Comb & Collar Expanding Pet Care Across Pune

THE BUSINESS

Comb & Collar is a Pune-based pet care business, now 4 years in, offering grooming, boarding, pet supplies, and pet training. Alongside its main location, the team runs a 27,000 sq. ft. boarding facility in Mulshi, and has a third location under construction in Viman Nagar, opening next year.

Priya trained her whole team of five herself. Two of them are expert groomers who handle full haircuts and styling. The other three take care of bathing, brushing, and de-shedding, and are working their way up to the more advanced skills.

Priya has always been a dog person. She even rescued a street dog after moving to Pune and named him Michael. :)

Michael is quite old now, but he is still by her side, wherever she goes. He has been there through all the different chapters of Priya’s life and all the businesses she has built along the way.

Before Comb & Collar, Priya was working in a completely different industry. But her love for dogs was always there. She would find herself spending time with them, thinking about them, and wanting to do something around them. It was something that just came naturally to her.

Her husband was the one who really noticed this. He saw how much Priya enjoyed being around dogs and also knew she had it in her to build something of her own. He encouraged her to give the pet business a shot, especially if it meant doing something she genuinely loved and enjoyed.

And that’s how Comb & Collar started. It wasn’t something Priya had planned from the beginning. It just felt like the right thing to do, and maybe it was time she gave herself a chance to do something she truly loved.

THE PROBLEM

Before Happy Pet Tech, keeping track of a dog's history (allergies, past issues, which hairstyle was given last time) came down to two things: memory, or pen and paper.

Neither held up.

You would have to remember every detail perfectly, or hope it had been written down somewhere. And even to Priya, pen and paper felt outdated for a business that depended on getting these details right.

The deeper issue wasn't just note-taking, it was access. If a client's regular groomer wasn't available on that day then nobody else on the team could easily pull up what had been done last time, or what to watch out for. The information existed somewhere, but it wasn't shared.

Before Happy Pet Tech, Priya's team ran on Pettle, until it shut down and she started looking for a real replacement.

WHY HAPPY PET TECH

Priya found Happy Pet Tech the way a lot of good tools get found in the grooming world: word of mouth. She's part of a groomer's community group, and a reference there pointed her in Happy Pet Tech's direction.

She'd genuinely hoped Pettle would relaunch rather than switch tools again, a relatable hesitation for anyone who's invested time setting up a system. But once it became clear that wasn't happening soon, she made the move.

HOW THEY USE IT

Manage Grooming Sessions. This is the feature Priya reaches for the most, day to day. In just a few taps, she can pull up a dog's session history right on the app, so nothing depends on one groomer remembering it all.

Service Agreements. Every grooming client signs a digital consent form before their session. Priya calls it one of the best parts of the system, not because clients love signing it (some feel a little put off by being asked every visit), but because it protects her business. Grooming involves sharp blades and scissors, and the agreement means there's a clear record that risks were communicated up front.

The Dashboard. Priya's favourite feature, and the one she describes as the biggest value of the whole system. As an owner who isn't always physically at the store, she can open her dashboard and see total groomings, total sales, and total clients. Everything she needs to know, in one screen.

If you are the owner and you are not at the store, the dashboard tells you everything in a minute.

She is candid that the dashboard is only as good as the discipline behind it. It requires the team to be diligent about logging every session's details.

THE RESULTS

Faster, better-informed decisions - On Rakshabandhan, when a staff member asked for the day off, Priya was able to pull up exactly what her sales had looked like on that same day the previous year, instead of relying on memory to judge whether she could afford to be short-staffed.

No more he-said-she-said on pricing - When a client pushes back on a charge, Priya can go straight to the system and show exactly what was agreed and paid, resolving disputes with a record instead of a debate.

Organic advocacy - Priya has already recommended Happy Pet Tech to other groomers and business owners in her network, and several have signed up as a result.

WHAT'S NEXT

Comb & Collar's next chapter is already under construction, literally. A third location is coming to Viman Nagar next year, combining boarding with grooming and retail.

Longer-term, Priya's eyeing the empty upstairs space at her Pune’s facility for something new: a dedicated cat boarding area, soundproofed and glass-walled, so cats can stay relaxed and away from the noise of the dogs downstairs.

Expanding best pet grooming services in Pune

It's early days — my team is still in the process of building out our historical data in the system. But the shift from reactive memory to on-demand records is already changing how we run the business day to day. Since Happy Pet Tech became part of our daily operations, we've been able to close the operational gaps and take on more appointments every day. As we expand to two new locations, this tool is going to help us manage it all.

"Its all about ease! Happy Pet Tech gave us a system which is managing our operations and finances on one screen."