while before I got the graphics ready and got 'em put on.

But when I put the graphics on the trailer, I couldn't even go to Walmart without somebody standing next to my truck and trailer waiting on me to come out.

- Oh, that's cool.

(both laugh) You've been married for 30 years, so taming unruly animals probably isn't a big deal.

- Not a big deal, no.

If I can handle a farmer for 30 years, then I could probably handle a cheetah.

(both laugh) - I would love to put that to the test.

(laughs) I mean, what's your husband think of all of it?

- He thought I was crazy when I first said this is what I wanna do.

And he's been a big supporter, and he's my mechanic, 'cause I mean, if something, I always have him helping me, but he did think I was nuts when I first mentioned it.

And I said, "I'm gonna do this," and he said, "Well, you know, you can do what you want, but I can't see how you're gonna, you know, make enough money, you know, to compare to nursing."

- Yeah.

- Well, one year, and I far exceeded that, I mean.

(laughs) - Which, you know- - I've proven him wrong.

- It's fun to make fun of him, but, honestly, if I'm 100% honest, I would've thought the same thing.

I would've never thought there would be this much demand for it.

- There is.

People do a lot for their pets.

I mean, it's a big business.

- [Rob] Yeah, how far do you travel?

- A long ways.

(laughs) - I mean, do you pay per mile, or how's that work?

- I don't add anything for my mileage.

- Boy, I would.

- Yeah, but pricing for mobile, and I did a lot of research before I started just to find out, and typically pricing for mobile is about 30 to $40 higher than a brick-and-mortar salon.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- So that's kind of where I started.

My biggest challenge when I first started wasn't getting the trailer ready or doing those kinds of things.

It was setting down and figuring out my pricing.

That was, you know... Do you do it by weight of the dog and- - Well, you probably had no one to compare to, did you?

- No, not really.

There is a mobile groomer up by Brimfield, up in that area.

- [Rob] That's a whole different ballgame though.

- Right, and I did get a hold of her, and we met a couple times, and I kind of picked her brain about, you know- - That was nice.

- How she did it.

- [Both] Yeah.

- And so I got a lot of information from her, which was awesome.

But pricing was a little different because she was, I mean, she was more urban.

- [Rob] Yeah, yeah.

- And I'm definitely out in the middle.

- Yeah, well, if people want to find you or get ahold of you, social media or website, where would they go?

- Primpedpawzmobilegrooming.com- - [Rob] And you spelled paws wrong.

- I know.

- It's clever.

- I did that because, well, I originally was gonna do Pampered Paws, and there was already several.

- It's probably taken, yeah.

- Yeah.

So I did it with a Z just to be different because, you know, that's just me.

- Yeah.

So that's the website?

- The website, and then Primped Paws Mobile Grooming is my Facebook page.

- [Rob] Okay, no TikToks?

- No TikToks.

- If you got on TikTok and did the dog's biting you, you'd be viral.

- Probably, probably, - Yeah.

- Yeah.

I prefer not to get bit, so, and I'm spending more time focused on getting the dog taken care of than I am videoing my experience.

(Rob laughs) - I'm just trying to help.

- I understand.

- I love that, "I prefer not to get bit."

- Right, right.

- Well, I think you should be really proud of what you've done.

- I am very proud, thank you.

- You've probably proven a lot of naysayers wrong.

- Right, and my mom was kind of skeptical.

She was a skeptic.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- Of course, she's the older generation.

She said, "I just don't see that there's any money in washing dogs."

- [Rob] Yeah, let 'em go out in the rain.

- Right.

- Yeah.

- You know, she didn't... At the time, she didn't understand exactly, you know, it's not just a dog bath.

You know, you do haircuts.

- It's the whole service.

- And nail trims.

It's a full service, so.

- No, I honestly, I'm thrilled for you.

I think it's great what you've done.

Should be really proud, and you should be really proud of this, that not only is it making money, but the community is understanding that what you're doing is fantastic.

So, Primped Pawz Mobile Grooming, Tammy Bonney from Canton, Illinois.

Thank you for coming on the show.

- You're very welcome.

- Really, really appreciate it.

And thank you for making kind of rural Illinois, you showing it out there that people can make money at stuff, so it's very, very cool.

- It can be done.

- Tammy, thank you very much.

Everybody else, we'll catch you next week.

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