Pet Owners Do Grooming at Joy Self Dog Wash : At ‘shampooch’ in Orange, the customer provides the animal and the business provides the soap, towels and tubs.

Fistfuls of hair in the drain pipes, a dirty tub, a bathroom that looks as if it was wetted down with a hose. Such are the pleasures of bathing a dog or cat.

Compared with that scene, Joy Self Dog Wash is what its name promises, said co-owner Benjamin Park--a joy.

The shop offers soap and towels, brushes and protective aprons, eight clean tubs and short leashes to hook the pet’s collar and keep Fido or Muffy in place. There are ramps to lead heavy dogs into tubs too.

Pet owners can stop by and give their pet a wash for $6.99 for a cat or small dog to $12.99 for an extra-large dog. Anti-flea soap or powder costs extra.

Park, who opened his Orange shop in November with partner Peter Kim, said customers include the Orange Police Department and lots of parents with their kids.

“It’s nice for families,” he said.

Park and Kim said they believe theirs is Orange County’s first self pet wash--sometimes called “shampooches.” There are at least three in Los Angeles County, and the number is growing, according to industry watchers.

Petlist, a Brooklyn, N.Y., company that supplies tubs and grooming tables, has outfitted about a dozen self pet washes around the nation, and it has orders for seven more. Petlist’s controller Andrea Roach said at least three large pet supply companies are also planning to launch their own chains.

Roach said her company’s sales were up 20% last year because of the volume orders. The self-wash shops generally use three to eight tubs, versus one or two tubs used by professional groomers.

Pet groomers charge $22 or more to bathe and comb a dog or cat. The self washes offer a less expensive alternative.

Roach said she doesn’t believe groomers will suffer from the competition, though. They clip nails and clean ears during a bath session, which many amateurs cannot do.

Groom & Board magazine agrees. In a May, 1991, article, the magazine said that self washes seem to attract customers who would normally bathe pets at home, instead of luring people away from professional groomers.

The self washes “tend to do well in middle-class and upper-middle-class neighborhoods, rather than elite areas,” said Karen Long MacLeod, editor of the Chicago-based trade publication. “The elite tend to go to a groomer for bathing.”

The do-it-yourself washes have thrived in urban areas, MacLeod said. They are in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.

“The volume of dogs (in metropolitan areas) would support it,” said MacLeod. Also, “clearly, if you’re keeping your dog inside, you’ll want to bathe him more often.”

Self washes may have grown up in urban areas, but they were born in the middle of California farm country in Carmichael in 1989. It was a combination professional grooming salon and do-it-yourself wash.

Many shops combine the services, MacLeod said. Do-it-yourself shops sometimes have a groomer on hand to do the work that requires some skill, such as fur clipping. Groomers can also suggest products to relieve skin and coat problems.

In Orange, Park and his two employees are equipped more with affection for animals than with any professional grooming talent.

Park closed a 12-year-old landscaping business, Evergreen Landscaping, last January because, at 55, his shoulders were too stiff for the work. He is a native of Korea who moved to Orange 15 years ago so that his four sons could receive an education in the United States, he said.

Now, the sons are adults--the youngest is in law school. So, Park said, he does not need as much money as he once did, and he decided to enter a field of work simply for the love of it.

He and Kim, who are friends from church, visited self washes in Burbank and Culver City before they opened their shop Nov. 21. They established it near a strip of pet supply stores, one of which Kim owns, on Chapman Avenue.

Park said 37 pets, on average, bathe at Joy each week. He is hoping for a good crop of fleas this spring, which he figures will push that number up to 50 by the summer.