How Long Does Dog Grooming Take? A Time Guide by Coat and Size

There are two kinds of owners who drop a dog at the salon – the ones who plan to be back in 40 minutes, and the ones who’ve learned to do the grocery shop first. How long does dog grooming take? For most dogs it’s somewhere between one and three hours, and the gap between those two numbers comes down almost entirely to coat and size. A small, smooth-coated dog can be washed, dried and tidied while you grab a coffee. A cavoodle with a curly coat that hasn’t seen a brush in a fortnight is a different morning altogether.

Most dogs take one to three hours for a full groom. Small short-coated dogs are often done in 1 to 1.5 hours; medium dogs run 1.5 to 2; big or double-coated breeds stretch to 3 to 4. Matting, drying and a nervous dog add the most time. Mobile groomers are usually faster than salons because there’s no cage-drying wait between steps.

How long does dog grooming take? The short answer

Here’s the rough shape of it. These are full grooms – bath, dry, brush-out, clip or scissor, nails and ears – not a quick wash. Treat them as starting points; a double coat or a matted coat pushes every row higher.

Dog type	Typical full groom	What drives the time
Small, short-coated (e.g. dachshund, smooth chihuahua)	1 – 1.5 hours	Quick to bathe and dry; little or no scissoring
Small, curly or long (e.g. cavoodle, Maltese)	1.5 – 2.5 hours	Hand-scissoring and a full blow-dry do the damage
Medium (e.g. cocker spaniel, mini poodle)	1.5 – 2 hours	Dense or feathered coats need a longer brush-out
Large, short-coated (e.g. Labrador, boxer)	1.5 – 2.5 hours	Lots of dog to wash and towel; drying adds up
Large double-coated (e.g. golden retriever, husky)	3 – 4 hours	De-shedding and drying the undercoat is slow work
Any dog, badly matted	+1 – 2 hours	Careful de-matting, or a clip-off, can’t be rushed

So the honest answer to most booking questions is ‘block out the morning, and we’ll usually call you sooner’.

Where the time actually goes

The bath is the part owners picture, and it’s the quickest bit – most dogs are washed in 20 to 30 minutes. Drying is the surprise. On a thick coat the dryer can run longer than everything else combined, sometimes well past an hour, because a coat that’s still damp at the skin will mat within days.

Brushing and de-shedding is the next big block. A short coat is a 10-minute job; a husky in full blow can swallow 40 minutes on the brush table alone. Then come the finishing tasks that feel small but stack up – nails, a check of the ears, a face trim, paw pads and a tidy of the sanitary area. We’ve groomed enough dogs to know that ‘just a quick clip’ is rarely quick once the dog is on the table.

Why coat type changes the clock

Coat does more to set the timing than weight does. A 25kg short-coated Lab can be faster than a 6kg poodle, because the poodle’s coat needs scissoring and the Lab’s doesn’t. Curly and woolly coats – cavoodles, poodles, bichons – take the longest per kilo because every centimetre is hand-finished after the dry.

Double coats are their own thing. A golden retriever or a Siberian husky carries a soft undercoat under coarse guard hairs, and clearing that undercoat by hand is what eats the clock through spring. Whatever you do, don’t ask for a shave to speed things up. Double-coated dogs rely on that coat to insulate against heat as well as cold, and shaving it can leave the dog hotter, sunburn-prone and with a patchy regrowth that never quite sits right.

Mobile groomer or salon – why the clock differs

Two dogs of the same breed can have very different appointment lengths depending on where they’re groomed. A mobile groomer works on your dog one-on-one from start to finish, so a small dog is often in and out in about an hour to 90 minutes. A salon usually runs several dogs at once and uses cage drying between steps, which is gentler on a busy roster but stretches the total time on site to three or four hours.

Neither is better – they’re different trade-offs. Mobile suits nervous dogs and tight streets; a salon suits big double coats that need a high-velocity dryer and room to move. On price, expect a small-dog mobile groom to sit roughly in the $90 to $130 band in metro areas in 2026, with big or matted coats higher, though it pays to ring around the way you would for any service costs. Operators like Aussie Pet Mobile have made the van model common from Perth to the Gold Coast.

How to shorten the next session

Most of the clock is set before the dog ever reaches the table. A few habits at home cut the time, and usually the bill with it.

1. Brush properly the day before, right down to the skin (this is the bit most owners skip, and it’s the single biggest time-saver). A 10-minute brush at home can save half an hour of de-matting.
2. Book on a regular cycle – every 6 to 8 weeks for curly coats, longer for short ones. A coat that’s never allowed to mat is quick every time.
3. Bring a tired dog. A walk beforehand means a calmer dog on the table, and calm dogs groom faster.
4. Start young and go slowly. If you desensitise a puppy to clippers, dryers and having its paws held, every future groom is shorter.
5. Tell the groomer the truth about the coat. ‘It’s a bit knotty behind the ears’ lets them plan the time, instead of discovering it halfway through.

Common mistakes that blow the time out

• Leaving all the brushing until the morning of the appointment, then wondering why the groom takes twice as long.
• Asking for a ‘quick tidy’ on a matted coat. De-matting is the slowest job in the salon, and on a tight pelt it isn’t safe to rush.
• Requesting a shave-down on a double coat to keep the dog cool. It doesn’t cool them, and the regrowth can take a year to recover.
• Booking a puppy’s first visit as a full groom. A first session should be short and confidence-building – doubly so for anxious dogs who need to learn the dryer won’t hurt them.
• Turning up 20 minutes late and still expecting the original finish time. The clock starts when the dog does.

The Australian bit most guides miss

Climate changes the timing here in ways a US blog won’t mention. Through humid summers in Queensland and the Top End, coats hold moisture and dry slower, so the dryer runs longer and matting forms faster. Spring is the other pressure point – double-coated breeds ‘blow’ their undercoat as the weather warms, and a single de-shed in October can take an hour on its own. And if you’re grooming at home, never reach for hot water; warm, around a dog’s own body temperature of about 38°C, is all any dog needs, and a force dryer on full heat is not for small dogs.

When it’s a groomer or vet job, not a DIY one

Some things aren’t about time at all – they’re a signal to hand the job over. Book a professional groomer, or a vet, if you see any of these:

• Matts that have tightened to the skin, or a coat that feels like a solid pelt.
• Red, broken or weepy skin, especially under a matt or in a skin fold.
• A yeasty or sour smell from the ears, or constant head-shaking and scratching.
• A dog that flinches, limps or cries when a leg or paw is handled.

Severe matting isn’t a cosmetic problem; it’s a welfare one, which is why welfare grooming is treated as a necessity rather than a luxury by Australia’s pet industry body. If the coat has gone past brushing, a careful clip-off is kinder than hours of pulling.

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