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Bramble & Bark 41 Green Street, Newburyport, Mass.

Tue to Sat, 8 to 5, or when the last coat is dry. (978) 555-0142

About the shop: one tub, one table and a chalk board

Bramble & Bark opened in March 2014 in the back half of a bicycle shop at 41 Green Street. It now has the whole unit, a front desk, a back window with a stool in front of it and the same chalk board.

Book a Saturday See the gallery

How the shop got here

March 2014
Ruth Calloway opens with one tub and one table behind the bicycle shop's repair stand. The chalk board is the bicycle shop's, left on the wall. It used to show which bicycle was ready and when. The dogs inherited the habit.
Autumn 2016
The first recipe-box card is written, for a spaniel that would not go near the dryer. Every nervous dog since has had a card.
April 2019
The bicycle shop closes and the grooming room takes the whole unit. The ceiling hooks that held wheels now hold leads.
Spring 2020
The last cage dryer goes to a shop in Amesbury. The stand dryer takes its place. The shop has had no cage dryer since.

A visit, in the order it happens

This is the shop as it is today, drawn from above. A dog goes through the rings from one to six in that order. Ring seven is where you sit.

Plan of the shop seen from above. A door in the front wall opens beside a scale. Along the front wall are a chalk board and a front desk that holds a recipe box and a cash register. A wall across the middle has a doorway and a long window, with a stool in front of the window. Behind that wall, in the grooming room, are a tub with towel shelves beside it, a pegboard of six blades, a grooming table and a stand dryer. Seven numbered rings mark the scale, the chalk board, the front desk, the tub, the table, the dryer and the stool.
Plan of the shop. The front wall is at the bottom.

  1. The door and the scale. Every dog is weighed before anything else. The weight decides the price, so it is said aloud.

  2. The chalk board. The dog's name goes up with the time to pick up. It is wiped off as the dog leaves.

  3. The front desk. The recipe box is here. Whoever takes the lead reads the dog's card first.

  4. The tub. Warm water, with a towel from the shelves beside it. The shelves hold under 30 pounds, 30 to 70, and over 70.

  5. The table. Where the cut happens. The six blades hang on the pegboard by the tub. Each is checked against the back of a hand between dogs.

  6. The stand dryer. It is switched on across the room from the table, on its low setting, before it comes near the dog.

  7. The stool. At the back window, looking into the grooming room. You can stay on it for the whole visit.

Who has the lead

Three people work here, listed in the order a dog meets them.

Pia Fontaine
Runs the front desk, the scale and the chalk board. She telephones when a dog is dry and not before, so nobody waits beside a wet one.
Ruth Calloway
Owns the shop and takes every nervous dog's first ten minutes herself. She writes each recipe-box card in pencil so that it can be corrected.
Owen Marsh
Grooms the double coats and the dogs over 70 pounds. He hangs the six blades on the pegboard in number order before the shop opens each Tuesday.

A card from the recipe box

PickleNervous
Frightened by
The sound of the dryer. A hand coming over the head.
Helped by
The towel round the shoulders first. The radio off.
Last visit
Sniffed the table for a minute before climbing up.

Each nervous dog gets an index card in the recipe box at the front desk. The card says what frightened the dog and what helped. Whoever takes the lead reads it first.

This one was written for a made-up dog. The cards are in pencil because a dog can change its mind about the dryer.

What the shop does not do

A short list, so that nobody drives over for nothing.

  • No boarding, no day care and no cats.
  • No cage dryer: no dog sits in a cage while a dryer runs.
  • No double coat is shaved. It is brushed out and thinned.
  • No dog over 130 lb, because the tub and the table stop there.
  • No dog without a current rabies vaccination.

Booking

The shop is open Tuesday to Saturday, 8 to 5, or when the last coat is dry. Saturday drop-off times are on the home page.

Book a Saturday