Bathe, clip and style dogs and cats all day. No license anywhere in the country, and your hands do the talking.
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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.
Typical
$35,360
Bather or new groomer
$27,250
Fast groomer or salon owner
$50,060
The national median is $35,360 a year, and the bottom tenth start near $27,250. The federal survey counts groomers inside a wider group called Animal Caretakers, which also includes kennel, shelter and zoo staff, so the figure is broader than grooming alone. A fast groomer on commission can beat the top of this range.
$27,250 to $32,000
Usually as a bather and brusher, not yet cutting
Almost everyone starts by washing, drying and brushing while watching the groomers work. Pay rises sharply the first time you can finish a full groom alone in an hour.
40 to 60 percent
Your share of what the customer pays for each groom
Most salons pay a cut of the ticket rather than an hourly wage. Speed and rebooking are what raise your income, which is why experienced groomers earn double what new ones do on the same schedule.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is learning on the job, which is free and paid, with your own clippers, blades and shears bought gradually over the first couple of years. The high end is a grooming school program of roughly two to six months, a fuller tool kit and voluntary written and practical certification. School prices vary a lot for the same piece of paper, so compare hours of hands on animal time rather than the brochure. The cheap door is harder to walk through because it depends on finding an established groomer willing to slow down and teach you, and the first year is lean either way while your hands get fast enough to earn real commission.
No student loans are needed here. The bigger cost is the slow first year while your hands get fast enough to earn real commission.
Hourly at a chain store
Predictable, with benefits at the larger companies, and a lower ceiling.
Commission at a salon
The common arrangement. You keep a share of every groom.
Booth rent
You pay the salon a weekly rent and keep the whole ticket. Good once you are booked solid.
Mobile grooming
Your own van, higher prices per dog, and a loan for the vehicle.
Veterinary clinic
Steadier hours, often hourly, and more medical and senior pets.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Nobody tests you before you start. Skill and speed are the whole career.
High school
Grade 12
A diploma is enough for almost every salon. Volunteer at a shelter or kennel to prove you can handle animals.
Start as a bather
6 to 12 months
Washing, drying, brushing, nails and ears. This is the real entry point, whether or not you go to school.
Learn to groom
2 months to 2 years
Either a grooming school program of a few months, or an apprenticeship under a working groomer who lets you take simple dogs.
Build speed and a book
1 to 2 years
Income depends on finishing more dogs per day and on customers rebooking with you by name.
Certify, rent a chair or buy a van
Year 3 onward
Optional, and this is where the money changes. Certification is voluntary, ownership is not cheap.
Biology
Skin, coat, parasites and the signs an animal is unwell.
Art
Breed trims are shape and symmetry. Drawing helps more than you would think.
Business
Most groomers end up self-employed, booking and pricing their own work.
Communication
You will tell an owner their matted dog has to be shaved. That conversation is a skill.
No state requires a license to groom pets, the way it does for barbers or nurses. Anyone can open a salon tomorrow. Some cities and states regulate the kennel or facility rather than the person, so check local rules before you open your own place. Because there is no legal standard, voluntary certification is how groomers prove skill: the National Dog Groomers Association of America awards the NCMG (National Certified Master Groomer) through written and practical testing, and International Professional Groomers runs its own safety, advanced and master tracks.
On the job in a salon
The most common route. Paid, slow, and only as good as the groomer teaching you.
Private grooming schools
A few months of full-time hands-on work. Ask how many dogs you will personally groom.
Pet store training programs
The national chains train bathers into groomers and pay you through it.
Certification bodies
Workshops, breed modules and testing, used to level up rather than to start.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Cat grooming
Far fewer groomers will touch cats, and the ones who can charge more for it.
Hand stripping and breed trims
Terrier and show coats done the traditional way. Slow, skilled and well paid.
Mobile grooming
One dog at a time at the customer's door, at a premium price. You are buying a van and a business.
Veterinary and senior pets
Grooming old, anxious or medically fragile animals in a clinic setting.
Master certification
The National Certified Master Groomer title, earned through written exams and judged practical work.
Calm hands with a scared animal
The single most valuable thing on this list.
A strong back and shoulders
You lift wet, struggling dogs all day, and the injuries are real.
Shelter or kennel volunteering
Shows an employer you can read an animal before it bites.
Before and after photos
Social media is how groomers fill a book and later fill a van.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Dogs arrive between 7am and 9am and the day is a queue. Check each coat for mats, fleas and lumps, then bathe, force dry, brush out, clip nails, clean ears and do the trim the owner asked for. Six to ten dogs in a day once you are fast. Some are easy. Some scream, snap or will not stand still. Between dogs you answer the phone, book the next appointment and explain your prices. You go home wet, covered in hair, and sore.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
The federal wage survey files groomers under Animal Caretakers, together with kennel attendants, shelter workers and zoo keepers. That is why the published median of $35,360 looks low next to what a fast commission groomer actually takes home.
Grooming is one of the few hands-on animal jobs with no state license anywhere in the United States. That means no exam blocking you, and also no rule stopping someone with no training from opening the shop next door.
The National Dog Groomers Association of America awards a National Certified Master Groomer credential, and it is not a weekend course: you sit written exams on groups of breeds and are judged on live practical work.
International Professional Groomers, which has run certification since 1988 across more than 37 countries, keeps separate cat grooming tracks because so few dog groomers will take cats. If you can groom cats calmly, you can name your price.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise.