In late January, Lisa Turner received a request from Montgomery City resident Laurie Sippel.

The owner of the Turner and Pooch dog grooming salon in Montgomery City was asked if she could give some service to a dog that was rescued on I-70 outside High Hill.

“(Sippel) asked me, “Lisa, is there any chance I could get you to groom this dog for me for a foundation.’ I said, ‘Absolutely.” Giving back is a big deal when you own a small business,” Turner said.

Turner helped turn the dog into a brand new one after giving it a trim and a bath. She added headwear that included a couple of hearts.

“There’s absolutely nothing more rewarding than when you get a dog on the table that looks the way it did,” Turner said. “You give it just a little bit of attention. I’m not talking about physical attention. I’m talking about some clippers, some scissors, a good bath and a good blow dry.”

The service definitely impressed Sippel.

“She’s keeping it for a rescue right now until she can find it a home,” Turner said. “She has never seen it when it looks good. She has seen this dog as its very worst. Then, she comes back in and she’s like, ‘This doesn’t look like the same dog. She’s beautiful.’ ”

Since it opened four years ago, Turner and Pooch has been a popular dog grooming facility in the Montgomery City area. It is located at Turner’s home on Cynthia Lane.

“I have a lot of clients and a lot of our local people really like it because they didn’t have to leave town,” Turner said. “They can go home while their dogs are being groomed.”

Turner, who works a full time job at a penitentiary, operates her business in the evening on weekdays and in the mornings and afternoons on weekends. The salon is named after the 1989 motion picture, “Turner and Hooch,” that starred Tom Hanks.

“With it being in the evenings, a lot of my clients like those evening appointments because they get off of work, come home, take the dog out to go potty, load it up in the car, bring it over here, drop it off, go home and cook supper,” Turner said. “They eat their supper with their family and by the time they’re done, I’m done.”

Turner and Pooch is one of two dog grooming facilities in Montgomery County. The other one is Pampered Paws by Macie, which is owned by Macie Weeks in Danville.

Recently, a dog bathing and boarding business called KK Bed and Bath in Jonesburg was open to the public. It is owned by Kindrea Kelling.

Sippel said she was pleased with the service Turner gave the dog, which is named Coco.

“It took her several hours to shave her down and since she seems to be a Goldendoodle, she had to have the fur between her toes and in her ears removed as well,” Sippel said. “We are so grateful for Lisa taking care of her.”

Sippel first found out about Turner’s shop after seeing posts on social media.

“She is so good at what she does,” Sippel said.

Turner was trained to be a dog groomer after attending the Michigan School of Canine Cosmetology in Lansing, Mich., several years ago. She stayed there for four months.

“The reason I decided to go to dog grooming school in the first place was I had a dog that required grooming and there was nobody local who could do it,” Turner said.

Turner said she learned many things at the school such as how to bathe dogs the right way, CPR training and teeth maintenance.

“Dog grooming is not for everybody,” Turner said. “You have to like animals and you have to want to be around them and have to understand the Qs and the little signs they’re giving you when they’re not liking something.”

Turner was influenced by a friend, Lacie Tarrants, to go to Michigan to learn how to be a dog groomer.

“We were going to go to the one in St. Louis and we were going to commute back and forth to the one in St. Louis,” Turner said. “Then we found the one in Michigan that had living arrangements.”

Turner’s business includes a grooming table, bathtub, kennels and decorative items such as bandannas, sunglasses, helmets, hats and clippies.

“I had a construction guy (Richard McCall) come in and he put it all up for me,” Turner said. “He took a regular bathroom bathtub and he built it on stilts for me to be my height. That way, when I wash the dogs or whatever, I have everything that I need and it’s right where I need it.”

Turner said the best part about being a dog groomer is getting love from the dogs.

“They want to lick you and they want you to pet them,” said Turner, who has two dogs of her own. “You can come out here and you don’t have a worry in the world.”