Pet Supplies in Ronkonkoma: The Shop on Portion Road
Lillian Ruff Pet Spa
There is a retail shop inside our Ronkonkoma salon at 835 Portion Rd, in the same building as grooming, daycare and boarding, open the same seven days a week we are. This page is less about what happens to be on the shelf and more about how to choose well: which brush actually matches your dog's coat, what shampoo does and does not do, and why being open on a Sunday matters more than it sounds.
The shop sits inside the salon at 835 Portion Rd, Ronkonkoma, open seven days, 9 to 5. If you need one specific item, call or message us first and we will go and look at the shelf for you, rather than you driving over on faith.
Two honest caveats up front. We are a grooming salon with a shop in it, not a warehouse — so check with us before you count on any one product being there. And plenty of what follows is advice you can act on without buying anything from us at all. A comb is a comb. If you already own the right one, you already have what you need.
Food, treats and the things people run out of on a Sunday
Food is the thing you notice at the worst possible moment — the bin at home down to crumbs on a Sunday morning, or the box under the sink turning out to be empty the night before a trip. There is no clever advice in that. It is simply useful to know somewhere near you is open when you notice.
If you are changing your dog's food, buy the small bag first. A new food should go in gradually — a quarter new to three quarters old for a couple of days, then half and half, then three quarters, then all of it, over about a week. Dogs switched cold turkey very often get loose stool for a few days, and then the owner blames the food when the real problem was the speed of the change. Buying the large bag before you know your dog tolerates it is how you end up with twenty pounds of food nobody wants.
On treats, two categories do most of the work. Small, soft, high-value pieces are for training and for us — they are what a groomer uses to make a nail trim boring instead of frightening, and they are worth having in your pocket on every walk. Longer chews are for occupying a dog, not for training. A rough rule that groomers and vets both repeat about hard chews: if you cannot dent it with a thumbnail, it can crack a tooth. Your vet is the right person to ask about anything specific to your dog's mouth.
Prescription diets and anything medicated come from your veterinarian, not from a shop shelf. If your dog is itchy, losing weight, off their food, or has ongoing digestive trouble, that is a vet conversation. We can tell you what your dog's coat looks like from the outside. We cannot tell you why.
The brushes we actually use on the grooming floor
There is no universal brush. There is a brush that suits your dog's coat, and there are several that will do nothing except make you feel productive. The most common mistake we see is a good owner brushing faithfully every day with a tool that only skims the top of the coat, while a solid mat forms underneath against the skin.
A brush tells you the top layer is tidy. A comb tells you the truth.
That is the whole trick, and it costs you one metal comb. Brush the area first, then run the comb through it from the skin outward. If the comb travels to the skin and out again without catching, that patch is genuinely clear. If it stops, there is a mat there no matter how good the coat looks from above. Pay particular attention to the friction points, where coat rubs against coat or against gear: behind the ears, in the armpits, where the collar and harness sit, and the back of the hind legs.
| Coat | What to use | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Curly and non-shedding — doodles, poodles, bichons | Slicker brush plus a metal comb, always both | Every day or two, in short sessions |
| Long silky — shih tzu, maltese, yorkie | Pin brush through the length, slicker on friction points, comb to confirm | Daily once the coat is long |
| Double coat — golden, shepherd, husky, corgi | Undercoat rake to pull dead undercoat, slicker to finish | Twice a week, more while it is dropping |
| Short smooth — lab, beagle, pug, bulldog | Rubber curry brush or grooming mitt | Once a week is plenty |
| Wire coat — many terriers | Slicker and comb at home | Weekly. Note we do not hand-strip, and a clipped wire coat softens over time |
Work in lines, not circles
Lift a section of coat with one hand, brush the hair underneath your hand, then move up an inch. Sweeping over the top of the whole dog is what leaves the layer against the skin untouched.
Comb what you just brushed
Immediately, in the same spot, before you move on. This is the step people skip.
Stop before your dog does
Five honest minutes daily beats a forty minute wrestling match on Sunday. A dog who has been fought with once gets harder to brush forever.
Brush before the bath, never after
Water tightens a mat like a knot pulled wet. If the coat is already matted, do not bathe it — bring the dog in.
The bladed deshedding tools work, and they are easy to overuse. They cut coat as well as remove it, and on a double coat that has been gone over too enthusiastically you get a thinned, chopped look that takes months to grow back. A few passes on a heavy shedding week, not a daily habit. An undercoat rake is the safer everyday choice.
Shampoo matched to the coat your dog actually has
Shampoo is where scent sells and performance does not. What matters is the coat and skin you are washing, and then how thoroughly you rinse.
Worth getting right
- A gentle general shampoo suits most healthy coats. You do not need a shelf of them.
- Dilute. Most decent shampoos are concentrates, and used neat they are wasteful and hard to rinse out.
- Rinse for longer than feels necessary, then rinse again. Leftover residue is a common reason a dog itches more after a bath than before.
- Dry properly, especially a double coat. Damp undercoat left to sit is how hot spots and smell start.
- A light conditioner or detangling spray genuinely helps a curly or long coat brush out with less pulling.
Skip or treat carefully
- Human shampoo. Different pH, and it dries out dog skin.
- Anything medicated, unless your vet told you to use it and told you how often.
- Heavy fragrance as a substitute for a proper wash. A dog that smells strong usually needs a second lather, not more perfume.
- Whitening shampoos left on longer than the label says, in the hope of a better result. Follow the timing.
- Bathing a matted dog at home, for any reason.
If your dog is scratching constantly, the skin is red or raw, there is a smell you cannot wash out, or they are chewing at one spot — no shampoo on any shelf is the answer. That is a veterinary appointment. Groomers see skin every day and are good at spotting when something is wrong, but spotting it and diagnosing it are different jobs.
Picking up while your dog is in with us
The easiest version of all this is buying it while you are already here. Ronkonkoma is our full-service location — grooming, daycare, boarding and the shop are all in the same building — so a food run can ride along with a drop-off or a pick-up that was already on your calendar.
For boarding, bringing your dog's own food is the kinder option — a strange bed and a strange dinner at the same time is a lot to ask of a stomach. If packing it is a nuisance, we can provide food at $5 per day per dog for boarding or daycare. Every boarding night includes full-day daycare at no extra charge, and meals go out at 8am, 1pm and 6pm, with custom schedules for puppies, seniors and medical diets.
Under Suffolk County Code § 302-13, a boarding kennel cannot accept a dog without a current health certificate from a licensed veterinarian covering rabies, distemper, hepatitis, parainfluenza, parvovirus and coronavirus within the past year — unless an approved three-year vaccine is certified — plus bordetella within the past six months. Bordetella is the one that catches people out, because it runs on a shorter clock than everything else. Confirm your dog's dates with your vet, and with us, before you book a stay.
One thing the shop cannot do is get you a same-day appointment. Grooming runs on a booked schedule, so please do not count on a nail trim just because you happened to be in buying treats. Book it, and it will be waiting for you.
Open seven days, including Sunday
Sunday is the reason this page exists. Look at what people type into Google and the pattern is unmistakable — "open today", "open on sunday", "open now" and "open near me" are among the most common things attached to any pet-related search. Sunday is when you discover the food bin is empty, when the harness snaps, and when the dog rolls in something on the morning walk.
Ronkonkoma is open seven days a week, 9 to 5. Daycare runs 7am to 7pm, seven days. That is the whole claim, and we will not make one about anybody else's hours — check theirs directly, they may well suit you better on a given day.
Our other salon, at 16 Laurel Rd in East Northport, is grooming only, Tuesday to Saturday, 9 to 5. There is no shop there and no daycare or boarding — those live at Ronkonkoma. If you groom with us in East Northport and you want the retail side, it is a separate trip to Portion Road. Worth knowing before you turn up on Laurel Road on a Sunday expecting a bag of food.
And a genuinely local note for East Northport owners: the Town of Huntington's off-leash dog run is at the Animal Shelter, 106 Deposit Rd, East Northport, open Mon–Fri 8am–6pm and Sat–Sun 9am–4pm, with a free town permit required. If your dog is a regular there, or on any of the on-leash town trails, a fine comb earns its place in the house — Suffolk County ran a 2025 nymphal deer tick density of 61 per 1,000 square meters, with 26.6% carrying the Lyme bacterium, and the state tracks nymphs from May to September and adults from October to December. Combing a dog down after a walk is not a substitute for the tick preventative your vet recommends, but it is how most people find the tick in the first place.
Questions people actually ask
Do I have to be a grooming client to shop?
No. The shop is part of the Ronkonkoma salon at 835 Portion Rd and it is open to anyone, seven days a week, 9 to 5. You do not need to have a dog booked in to come and look.
What is the one brush to buy for a doodle?
Two things, not one: a slicker brush and a metal comb. The slicker does the brushing, the comb tells you whether the brushing worked. If you only buy one, buy the comb — knowing where the mats are is worth more than another brush.
My dog is matted. Should I buy a dematting tool?
Usually not. Dematting tools have blades, they hurt when a mat is tight against the skin, and it is very easy to nick a dog who is squirming. Do not bathe a matted coat either — water pulls the knots tighter. Book a groom and we will tell you honestly whether it can be brushed out or whether the kind thing is a shorter cut.
Can I get a nail trim while I pick up food?
Grooming runs by appointment, so treat a trim as something to book rather than something to drop in for. Book it online and it takes a few minutes when you arrive.
Do you groom cats, or carry cat supplies?
We do not groom cats — that is a specialist job and we are not the right place for it. For what is on the shelf on any given day, the fastest answer is to call the salon and ask before you come over.
Can you feed my dog your food during a boarding stay?
Yes, at $5 per day per dog, for boarding or daycare. Your own food is still the gentler option if a sudden change tends to upset your dog's stomach.
Come by, or book the groom first.
The shop is open whenever we are. If your dog is due, book the appointment and pick up what you need on the way out.
See pricing & book ›835 Portion Rd, Ronkonkoma, NY 11779 · Open 7 days, 9–5
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