New pet grooming business opens in Boonville – Rome Sentinel

​BOONVILLE — For Destiny Mooney, a passion for working with animals, has led her to create Mud Life Spaw, 199 Post St ., a professional dog grooming business.

The business is housed in the same building as Warrior Zone Fitness, which was purchased by Mooney’s family within the spring of 2021.

Initially, Mooney, of Turin, said she wanted to be a veterinarian and enrolled in the veterinary practices program at BOCES in Glenfield. While there, Mooney found that she enjoyed grooming animals above all else and decided to pursue a career as a pet groomer.

After finishing her training at BOCES, Mooney gained experience working for different groomers in the area. To further her expertise, she enrolled in an online pet tidying certification course. Within a few months, she was professionally certified, despite New York State not requiring certification for pet groomers.

This course, Mooney said, allowed her to become familiar with specific grooming techniques for different breeds.

To lessen the chance of a dog experiencing stress, Mooney provides strictly one-on-one services. She said that the best way to get a dog accustomed to grooming is to set up an appointment for them when they are young. She recommends grooming begin for puppies at about 12 weeks old or as soon as they have received their first rabies vaccine. All dogs need to be vaccinated against rabies in order to be groomed at Mud Life Spaw, for their own safety, for Mooney’s safety and for the safety of any other animal she encounters, she said.

Appointments may be scheduled at Mud Life Spaw anytime Monday through Friday by contacting Mooney, either by phone in 315-901-7729 or via Facebook messaging. Weekend appointments are available by request, as well.