How Long Does Dog Grooming Take & What Really Happens – Our Guide

Depending on who you ask or who you’re willing to take me to, grooming my hair will be different from one place to the next. Maybe you’ve just called a dog groomer to get my hair groomed but they are all booked up for the next few weeks and you’re starting to get impatient. Either way, it’s good to know how long it’ll take to groom my hair.

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How Long Does Dog Grooming Take?

A couple of factors that play a role in determining how long it takes to groom my hair are:

  • The breed of the dog
  • What kind of grooming you’re getting done
  • The scheduling of the grooming
  • How in-depth the grooming session is

Grooming My Hair Yourself Or Getting It Professionally Done?

If you don’t want to take me to a professional groomer, you might initially think you’ll be saving time by taking care of the pet grooming yourself. However, there’s a good chance it might take you even longer than if you went to a professional grooming service, although you have to consider a groomer’s strict schedules and how that could delay your own potential grooming appointment.

Groomer Schedules

Groomers have many different schedules they must abide by as they’re going about their day. I know you must want to get my hair groomed as soon as you can, but if you want to get it done professionally, you’ll have to be patient like everyone else interested in professional pet grooming.

Groomers typically schedule their dog grooming sessions in a couple of different ways:

Cattle Call

With a cattle call grooming schedule, dogs will all come in for grooming at around similar times. It’s usually in the morning, but there might be afternoon times as well. Once the grooming is complete, I would be sent home, and the total time that it could take is around one hour. However, it could also range much longer than that.

Block Schedule

The most popular type of groomer schedule is known as the block schedule, and you’ll see it widely used at professional dog grooming salons. With the block schedule, a groomer will bring in a few dogs at once a few times during the day. Each dog will be groomed and dried off. After that’s done, dogs will be put in the kennel while the other dogs are being groomed.

Grooming via the block schedule way takes about four hours.

Express Schedule

If you want to go with express scheduling for my grooming, this is similar to booking a medical or haircut appointment. Each dog will be groomed until they’re finished. If the breed is small, it could only take about an hour or even less. If it’s a large breed like myself, then the time that it takes could range up to three hours.

What About Grooming Me Yourself?

If you don’t want to wait around while I’m getting groomed for hours at the grooming salon, you can also consider grooming my hair yourself. For me, it might take a little longer because I’m larger in size and have more hair to cover in comparison to smaller dogs.

Some dog owners spend periods of 10 minutes here or there a couple of times a week. These smaller interval grooming sessions are an effective way to save time if you don’t want to groom your hair for hours at a time. If you’re going to give me a full wash, dry, and trim, then you’ll have to allot more time to get the job done.

Just like everything else in life, the more time that you spend grooming me, the better you’ll get at it, and the time it takes will eventually be shortened. You’ll develop a routine and strategy for exactly how my grooming will work, and after a couple of sessions, you’ll be on a roll.

If it’s your first time grooming a dog, it’s a bit of a learning curve. Some things you’ll want to account for when figuring out how long the grooming process will take are:

  • The overall size of the breed of dog you’re grooming
  • The length of the fur
  • The hairstyle you have in mind
  • The behavior of the dog
  • The kind of shampoo you’re intending to use
  • The method in which you’ll be drying the hair
  • If there’s severe matting in the hair

If you want to groom my hair yourself, there are a number of steps you should follow so that my hair will look its absolute best.

  • Start by emptying my anal glands
  • Brush my teeth
  • Give me a good bath, washing all of my hair in all parts of my body
  • Give my eyes a decent rinse
  • After you’re finished washing me off, let me dry
  • Once my hair is all dried up, start cutting my toenails
  • Give my paw pads a bit of a shave
  • Shave around my sanitary areas
  • Brush and trim my hair if you see fit
  • Pluck or clean areas around my ears

What Are the Costs Involved in Grooming Me?

The costs involved in grooming me will differ depending on a number of different factors:

  • The area that we’re located
  • The grooming salon that you have in mind for me
  • My breed
  • My size
  • The grooming style that you want to get done for me

For smaller dogs, a full grooming session can only cost about $20. If you have a larger breed of dog that has a lot of hair that needs to be trimmed, then you can expect to pay $100 or more.

Are You Supposed to Tip the Dog Groomer?

While you don’t have to tip the pet groomer for giving me a good grooming experience, it’s a respectful gesture that shows you appreciated the service. This is the same as when you are done at the hairdressers. It’s usually a common thing for people to provide a tip for good services.

Grooming Schedules

A lot of pet groomers will allow around three or four hours for dog grooming services. If you want to avoid the rush, consider getting me groomed during the week instead of getting it done on a busy weekend. When you go to drop me off to get my hair groomed, ask the groomer how long it will take for the session.

What’s The Point of Dog Grooming?

I enjoy being groomed regularly because I always feel healthier after getting it done. It makes me feel cleaner, and I also notice that people like to cuddle up to me more when I’m freshly groomed and cleaned.

Routine grooming sessions keep my hygiene consistently positive and prevent any bacteria or parasites from getting into my hair and skin. While you’re getting me groomed, it gives you a chance to see if I’m experiencing any cuts, bumps, swelling, or bruises on my skin. If you do notice this while grooming me, then you might want to consider taking me to the vet.

A grooming session is a good way to ensure that my comfort is high. Just like you, as my owner, enjoy taking a shower at the end of the day, I also like having my hair cleaned. Sometimes it gets very itchy, and that drives me absolutely nuts. After it’s cleaned and groomed, I experience less itchiness from day-to-day.

A good rule of thumb is to get me groomed every six-to-eight weeks.

Puppy Grooming

Puppy Grooming

When I was a puppy, I remember that my grooming sessions were much more tedious to get done. Going to a groomer was all new to me, and being a sensitive dog, the groomer recommended that my sessions start off shorter so that I don’t develop any traumatic memories from the experience.

Because of that, I am able to go for a grooming session with no issues. I usually get a nice bath followed by getting my hair brushed. Then comes the nail trimming, which I’m not particularly fond of. Once I’m done tolerating that, my ears will get cleaned, and then they finish off with doing a little trimming around my face.

Some dog breeds require more grooming than others. Certain breeds have a double coat that feels very thick and smooth. The process to groom dog breeds with double coats is more in-depth and time-consuming. These breeds typically have a higher chance of developing matted hair, and that makes combing through it much more difficult.

Dog breeds with thick coats need to be brushed more often than those that only have one coat. Double-coated dogs deal with dirt and debris getting into their hair quite often, and because of that, grooming services will be required much more often than a breed like me.

What’s To Be Expected at The Dog Groomer?

The dog grooming process at the salon is fairly similar to how you would groom me by yourself.

  • You can request the groomer to get my anal glands expressed before beginning with the rest
  • The groomer will start off by giving me a good brush
  • They will then use a proper dog shampoo depending on what type of coat I have
  • They will look at my ears to see if there are any symptoms of an infection
  • After that, the groomer will dry my hair with a blow-dryer or cage-dryer
  • Once my hair is all dried up, the groomer will begin clipping and trimming my nails
  • If you want a haircut for me, the groomer will then give me a cut
  • I don’t like getting my teeth brushed much, but the groomer will also do that at this point

At first, the whole grooming procedure was fairly annoying, but I’ve gotten used to it by now. As a puppy, I used to get very stressed out when I went for grooming services. I also remember a bunch of other dogs who experienced a great deal of anxiety when they were getting groomed.

When you’re bringing your dog to the groomer, you’ll want to let them know of any behavioral issues that the dog has. You’ll also want to let them know of any ways that the dog can be relaxed.

Before settling on the first dog groomer that you see online, you might want to visit a couple of them and inquire about their services. Not every single grooming shop is of the same quality; doing your research beforehand will go a long way in ensuring your dog will have the best experience.

If you find your dog feeling apprehensive about going to the groomer, consider introducing them to the groomer in a laid-back setting before quickly jumping into the grooming process. This will make the dog feel much more comfortable. My owner did a good job with making me more comfortable by initially turning on buzzing sounds around my hair to introduce me to how it might feel at the groomer when they use shavers on me.

Dog Brushing

If you’re only going to be brushing my hair, you shouldn’t expect that to take anywhere near as long as getting a full grooming service done. It only takes about 15 minutes to brush my hair, and I’m even a large breed. If you’re brushing a smaller breed of dog, it’ll take even less. My Chihuahua friend down the road only takes around three minutes to brush.

But that also depends on how much matted hair I have. If my hair is severely matted, some of it might even need to be trimmed out. A breed such as a Goldendoodle might take nearly two hours to brush. Remember to be gentle while you’re brushing because brushing matted hair can be painful for the dog.

Many grooming salons can take around eight dogs every day. Dog groomers have a lot of experience, and they have a full setup station for every dog they groom.

Grooming me is a very laborious process. A lot of people don’t understand the work that it takes to groom a dog effectively, and it seems that dog groomers are underappreciated in some salons I’ve visited. That’s why you should take me to the groomer whenever you can, both for my well-being and your peace of mind.