Dog Groomer Job Description: Duties, Template & Pay (2026)
A dog groomer holds sharp shears next to the face of an animal that does not want to be there, all day, and is usually paid on commission. This page has a dog groomer job description template you can copy, the pay-structure question that decides every application, and what the work actually pays.
What a dog groomer does
Grooming is a skilled trade that happens to involve an uncooperative live animal, and the technical side is only half of it.
Assess and consult. Checking coat and skin condition, identifying mats, lumps, parasites and ear problems, and agreeing with the owner what is actually achievable — including telling someone that their severely matted dog needs a short cut rather than the breed trim they asked for.
Bathe and prep. Brushing out, bathing with the right product for the coat and skin, high-velocity drying, and thorough de-shedding. Most of the finish quality is decided here, before any blade touches the dog.
Groom. Clipping and scissoring to breed standard or owner preference, hand-stripping where appropriate, face, feet and sanitary trims, nail trimming and grinding, and ear cleaning.
Handle. Reading stress signals, restraining safely and humanely, working with senior, anxious, reactive or medically fragile dogs, and knowing when to stop. This is the part that separates a groomer who lasts from one who gets bitten.
Run the table. Managing the day's bookings, keeping to time, documenting condition on intake — which is what protects both the dog and the salon when something is found mid-groom.
Dog groomer job description template
Copy this into your ATS or job board, replace the bracketed fields, and delete what does not apply. It is written for a grooming salon; the customization section covers mobile, corporate retail, veterinary practice, boarding facilities and bather or apprentice roles.
Job title
Dog Groomer [/ Pet Stylist / Bather-Brusher] — [Salon], [City, ST] — [commission structure] — [equipment provided]
Summary
[Salon name] is hiring an experienced groomer for our [city] salon. We groom [00–00] dogs a day across [0] tables with [0] bathers supporting the groomers. Schedule is [days and hours], [00] hours a week, [closed Sundays and Mondays]. Pay is [00]% commission [with a guaranteed minimum of [$00.00]/hour while you build a book], averaging [$00,000–$00,000] a year for a full-time groomer here. [We provide clippers, blades, shears, dryers and product — you do not buy your own.] [We book your day; you are not responsible for filling your own chair.]
Responsibilities
- Assess coat, skin and temperament at intake and document condition before starting
- Consult with owners on realistic outcomes and agree the groom, including humane alternatives for matted coats
- Bathe, de-shed and high-velocity dry to a fully prepped finish
- Clip and scissor to breed standard or owner preference; [hand-strip where appropriate]
- Trim and grind nails, clean ears and perform sanitary trims
- Handle and restrain dogs safely and humanely, recognising stress and stopping when needed
- Identify and report skin conditions, lumps, parasites and injuries to the owner [and the on-site vet]
- Keep to the day's booking schedule and communicate delays
- Clean and disinfect tables, tubs, cages and tools; maintain and sharpen equipment
Requirements
- [0]+ years grooming [or completion of a grooming programme] with a portfolio we can look at
- Able to handle dogs of all sizes and temperaments safely
- Able to stand, bend and lift [50] lbs [with assistance] for a full shift
- Comfortable working around noise, wet conditions and [cats]
- [Rabies vaccination / occupational health requirements per our policy]
Preferred
- [National Dog Groomers Association or equivalent certification]
- [Breed-standard and hand-stripping experience]
- [Cat grooming]
- [Experience with senior, anxious or medically fragile dogs]
- [Fear Free certification — or we will pay for it]
Pay and benefits
- [00]% commission [on a [$00] average ticket], [guaranteed [$00.00]/hr minimum for the first [00] weeks]
- [Typical full-time earnings here: [$00,000–$00,000]]
- [We supply clippers, blades, shears, dryers, tables and product]
- [We sharpen and replace blades — no deduction from your commission]
- [Health, dental and vision at [00] hours], [401(k)], [PTO and paid holidays]
- [Paid certification and continuing education, including show and seminar attendance]
- [Set schedule, [closed Sundays], no on-call]
How to apply
[Apply here / text GROOM to 00000 / send photos of your work to [email]]. We reply within [24] hours and pay for a working interview.
Requirements: what is required, what is preferred, and what costs you applicants
Grooming has a genuine labour shortage and an unusually informed workforce. Groomers talk to each other, know what the commission percentages are locally, and can tell from a posting whether a salon is well run. Vagueness is read accurately.
| Requirement | What to know |
|---|---|
| Pay structure | State it in full. Commission percentage, the average ticket, whether there is a guarantee while a new groomer builds a book, and what a full-time groomer actually earns at your salon. A posting that says "competitive commission" is assumed to be below market, and usually is. |
| Equipment | The biggest hidden cost in this trade. A groomer's own clippers, blades and shears run well over a thousand dollars and blades need constant sharpening. A salon that supplies and sharpens equipment should say so prominently — it is worth several percentage points of commission. |
| Who fills the chair | Say whether the salon books the groomer's day or the groomer is expected to build their own clientele. This is a fundamental difference in the job and it is often left ambiguous. |
| Experience and portfolio | Ask for photographs rather than years. Grooming quality is directly visible, and a portfolio review plus a paid working interview tells you more in an afternoon than any CV. |
| Certification | Useful and not a good filter. Offering to pay for certification and continuing education is a strong retention lever in a trade where people care about their craft. |
| The physical reality | Standing all day, wet, lifting large dogs, and the bite risk. Say it, and say what handling support exists — whether there are bathers, whether there is help lifting, and whether the salon backs a groomer who refuses an unsafe dog. |
| Volume expectations | Dogs per day is the workload number. Say it. Unrealistic volume is the main driver of both injuries and turnover in this trade. |
| Schedule | Fixed days, closed Sundays, no on-call — all genuine advantages over the retail jobs this role competes with, and usually buried at the bottom of the posting. |
Dog groomer duties, written for a posting
Say the volume and the support. Dogs a day, number of tables, whether there are bathers. A groomer reads those three numbers and knows whether the day is achievable.
Say what kind of grooming. Breed standard and hand-stripping is a different job from high-volume pet trims, and salons that do real breed work attract groomers who want to do it.
Name the equipment policy explicitly in the responsibilities or benefits rather than leaving it implied. It is the single largest cost difference between two otherwise identical jobs.
Include the assessment and communication duties. Telling an owner their dog must be shaved is a skill, and salons that acknowledge it attract groomers who can do it rather than ones who will just cut.
How to customize it by setting
Grooming salon
The template above. Lead with the commission, the equipment policy and the booking support.
Mobile grooming
One dog at a time in a van, higher tickets, driving between appointments, and the groomer manages the whole customer relationship. Say who owns and maintains the van, who books, and how fuel works. Attracts independent people; badly suited to those who want a team.
Corporate retail grooming
High volume, structured training programmes, benefits at scale and a fixed commission structure. The training pathway is a genuine advantage — say it plainly, because it is the best route into the trade for someone with no experience.
Veterinary practice
Often medical and senior dogs, sedated grooms, and a clinical standard of documentation. Usually hourly rather than commission, which suits groomers who want predictable income. Say the pay structure and the case mix. See the veterinary assistant description for the adjacent role.
Boarding and daycare facilities
Grooming alongside boarding operations, often combined with kennel duties. Say the split honestly — a groomer expected to clean kennels half the day should know before accepting. The kennel technician job description covers that side.
Bather and apprentice roles
The entry point. No experience needed, and the route into grooming for someone who loves animals. Post these separately with an explicit training ladder and the rate at each step — it is how the trade replaces itself.
What it costs to reach dog groomers on social
Hourly customer-facing roles are the cheapest audience in our 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark: across 181 retail and corporate campaigns the median cost per applicant was $8.58, with a volume-blended figure of $3.66 and a 26% apply rate — the highest of any sector. Across all 891 managed campaigns the median was $13.88 and the cheapest decile $2.91.
At those numbers the media cost is almost never what stops the role being filled. Across the benchmark, campaigns converting over 20% of clicks paid a median $4.41 an applicant and those under 10% paid $53.77 — a twelvefold difference driven by the posting and the application form, not the auction. Three questions on the form and a same-day callback is the whole optimisation. Because the experienced pool is small and well networked, the best-performing campaigns advertise the bather or apprentice route alongside the groomer role and build the bench.
Staffing the whole facility? See the kennel technician, veterinary assistant and veterinary technician job descriptions.
Writing the ad version
The description is the document. The advertisement is read on a phone by somebody who has other options at a similar rate. It needs the commission percentage and a real annual figure, that you supply and sharpen equipment, the dogs per day, and the schedule — in the first three lines. Our campaign data puts the best-converting length at 201–400 words, and for a role like this the shorter end works.
Three or four questions on the form, then call the same day. Every extra field costs completions, and the groomer you want has applied somewhere else this morning.
What dog groomers earn
Animal caretakers — the occupation groomers are classified under — had a median of $17.00 an hour, $35,360 a year in 2025, across about 392,100 people with roughly 74,600 openings a year and growth projected at 7% or higher.
That median understates what an established commission groomer earns and overstates what a bather earns, because the occupation combines both. A productive groomer on a reasonable commission in a busy salon generally earns well above it; a first-year bather earns below it.
| Comparison role | Median pay (2025) | Openings per year |
|---|---|---|
| Nursing assistants | $20.32/hr · $42,260 | ~204,100 |
| Landscaping and groundskeeping workers | $18.82/hr · $39,150 | ~158,200 |
| Security guards | $18.28/hr · $38,020 | ~161,000 |
| Animal caretakers | $17.00/hr · $35,360 | ~74,600 |
| Home health and personal care aides | $17.21/hr · $35,800 | ~765,800 |
On the headline occupation figure, grooming sits near the bottom of the comparable hourly jobs. That is not the number to advertise, and it is not what a good groomer earns.
What a grooming posting should publish instead is the actual arithmetic: the commission percentage, the average ticket, the dogs per day, and what a full-time groomer at your salon took home last year. A groomer doing six dogs a day at a $75 average ticket on 50% commission is earning about $225 a day, which is a different conversation entirely from $17.00 an hour — and it is a conversation almost no posting has.
The second number worth naming is the equipment. Supplying clippers, blades, shears and dryers and paying for sharpening is worth several thousand dollars a year to a groomer. Against a competing salon at the same commission rate, it is the whole difference.
Frequently asked questions
What does a dog groomer do?
A dog groomer assesses coat, skin and temperament at intake, agrees a realistic groom with the owner, bathes, de-sheds and high-velocity dries the dog, then clips and scissors to breed standard or owner preference, trims nails and cleans ears. They also handle and restrain dogs safely, recognise stress and know when to stop, identify and report skin conditions and lumps, and keep to the day's booking schedule.
How much do dog groomers make?
Animal caretakers, the occupation groomers are classified under, had a median of $17.00 an hour or $35,360 a year in 2025 — but that figure combines bathers with experienced groomers and understates commission earnings. A groomer doing six dogs a day at a $75 average ticket on 50% commission is earning roughly $225 a day, which is why postings should publish the commission structure rather than an hourly equivalent.
How are dog groomers usually paid?
Most commonly on commission, typically a percentage of the grooming ticket, sometimes with an hourly guarantee while a new groomer builds a book. Veterinary practices and some corporate settings pay hourly instead. The structure is the first thing an experienced groomer looks for in a posting, so it should be stated in full: the percentage, the average ticket, any guarantee, and realistic annual earnings.
What qualifications does a dog groomer need?
No licence is required in most of the United States. What matters is demonstrable skill, which is why asking for a portfolio of photographs and running a paid working interview tells you far more than years of experience on a CV. Certification through bodies such as the National Dog Groomers Association is valuable and works better as something the salon pays for than as a hiring filter.
What should a dog groomer job description include?
The commission percentage and what a full-time groomer actually earns at your salon, whether you supply and sharpen clippers, blades and shears, dogs per day and how many bathers support the groomers, whether the salon books the day or the groomer builds their own clientele, the schedule, the type of grooming, and the handling support for difficult dogs.
Why is it hard to hire dog groomers?
Because experienced groomers are scarce, well networked and able to read a posting accurately, and because most postings hide the two things that decide the job: the real commission arithmetic and who pays for equipment. Grooming also loses people to injury and burnout, which makes realistic volume expectations and genuine handling support recruiting advantages.
Do dog groomers have to buy their own equipment?
In many salons, yes, and it is the largest hidden cost in the trade — clippers, blades, shears and dryers run well over a thousand dollars, and blades need regular sharpening. A salon that supplies equipment and covers sharpening is effectively paying a groomer several thousand dollars a year more than a competitor at the same commission rate, and should say so prominently.
How do you get into dog grooming with no experience?
Through a bather or grooming assistant role, which needs no prior experience and teaches bathing, drying, de-shedding, handling and salon routine before any scissor work. Salons that post these separately with an explicit training ladder and the rate at each step are how the trade replaces itself, and it is the most reliable way to build a bench when experienced groomers cannot be hired.
Other job description templates
Hiring groomers?
Publish the commission, the average ticket and who pays for blades. Groomers do that arithmetic in their heads before they call anyone.
Wage, employment, projection and task descriptions for animal caretakers (SOC 39-2021) and the comparison occupations: O*NET OnLine and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook, May 2025 wage data and BLS employment projections. Grooming is not separately classified in federal occupational data and the animal caretaker median combines bathers with experienced groomers. Cost-per-applicant and apply-rate figures: Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark, 891 campaigns and 1,334 campaign-months.