Jill Decker of Decker Dog Detailing, Oskaloosa, poses with Sadie and Jazz after their groom. The four legged clients are the beloved pets of Patty Hamm, Oskaloosa City Clerk.
by Bridget Weishaar
The attention is in the details, hence the name Jill Decker picked for her dog grooming business, Decker Dog Detailing.
Decker, a Jefferson County native, wants her work to speak for itself when it comes to her grooming skills.
What started as a part-time hobby helping close family and friends has led Decker to close the chapter on a 14-year career at Hill’s Pet Nutrition in Topeka.
Walking away from Hill’s was an easy decision for Decker, until it came to the dogs.
Decker’s love for dogs grew while caring for them at the facility where they were used for the testing of dog food made by the plant. At any given time, she had up to 80 beagles that she would spend her days with.
During the time she spent devoted to Hill’s over those years, she quickly realized how much she was missing in her family’s lives. Working weekends, she would have to miss a baseball game here or a basketball game there, and made the decision home is where she wanted to be.
While at Hill’s, she learned the ins and outs of the grooming world from a co-worker who brought personal grooming experience to the team. Other than that, Decker is a self-taught groomer, leaning on YouTube videos and Google when she needed to know something new.
Roughly a year prior to leaving Hill’s she had joined their dog grooming team, honing and perfecting her skills.
In June 2021, she started offering basic services for pets of family and friends at no cost just to gain experience. Word of mouth traveled quickly around the area and she soon found herself with both a full-time job and a part-time side hustle.
She called it quits at Hill’s this February and Decker Dog Detailing officially became her new full-time adventure.
Looking back over the two-year span, she has already amassed between 80 to 100 clients and is ready to welcome more.
Services offered at Decker Dog Detailing currently are a basic nail trim all the way up to a full groom. A full groom includes a bath with shampoo and conditioner, blow dry, ear cleaning, and a hair cut of the owner’s choosing. Different client choices along with different breeds of dogs require different styles of haircuts.
“Some owners want their dog’s ears left long, others short. Some owners want their dog’s fur left longer, while others prefer to have it shaved,” Decker said.
While dogs are her speciality, she does also groom cats if a client wants it.
Decker credits her family and friends for making her grooming dream come to reality. Her husband, Jared, gets the most accolades for all the hard work spent on transforming their empty basement into her dog grooming business. A speckled and sealed floor was laid for easy clean up and an interior wall was removed to allow for the business to grow over time. Decker was able to purchase a lot of her equipment from a local groomer in McLouth who was closing her doors for medical reasons.
A wash bay, grooming table, and eight housing cages were installed. The housing system allows Decker to set multiple appointments on the same day if needed.
All sizes and breeds of dogs are welcomed by Decker. The grooming table lowers to 10 inches off the floor for older pets and also saves on Decker’s back.
The long-term goal of the business is to eventually build outside of the city limits, allowing Decker to add short- and long-term boarding.
Days and hours of operation are Monday through Friday by appointment only.
Decker Dog Detailing can be reached by phone or text at 785-812-8784. A business Facebook page is currently in the works.
Decker and her husbandhave three children, Braden, a sophomore at Oskaloosa High School, Tinley, a fourth grader, and Delaney, who turned three on Valentine’s Day.