Dog grooming, prices?

blackcob

blackcob

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Before I get on the phone and call round, how much should I expect to pay for just a wash and blow dry for a medium sized dog?

A certain someone rolled in the muck heap this morning (:rolleyes:) and as I have family visiting this weekend I figured I may as well have her properly washed and try to blast out as much undercoat as possible before they arrive.
 
Depends on how thick the coat is and how (un)co operative the dog is.

For a typical but well brushed border collie about £20 but subject to a lot of variables.
 
Coat is short and soft but very dense, it doesn't matt or tangle at all. Dog will be excitably co-operative. :)

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Just wanted a rough idea before I book in anywhere to make sure I'm not being ripped off, never had professional grooming done before but I can't face getting her in the bath when I've just cleaned the bathroom (and when it's this cold as I have to strip off/get wet). :o
 
I pay £20 for my disgustingly dirty and fairly tatty BC, for that he gets a really good comb out, knickers, feet and legs trimmed up and a wash and blow dry, he comes home just beautiful. Same price for heavily shedding Husky X Lurcher with attitude problem! Good value. :)
 
I seem to be a little more expensive than most in my area, but I do all the little bastards no one else will and im worth it:D LMAO not! but I groom by myself and that takes longer ;)

I charge £26 for springers
£25 for westi, cocker, yorki
and for Dax prob £20-£25 or any other not so so shaggy/tatty bath and brush out.
 
Ya'll would be horrified to know that a dog that size I charge upwards of £40-odd for that sort of work. But then I charge £40-odd for a westie! Don't even get me started on teh price for a standard poodle unless you're sitting down! :) Heck my yorkies start at £30.

Why such a range in price? The difference will no doubt be city vs rural (I'm cheap compared to London!). Also if you got a mobile groomer who can come bath your dog in a van one to one, you will no doubt pay more.

If someone rings round my area, they will pass on me for price if that is all they're concerned about. I'm aware of this. But I don't particularly want price shoppers as clients - would rather have those that are coming to me from word of mouth because of the service/quality. But that doesn't mean that it's not "value for money" if you know what I mean.

Don't mean this to sound arrogant (it's hard to sound less than that at 6.30 am for me) ;) but I would just say that if have other criteria that you wish to have met for your dog, I would ask other questions, too.
 
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It does vary very much by area.

Around here there are "groomers" who will clip a standard poodle for a tenner! Bath & chop a shih tzu for £15 including collection & return.

All most people care about is hair off.


I can't & won't compete with those prices but I can bath. nails & blast a sibe in 15 minutes. Cage dry & five minutes to finish. 20 minutes hands on for £20 isn't too bad a rate.

Anything trimmed (other than FFT) starts at £20.

I prefer grooming cats these days.
 
After all that, none of them are answering the phone. :o

When I do get through it sounds like £20 would be about right, thanks for that. Don't need nails doing, would clobber anyone who went near her with clippers and it brushes through in about five seconds, lol. :p
 
PucciNPoni said:
Ya'll would be horrified to know that a dog that size I charge upwards of £40-odd for that sort of work. But then I charge £40-odd for a westie! Don't even get me started on teh price for a standard poodle unless you're sitting down! :) Heck my yorkies start at £30.

Why such a range in price? The difference will no doubt be city vs rural (I'm cheap compared to London!). Also if you got a mobile groomer who can come bath your dog in a van one to one, you will no doubt pay more.

If someone rings round my area, they will pass on me for price if that is all they're concerned about. I'm aware of this. But I don't particularly want price shoppers as clients - would rather have those that are coming to me from word of mouth because of the service/quality. But that doesn't mean that it's not "value for money" if you know what I mean.

Don't mean this to sound arrogant (it's hard to sound less than that at 6.30 am for me) ;) but I would just say that if have other criteria that you wish to have met for your dog, I would ask other questions, too.
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Wow I always felt bad charging what I did :eek: but like u say it's the area!, round her the parlours can do them for similar to S4sugars mentioned prices, about £15-£17 for a westi, yorki e.t.c, but it does not stop folk coming to me, I have a gentleman travel over 30 miles to bring his cocker to me, I would not care, she is not a difficult dog, she is sweet as pie, but he said "he feels more comfortable with me doing her" he did book her for a parlour near him when I was unewell once and walked out the day he took her in and said the place was horrible.

I def think you get you "shopper arounderds" and your "I really want by dog done by you'ers"
 
Cyrus said:
Wish you lived near here i`d have done her for you for the price of a good chat :D I`ve told you before MOVE!!!
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But you're all flat and boring over there, however much I'd like to dump her on you for holidays! :p :D

Have rung three now, two were unbelievably rude on the phone and the third can't do anything until next Wednesday. :rolleyes:

I'm going to have to strip off and do her myself, clean bathroom be damned. :o

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Hahah, better horse poo than fox poo.

Nearly throttled my merli - day after he came to shop with me to get bath/tidied, he ran off and found the stinkiest foxy poo and made it his own. bad dog.
 
PucciNPoni said:
Hahah, better horse poo than fox poo.
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You say that but since we've had a gelding on the yard the muck heap absolutely reeks, she used to roll/dig in it all the time when it was just the mares and never smelt, I think it is smelly old gelding wee. :confused: :o

Haven't encountered a fox poo for a record amount of time, fingers crossed, but it's just the worst when it happens. Blurk.
 
s4sugar said:
It does vary very much by area.

Around here there are "groomers" who will clip a standard poodle for a tenner! Bath & chop a shih tzu for £15 including collection & return.

All most people care about is hair off.


I can't & won't compete with those prices but I can bath. nails & blast a sibe in 15 minutes. Cage dry & five minutes to finish. 20 minutes hands on for £20 isn't too bad a rate.

Anything trimmed (other than FFT) starts at £20.



I prefer grooming cats these days.
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I'm giving up grooming cats - wanna come to Edinburgh? ;) I charge even MORE for those!


Seriously though - I've heard people say that they can get a tenner for a poodle etc - but I always just think they're exaggerating. Today I groomed eight dogs that ranged from £32 to £38 (for cavaliers, cockers, lhasa and a shihtzu). I think that's pretty fairly priced considering each one gets about two solid hours of attention to bathing, clipping, scissoring, nails, ears...and are happy both upon arrival and departure. I seriously worry about the places that charge a fiver / tenner etc. For a start, that's not even minimum wage! So how can one work for less than min wage, pay overheads and most importantly of all - INSURANCE?! Accidents can happen, so wouldn't you as a customer want to know that the person grooming your precious pet is insured? I can tell you that my o/heads in my shop run roughly £30/hour. If I have to groom a standard poodle for example -- where I can't multitask (unless it's getting s/o, it's got to be done straight thru) then the price SHOULD be £90 for three hours of bathing/fluffing/scissoring etc. Anytime one walks thru my door and gets charged less than that, I lose money....and guess what - I opt to lose money on them cos i love doing them.


Sorry, rant over ;)

I had a really really really bad day yesterday. I had originally booked five dogs in - which is good for me to do on my own. However, I've hired a new person who has told me she's dead keen and would like to eventually rent a table in my shop and go self employed (which is exactly what I want). So she agreed to come yesterday for 8.30 and then booked an extra three dogs in to cover the extra expense. At 9.30 I rang up and she's still in her bed! WTF? She strolled in at 10.30 saying that she'd been out the night before and couldn't get up. hmmmmm

So that's why I'm so ranty....sorry.
 
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CAYLA said:
Wow I always felt bad charging what I did :eek: but like u say it's the area!, round her the parlours can do them for similar to S4sugars mentioned prices, about £15-£17 for a westi, yorki e.t.c, but it does not stop folk coming to me, I have a gentleman travel over 30 miles to bring his cocker to me, I would not care, she is not a difficult dog, she is sweet as pie, but he said "he feels more comfortable with me doing her" he did book her for a parlour near him when I was unewell once and walked out the day he took her in and said the place was horrible.

I def think you get you "shopper arounderds" and your "I really want by dog done by you'ers"
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Yep, I'm pretty well in line with the priced in Edinburgh. Though having said that, there were certainly fewer that would dare to be that high when I first opened. I was probably a good 20% over my competition when I first started my shop. Eventually other groomers started increasing their prices to be more in line with what I charge - not because they were trying to "be like me" but because they were taking a closer look at their overheads and charging what was reasonable to recover costs plus make a fair wage.

I get folk that travel from Dundee to Edinburgh (and pay about £10-£15 more than what they'd pay in Dundee). And then there's some that find a few miles is too far.

I would suggest to anyone who is looking for a dog grooming salon to consider:

-what does the shop look/smell like (is it smart, presentable and clean? or does it reek of dirty old dog?). Are the staff smart and presentable? If the shop is humming of doggy odour, chances are that it's not cleaned very well and it's a good breeding ground for cross infections amongst four legged clients.

- how are the dogs ? Do they look happy? Are they barking frenzied and worried? There are some dogs that will never be happy no matter what you do with them, true enough. But on the whole, if the places seems like a calm, relaxed atmosphere, chances are that the dogs are being treated well.

-How do the staff handle the dogs? Are dogs being left unrestrained on tables? Or are they safely in cages/tied/secured on tables with safety harnesses? Some places allow dogs to run loose and some require them to be caged/tied in between groomed and "home time". It's up to you as a client to decide what you would rather have for your pet, but safety should always be of utmost importance. If the dogs "run loose" are there extra barriers between the trimming room and the street? What happens then if there are bitches in season and intact males?

- Are there photos of dogs they've groomed? Can you see what the finished "product" will look like? Are the staff willing to chat and give a free consultation to discuss the grooming requirements - or will you just be told what you're getting and that's that?

-Do the staff have formal training/hold any qualifcations? Do they attend seminars or further their training? Have they been on a first aid course? this is not the type of question a person might feel comfortable discussing with a potential new groomer -- and I wouldn't suggest that a person without qualifications (eg C&G) isn't good - in fact I know there are many w/o qualifications that are fantastic and some that have them that aren't worth the paper they were written on. But the fact that someone cares enough to try to further their education is a good sign that they are keeping up to date with AWB, protocols for cleaning, animal care etc.

Sorry, I think *I* need a muzzle ;)
 
I pay £30 for my cairn terrier. The groomer runs her business from home and I deliver the dog to her on my way to work and collect him again at lunchtime. For that price she clips him beautifully and does his nails.
 
Right, dog is traumatised, human similarly so, hairdryer now making an ominous rattling noise, landing carpet soaked, dog amusingly fluffy and not speaking to me. :o
 
blackcob said:
Right, dog is traumatised, human similarly so, hairdryer now making an ominous rattling noise, landing carpet soaked, dog amusingly fluffy and not speaking to me. :o
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Ah yes..and you have yet to discover where all that blowdried hair has landed;try the ceiling/toothbrushes/human soap and sponge ..and all around the rim of your coffee cup!:D
 
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