Shampoo and sketch

Apryl Brainard can point to any one of the hundreds of animal photographs tacked onto the walls of her pet grooming business and tell you the dog’s or cat’s name, personality and favorite place to get scratched.

Her stepmother and business partner, Anne Comstock-Brainard, is the same way – she knows which dogs were ill, which ones have medical problems, and where they like to sit when they come in for a shampoo and cut.

At their business, Apryl’s 3rd Street Dog House in Coeur d’Alene, customers come first.

“People treat their pets like their own kids,” said Brainard, a former schoolteacher at Plummer-Worley Middle School. After teaching for three years, and in her sister Angie Brainard’s grooming business on the side, it came down to teaching or grooming.

“I wanted to start a family,” said Brainard, who has two daughters, Kendalyn, 11, and Jaelyn, 3.

Now, a year after her pet grooming business opened, the two are still busy at their own places.

“I can still be involved in my kid’s lives, and I’m doing my own hours,” said Brainard.

And, as it turns out, being in the dog and cat grooming business instead of the mortgage business brought out the artist in Comstock-Brainard. Her contribution to the business is no longer washing and shaving, but instead sketching and framing.

“She was secretly drawing (the dogs), and then one day she showed me her portfolio and I thought they were wonderful,” Brainard said. Comstock-Brainard decided to frame the sketches and hang them in the entryway of their business. Customers would see their pet sketched and framed, and instantly buy the drawing.

“It’s rewarding to see the customers’ reaction. They say, ‘Is that Sammy?’ and want to have the drawing in their home,” said Comstock-Brainard.

She spends about four or five days on her sketches.

“The best part for me is seeing the dog just appear on my sketchpad. You can see the personalities of the dogs and really pull them out,” she said. Now Comstock-Brainard gets orders from customers all over the area.

Comstock-Brainard has always been “artsy,” and designed the dog-bone-shaped signs hanging in the store and collaborated with Brainard on the bright colors for the exterior of the house.

Bob Legg, a retired veterinarian in Coeur d’Alene, has been taking his four dogs to Apryl’s since January.

“When you walk into Apryl’s, it’s clean,” he said. “She works around special needs, and you can really appreciate someone that’ll cater to you like that.”

Legg has dealt with his fair share of poor groomers but enjoys Brainard’s the best. “(The dogs) come out of there like they just came out of the spa,” he said.

Among special dog-spa treatments is the option of magenta-colored instant-dry nail polish.

The “dog” house was a mess when purchased in February 2005, but now it’s comfortable for the four-legged customers.

“The dogs like it better,” said Comstock-Brainard, who places scented candles in the entry way to get rid of that “pet” smell. “Most of the pet grooming places are in strip malls, but this place really pulls away from that business atmosphere. After all, this is their house, too.”