By BEN KLEINE

Staff writer

Autumn Hanson does everything she can to keep a dog comfortable while on either of her two grooming tables at her shop, Critter Connection, at 400 Forest St., Marion.

That comfort extends to the floor of her shop, which she covered with a plastic tile that mechanics use so dogs can get traction on the surface.

The kennel and grooming facility, which Hanson was just approved to expand by the city of Marion, is kept cooler than most people’s homes. Hanson said that she air-conditions her kennel but not her own home.

She also has large outdoor kennels on more than five acres of property.

Hanson keeps a supply of toys and food available. She even has a television in the kennel that she plays when it storms to calm down certain dogs.

Dogs will come for grooms and be nervous or scared. She never ties or sedates a dog and she has only used a muzzle twice. Hanson realizes that many dogs have had bad experiences at other groomers. It can take a dog as many four or five trips to trust Hanson.

When a dog is frightened, Hanson will talk to the dog, pet the dog, and kiss the dog to show they are welcome. Eventually when the dog calms down, she trims its coat with clippers and clips its toenails.

“It’s not rocket science,” she said. “You just have to read your dog. Are they nervous, afraid, or are they spoiled? Some dogs, you can speak to them without saying a word.”

Hanson’s interaction with a dog is a skilled balance. She holds a dog with a firm but gentle grip; she does not squeeze a dog but they cannot easily squirm away. Her cuts are careful but thorough.

“As firm as necessary but as gentle as possible,” she said of her overall philosophy of how to handle a dog.

Hanson imagines what a dog is feeling. She recalled an incident while she was working in a grooming shop where a student groomer was being nonchalant with the clippers near a dog’s face. Hanson took her clippers and stuck them in front of the student’s eyes causing her to flinch.

“If you had that reaction, how do you think the dog feels?” Hanson asked.

In another instance in that same shop, a dog was frightened and cowered in its kennel. When a student went in to prep the dog to be groomed, she entered the space abruptly and the dog bit her. Hanson was called to get the dog out of its kennel. She knew she would be bitten because the dog had been left alone after biting the other groomer, essentially biting achieved its goal.

Hanson has only been bitten twice while working on dogs in her own shop but has had days working in other facilities where every dog she groomed would chomp her hand.

She has been bitten all over her right hand. The bites never deter Hanson; Hanson has no problem taking on dogs that scare other groomers.

One example was a wire-haired fox terrier named Maggie. Maggie would bark angrily at other groomers, but Hanson eventually earned Maggie’s trust. Maggie was one of Hanson’s favorite dogs and she was sad to leave the terrier when she started working full-time in Marion about a year ago.

Hanson is attached to the dogs that she grooms. Her brain contains a phone book of dog names. Jack Petersen, Christian and Staci Petersen’s dog, was Hanson’s first groom at her shop in Marion. Michelle Hett’s poodles, Calypso and Casper, have learned to jump on top of Hanson’s modified barber’s chair that she transformed into a grooming table.

“Only the thing now is, I know my client’s dog’s names and I can’t remember theirs,” she said.

Max Miklas is Joe Miklas’ silky terrier and runs into the room when he goes to see Hanson.

“A lot of dogs understand, ‘Let’s go see Autumn and get excited,” she said. “The first thing I tell (people) is it’s not the vet.’”

Part of the reason Hanson is attached to the dogs is because owners are so attached to their dogs.

“People love their dogs a lot. They’re like their kids,” Hanson said. “My dogs are like my kids, too.”

One client grilled Hanson about her kennel operation before she would let Hanson room her dog.

“She couldn’t care for anyone more,” Hanson said.

Hanson welcomed the inquiry because she has always been a dog person and an animal lover. She has three dogs of her own — a labradoodle, a Scottie, and a westie bichon mix — and cannot help but stop near dogs. She has met clients and dogs that way including a Great Pyrenees at a garage sale.

“I don’t go anywhere without stopping to talk to a dog,” she said.

She has loved animals since she was young. Hanson’s mother used to take in animals that had been abandoned. When she was a girl, a farmer killed a skunk in his garage to find that she was caring for pups. The Hansons raised the skunks until they could be let loose in the wild.

As a girl, Hanson wanted to be a veterinary technician, mainly because she knew a veterinarian required a lot of schooling. Her dream was put on hold through two divorces and raising five children.

After she lost a job she thought she would have until she retired, Hanson worried about what she was going to do. Hanson’s son Riley gave her an inspiration: “You always told us it’s never too late,” he said.

Although she gave up on becoming a veterinary technician, Hanson searched the Internet and kept seeing openings for groomers. She decided to attend a grooming school in Wichita.

Near the end of her schooling, Hanson, her husband Doug, and their three children — Riley, Roxanne, and Royce — started building Critter Connection.

Although she worked in Wichita for a while, she wanted her own store to be different — she set out out create a place where dogs can feel welcome and extremely safe.

“People entrust you with their dogs,” Hanson said. “Most people would settle for a mediocre groom if their dog was treated well.”