BILLINGS -- Just walking into a room, Sally turns heads.

It's hard not to stare at the Australian shepherd's cotton-candy-colored coat. Wherever she roams, the well-mannered pooch becomes a moving billboard for her owner's dog-grooming business.

Amazement is the most common reaction, said her owner Brooke Calhoun.

"For some reason, they all just have to touch her," added Calhoun, a Billings dog groomer who dyes pets in colors nature never intended.

Sally has worn her startling pink coat since August, when Calhoun returned from a Denver grooming seminar on pet dyeing techniques.

"I think she'll really always be pink, if not another color. It just kind of goes well," Calhoun said.

She was inspired by a trade publication photo of a poodle with zebra stripes and began experimenting on pets belonging to family and friends. The cost depends on the amount of dye used and the time involved, but she typically charges an extra $25 for a small dog, in addition to the cost of her regular grooming service.

The dye lasts about six weeks, but the colors soften over time. Calhoun has done one cat so far, giving it a lion cut, then dyeing its paws orange and the tip of its tail black.

She recently rechristened her grooming business, changing its name from Magic City Professional Pet Stylists to Paws & Reflect Pet Salon. The business shares space on Grand Avenue with Strictly Feline and with a dog daycare run by Calhoun's sister, Emily Petroff.

As she perfects her technique, Calhoun plans to buy a white standard poodle to enter in competitive hair-dyeing competitions.

"Poodle hair takes dye the best, especially white poodles," she said.

The organic dyes are safe for pets, Calhoun said. But they are not specifically formulated for pets.

Without knowing the ingredients, Billings veterinarian Sonya Whiteley was unable to comment on the safety of a specific dye.

"If it doesn't hurt the animal and the animal has a good home, I guess I'd rather see them dyed pink than declawed," Whiteley said.

On a recent morning, Calhoun's client was Roscoe, a 4-year-old Papillon, a toy breed known for ears that resemble butterfly wings and a plume-like tail.

For Halloween, the Papillon was a creamy orange. A week after the holiday, Roscoe got a new blue do.

Like most dogs subjected to a bath, Roscoe tucked his plumed tail between his legs as water drenched his coat. Later, the dog stood with his skinny wet legs braced against the bathtub, looking more like a cartoon alien than a house pet.

Blue goop rose in a peak between his ears, and his tail hung like a slick blue rope. Excess dye streaked the tub like finger paint.

Roscoe may be oblivious to his robin's egg blue coloring because dogs and humans perceive color differently. But his owner, Marcie Smith, said Roscoe enjoys people's reactions.

"He can't quite figure out why everyone's raving over him, but he loves the attention," said Smith, who is a friend of Calhoun.

Dana Pulis, who is working on Calhoun's new business logo, tested a dye job on her dog, a white-and-liver-colored Brittany spaniel named Madison.

Because Pulis' family has raised Brittany spaniels for field trials for 30 years, Pulis worried a bit about the reaction she might get from her father and her brother. The dog's hot pink color caused a bit of a stir when Madison tagged along on a bicycle ride with her husband, David. He cut short the ride, afraid gawking motorists might cause an accident.

Since then, he has mainly walked Madison after dark.

When he runs across fellow hunters, he quickly points out that the pink dye was his wife's idea.

"He was teased mercilessly by the guys," Pulis said. "But he said it was so easy to find her in the field."