Three years ago, Heather Lehrman was working for a start-up biotechnology firm in Manhattan that she knew was planning a move to Colorado.
Lehrman, a Great Neck resident, needed a job and a means of taking care of her Boston terrier Herbie, who was nine weeks old at the time.
Then Lehrman came across an advertisement for the Bellerose-based In Home Pet Services, sitters who would watch Herbie while she was at work.
“The words ‘franchises available’ kept flashing at me, and I knew I had to go for it,” Lehrman said.
Lehrman called the company’s owner, Robyn Elman, about purchasing the company’s Gold Coast franchise and officially opened on Nov. 1, 2011.
She has served clients across the North Shore as part of In Home Pet Services, which this year celebrated its 10-year anniversary, ever since.
“We’re definitely growing,” Lehrman said. “We have a staff of six and we’re always looking for good people and animal lovers.”
In Home Pet Services provides dog-walking and pet-sitting, a “pet taxi” to groomers and veterinarians, in addition to trips to the dog park and what Lehrman calls “puppy play dates” with her other clients’ pooches.
The company also serves cats and other animals.
For pet owners who go on vacation, Lehrman and her staff make house visits multiple times a day, house-sit for the owners or even play host to the dogs at their homes.
Shortly after Lehrman opened the franchise, she started the Smushed Faces dog meet-up group, so that dogs could play and their owners could make friends.
The group is comprised of approximately 150 Boston terriers, French bulldogs, pugs and their owners, Lehrman said, though all breeds are welcome to join.
“At the time, I created Smushed Faces to find other dogs for Herbie to interact with,” Lehrman said.
In May, Smushed Faces participated in the “Mayday for Mutts” fundraiser, donating leashes, toys and other pet items for Bobbi and the Strays, a pet rescue agency whose Glen Cove office was destroyed by Superstorm Sandy.
“We’re special in that we donate to charities and have parties for the dogs and the owners to meet other dogs and owners and make friends,” Lehrman said. “I don’t really know of any other groups that do that.”
Lehrman, who was elected to the Roslyn Chamber of Commerce in January, said the dogs she cares for can recognize their own breed in addition to dogs with whom they regularly interact.
The relationships she’s seen formed between the dogs has made her work all the more meaningful, Lehrman said.
“They play fight and have their little tiffs, but when you pull them apart, they’re back to playing and kissing and whatnot,” Lehrman said.
