PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Nichole "Nikki" Varriale will bring her pet-grooming spa right to your doorstep.

 

Curbside Pet Spa is a luxury one-on-one dog grooming experience that Varriale started in 2012 in Connecticut. Now that she's just over the border in New York State, she's brought the business to parts of the Berkshires.

 

"My goal would be to build up my client base to what it was in Connecticut," she said.

 

She had a little more than 200 customers before moving to Columbia County last year.

 

"I basically travel to the dog owners' houses or workplaces and groom the dogs right inside the van," said Varriale.

 

The van is equipped with a hydro massaging bath, adjustable grooming table, water, electricity, storage and heating and air conditioning. The service offers bathing, brushing, hand drying, cuts, ear cleaning and trimming and filing nails.

 

Varriale has been grooming for about 15 years but started her love for dog grooming in eighth grade when she had to do volunteer work for her school.

 

"I was able to go volunteer at a local doggie training, boarding, grooming facility, day-care place, too, and then after eighth grade, they hired me part time to work there and I kind of did everything in all the departments," she said.

 

Varriale grew up with a love for dogs and knew she wanted to work with them. She attended the former Becker College in Worcester and earned a degree in animal care. 

 

After college, she went back to the dog training and grooming facility she volunteered for and worked full time. After a while there she realized she wanted to move on to somewhere new.

 

"I would go to grooming expos where you take classes and everything to keep your education up and when I was there I discovered mobile grooming units and I had decided, let's see if I could  take the jump and do this on my own," said Varriale.

 

After gathering support from her family and friends she started mobile grooming and now has a van that can go anywhere.

 

"The benefit of mobile grooming is that I do go to the customer's house or workplace and its the one-on-one experience for the dog so that they don't have to go to the salon, where there's probably a bunch of other dogs that are barking," she said. 

 

"I know when I used to work in a salon, it was kind of more like an assembly line, so we would start with one dog — we would bathe them, put them in a cage to dry — and then we would keep doing that with all the other dogs that we had.  Then once we were done bathing everyone, you would go back to the first dog and give that dog a haircut."

 

Varrialle requires your pet to have a rabies vaccine and needs a flat, fairly level place to park. She also explains it's important to know about the dog's dislikes before grooming.

 

"It's nice to have the owners communicate with me if there's anything that I should know about the dogs prior to getting groomed just cause I don't know them and they don't know me," she explained. "The dog and I are just getting to know each other so if they have any history of being super anxious or not liking certain things done."

 

She also offers a latchkey service where if the owner is comfortable, they could give her a key or code to their home if they cannot be there. She just requires a couple visits beforehand to make sure the dog is comfortable with her.

 

Varriale currently services Lee, Lenox, Pittsfield, Richmond and West Stockbridge in the Berkshires and Austerlitz, Canaan, Chatham, Ghent, Kinderhook, Nassau and New Lebanon in New York. 

 

She is currently taking dogs up to 40 pounds.

 

You can make an appointment by calling or texting to 860-970-2300 or nikki@curbsidepetspallc.com.