Bathe, clip and style dogs and cats. No licence needed, learn in months, and mobile groomers set their own prices.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Experienced groomer
$37,000
New groomer
$31,000
Own salon or mobile van
$53,000
Job Bank's national median is $18 an hour, about $37,000 a year full time. Job Bank pools groomers with other animal care workers such as kennel staff, which pulls the number down a little. Self-employed and mobile groomers who build a full client list can clear the top of this range.
$15 to $17 an hour
Bather or assistant in a salon or pet store
Everyone starts washing and drying dogs. Many salons pay commission instead of an hourly wage, often a share of each groom, so a fast groomer with regular clients earns more than a slow one.
$25 an hour and up
Job Bank's high end is $25.50, about $53,000 a year
A mobile van that comes to the owner's driveway charges a premium per dog. Groomers who own their salon earn on every groom their staff do too.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is starting as a bather in a shop, which is paid work, and buying your own clippers, blades and shears as you go. The high end is a private grooming school of a few weeks to a few months plus a full set of tools bought at once. No school is required by law, so if you pay for one, look for real dogs, small classes and graduates who actually got hired. A mobile grooming van is a business decision later on, not a cost of getting qualified, so it is left out here.
Compare schools carefully. None are required by law, so look for one with real dogs, small classes and graduates who got hired.
Small salons
Usually no pension or health plan.
Pet store chains
More likely to offer benefits, staff discounts and a set schedule.
Tips
Common, and they add up on a busy Saturday.
Self-employed
You keep the whole price of the groom, minus the van, the tools and the taxes.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
No licence, no degree. Hands on dogs is the whole education.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Volunteer at a shelter or work part time at a kennel or pet store. Employers want to see you are comfortable with scared, wriggling animals.
Bather or grooming assistant
3 to 12 months
Washing, drying, nail trims, cleaning kennels. Most salons train from here. Alberta's career site notes many salons teach staff on the job or in short private lessons.
Grooming school, optional
Weeks to months
Private schools run programs from a few weeks to a few months. Useful if no salon will train you, or to learn breed cuts faster.
Full groomer
1 to 2 years in
Breed-standard clips, handling difficult dogs, cats, and your own regular clients.
Own the salon or the van
Later
Many groomers go mobile or open a shop once they have a client list that follows them.
Biology
Skin, coats, parasites and how a stressed animal behaves.
Business
Most groomers end up self-employed or on commission.
Art
Breed cuts are shaping and symmetry.
Co-op placement at a vet clinic or pet store
Real hours with real animals.
Job Bank lists pet grooming as unregulated in every province. No licence, no exam, no registry. Anyone can open a grooming business tomorrow. The flip side: employers judge you entirely on your hands, your speed and how animals react to you. Voluntary certificates from grooming associations exist and can help you charge more, but no law requires them.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Cat grooming
Fewer groomers do cats. Clients pay more and drive farther.
Hand-stripping and show cuts
Terriers and show dogs need it. Slow, skilled, well paid.
Mobile grooming
You come to them. Higher price per dog, no salon rent, but you own a van.
Pet first aid
Cheap one-day course. Owners and employers notice it.
Driver's licence
Needed for mobile work and most pickup services.
Kennel or shelter experience
Proves you can handle animals that do not want to be handled.
Social media
Before-and-after photos fill a booking calendar.
Physical fitness
You lift dogs onto tables all day.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Six to ten dogs a day. Each one: check in with the owner, brush out mats, bath, blow dry, nails, ears, then the clip and scissor work, then photos and pickup. A doodle with a matted coat can take two hours. A nervous dog can take longer. Cleanup between every animal. Saturdays are packed, Mondays are slow. You go home covered in hair.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Job Bank counted around 35,500 pet groomers and animal care workers in 2023, and expects demand and supply to stay roughly balanced through 2033. Steady, not booming.
Poodle crosses do not shed, so their coats grow and mat instead. They need grooming every 6 to 8 weeks for life. The rise of doodles is a big reason grooming calendars are full.
Groomers see the whole animal up close every couple of months. Lumps, ear infections, bad teeth and skin problems are often spotted on the grooming table before the owner or the vet sees them.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.