# Cost of grooming?



## Mia42 (Sep 5, 2016)

I need a new groomer. I took the girls in for a bath and have their face, feet, and tail done (I assume this is what y'all call FFT). I am attempting to do cords on the girls. Sasha has the cords set down her spine and I am working on setting the rest. She came back with a huge mats on both sides covering her ribs completely.

I have come up with bids of $15-30 for unwashed FFT and $90-130 for a bath, blow dry and FFT.

Why does it cost so much more to give them a bath and put them in a cage with a blower? I could understand if they were getting brushed out, but what is up with that?


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## ericwd9 (Jun 13, 2014)

How much per hour would you work for? A bath blow dry and FFT should take about 3-4 hours. Then there is the equipment upkeep and rent to pay. $90-130 sound quite cheap to me?
Eric


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

First off you should never put a poodle (or any dog with long hair that can tangle) in a cage dryer if you don't want a matted dog! Cage dryers can also be dangerous if the animal is not monitored and it becomes overheated! 

So hand drying a poodle, (even with a HV dyer) takes time! Add to that, the brushing out of ears and TK, & legs then the shave with clippers and then scissors....it all adds up to time and time is $$$ Molly is only mini sized, but because her clip is 75% hand scissored her clip costs 85.00+tip and I pay it gladly for the excellent job my groomer does! GOOD poodle groomer are hard to find...and in your case to find one willing to do cords is rare!
In your case, having your dog in cords, is even more time consuming as I would guess cords have to be more or less patted and blotted when you dry them and cords need to be separated the entire time you are doing it!!! A lot of work ! A lot of time!

Yes it is expensive if you don't do it yourself!LOL!


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## Khaleesiandthepoms (Feb 25, 2014)

Hmm well I see you are from WA state too I'm also a groomer so I can provide some feedback. Getting my standard groomed who's in a full continental costs me about $130.00, but I have a small standard (35 pounds) and she's always completely brushed out and maintained weekly with shaved areas and bathing, she gets a bath, full fluff dry and scissored all over. I usually do her myself after I'm done grooming at my shop but that's what I pay at the shop down the street when I don't wanna stay an extra 3 hours to groom her. I've found that's a very reasonable price for my high maintenance dog.

I think maybe your price for a bath and fft may be so high due to their coat, corded coats can take a ton of time to dry and leaving a dog wet is not an option for corded coats (they tend to mold and mildew YUCK) so she may be charging you for extra drying time (I would bathing, drying and fft on just 3inches of length on a corded dog will take you nearly as long as a full continental on a good sized standard), can't really trust a kennel dryer to get down to the skin and the middle of the cord hand drying would be a must for a corded coat for me and it would take a much much longer time especially if they are long cords. 

Those prices sound about right for a corded dog.


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## Mysticrealm (Jan 31, 2016)

I think a large majority of groomers are not knowledgeable about cording. 
Cords are harder to get fully clean than 'regular' coats, and take MUCH longer to dry. Then if they are doing work separating the cords that takes time.


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## Poodlemanic (Jun 27, 2016)

Yup, grooming poodles is very expensive. Which is why many of us have invested a lot of money in good quality grooming equipment and learned to groom our poodles ourselves. If you crunch the numbers, getting top quality grooming equipment and starting to groom your dogs yourself, with maybe a bi-monthly groom by a professional at first so you can just follow their lines while you're learning...it will save you tons of money in the end.


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## Skylar (Jul 29, 2016)

I'm not surprised either. I stay with my minipoo while she's being groomed. I see it's three hours of hard physical work to groom her. Babykins doesn't have a corded coat which as mentioned above is more difficult to clean and dry. Even drying the uncorded coat properly with the HV dryer is a lot of work and takes some skill to do properly.


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## BeBe67 (May 13, 2015)

We live in a small town down south. Here I pay $50.00 for a toy poodle to get a bath, face, feet, tail and nails clipped. $5.00 extra for nails polished. Our groomer is nice, and does a pretty good job, but since we now have 3 poodles, I will have to groom myself from now on. It does take time to groom them and I think 50 is fair my dogs are small 6 lbs, 7 lbs and 10 lbs. Weird thing is just a bath on a large short hair dog cost $45.00 I usually just stick to the basic clips, puppy and kennel clip.


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## Khaleesiandthepoms (Feb 25, 2014)

BeBe67 said:


> We live in a small town down south. Here I pay $50.00 for a toy poodle to get a bath, face, feet, tail and nails clipped. $5.00 extra for nails polished. Our groomer is nice, and does a pretty good job, but since we now have 3 poodles, I will have to groom myself from now on. It does take time to groom them and I think 50 is fair my dogs are small 6 lbs, 7 lbs and 10 lbs. Weird thing is just a bath on a large short hair dog cost $45.00 I usually just stick to the basic clips, puppy and kennel clip.


The reason a bath on a large short haired dog costs about as much or slightly less as a groom on a small dog is usually based on time for most shops. One large short haired dog will take me about as much time to finish as a small dog groom or slightly less time, it takes one hour for me to finish a small dog groom start to finish with minor interrupts, a large dog with short hair to wash, dry, a good brush out (you'd be surprised at how much short haired large/medium dogs like Labs, hounds and cattledogs shed), clip nails and clean ears about 45 mins to an hour.


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## Mia42 (Sep 5, 2016)

I was thinking that the large mat on both sides was from them "scrubbing" out the cords during the bath. The only cutting they did was on the FFT. They did not do the nails nor the insides of the ears. They did zero separation of the cords, they just left them in the cage dryer for like four hours.

It was $120 a piece. I was thinking at an hourly rate. . . 15 min for the bath and 15 min for the uneven shaving of the FFT, and then subtract out a day of boarding (drying) at about $30/day gets them $180/hour for the work.

I would be happy to pay for work done and pay a premium for skill. Thank you for all the information on what they should have been doing and what should be done. My clipper blades need sharpening and I thought the girls might like a spa day and be bathed by someone other than me.


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## snow0160 (Sep 20, 2016)

I am in Florida and it is $75-120 + tips. That is for a standard. For my small dog it is about $50


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## Countryboy (May 16, 2011)

I'm gonna give a big shout-out to Tonka's breeder. A larger scale operation, with staff, including two girls working in The Spa... one bathing and drying, one clipping. 

This breeder cares about all her dogs, and wants to see that they have the best treatment, even 13 years after they were bred. So you don't wanna know what I pay for grooming. Standard owners and groomers would hate me if I told you.


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## Carolinek (Apr 2, 2014)

It sounds like they didn't know how to handle the cords. Around here, it's $45-60 each for my small dogs. With tip, I'm close to $200 for the three, which is why most of the time, I do them myself. It takes a good 4 hours out of my day, so I think that's a fair rate, as there is overhead.


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## JudyD (Feb 3, 2013)

With tip, my two standards are around $150 together for full groom, maybe $120-125 for bath and FFT. They're both in a Miami. They're groomed every four weeks. Well worth it, as I have no desire to do it myself. I don't even like to do anything with my own hair. ?


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## ItzaClip (Dec 1, 2010)

Your price quote will greatly depend on area ( cost of rent, taxes, employees, etc) also experience of groomer. I'm proud of being most expensive in my area. I have 15 years experience and do quality work and will not charge the same as the chick around the corner who hasn't had a lick of training or experience ( not even her own dog). How big, well behaved and how much hair as well as coat type will play into it. C take forever to dry, but they can vinegar rinse to help stop any mildue, and work on other pets, if you live sunny area dog can finish drying outside and be sent home slightly damp. ( Ends of cords not skin). You need to find someone who's into creative grooming who's excited to work with your alternate style. And if your dog is corded, the bath FFT is the groom on that dog... Until you decide on general shape you want. 

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## zooeysmom (Jan 3, 2014)

I was paying $150 plus tip for Maizie. Now I do it myself for next to nothing and don't have to worry about them getting stressed out or injured. They may not be as pretty, but I'll get better with time, and even now people ask me all the time where I get them groomed (non-poodle people, haha).


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## Charmed (Aug 4, 2014)

The cost of grooming a Standard in my area about $120. The sweet way your old dog leans into you for petting, after the grooming session is over... priceless.


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