There's nothing easy about bathing a big dog indoors - your aching back bent over the side of the tub. Even getting into the shower with your precious pooch is trying. Before you can shout "stay," Fido jumps out, runs around the house with canine glee, shaking water and shedding loose hair while he romps and rolls.

Connie Rawles found the solution to keeping her 65-pound chocolate lab, Annie, clean and smelling good - minus the mess and hassle at home. She walks less than two blocks to The Dog Laundry, a self-serve dog wash that opened last month in Newport News, VA. Nationwide, there's a surge in do-it-yourself pet services.

At The Dog Laundry, Annie steps into one of two 6-foot-long fiberglass tubs elevated to a waist-high level that's comfortable for Rawles to use. Cost: about $20, including shampoo, conditioner, spa towel, face rag and some spritzes of doggie cologne. In addition, a pet owner gets to use a rubber apron to keep clothes dry.

"Annie really seems to enjoy it," says Rawles. "I walk her home, which is really nice, and she comes home smelling real sweet. It's nice to leave the mess behind, all the hair and stuff."

The walk-in tubs handle large dogs weighing up to 250 pounds. Each is equipped with a hand-held spray nozzle with several settings that vary from a soft shower to a pulsating spray, a non-slip rubber mat and restraint straps.

Don Branch was recently at the laundry bathing his two miniature dachshunds in one of the three big sinks reserved for smaller breeds. At home, he refuses to bathe the dogs in the kitchen sink because he's particular about the use of the room where he cooks. That means it's tub time for Munchkin and Bingo, something Branch dislikes more and more as he gets older.

"This is high so I don't have to bend over," he says of the waist-level sinks at the grooming business.

Branch also admires how the facility is maintained. All bathing units are disinfected between dogs, and tools are sterilized in the same blue chemical you see combs immersed in at hair salons for people.

In fact, owner Sharlene Kohler is a former hair stylist. Now, she prefers grooming dogs for people who need drop-off services instead of doing it themselves.

"I'm a dog lover from way back," she says. Her companion these days is a 70-pound white-and-blue chow she calls Khan.

After having back surgery and struggling to bathe Khan without hurting herself, Kohler figured there had to be a better way. She knew self-serve dog washes existed in other areas, so she began investigating equipment options. She spent more than a year planning her new venture. "It's all about pampering the dog and making it easier for you," she says.

David Whynot is happy he found an easier way to pamper his canine friend. Mandy, his 12-year-old part-collie, part-golden retriever, is blind from old age and suffers from hip problems caused by a car hitting her nine years ago. Even so, she's known to spring out of the tub mid-way through her bath, running to hide under a bed or behind a chair.

When Whynot visited the dog laundry without Mandy, he liked what he saw and returned for a trial run.

"Four to five years ago, I took Mandy to a self-serve groomer in New Jersey where I was stationed, and it was a very large sink basically, nowhere near the set up she has," he says of Kohler's operation.

Whynot's visit cost him about $52, he says, because he used some extra grooming supplies. He also took home a packet of homemade dog treats Kohler keeps on hand. That price is a bargain, he says, because he's paid as much as $80 to have a full-service groomer do the same job.

"This is certainly a lot easier," he says. "And I don't have to clean the tub."