Why grooming and pet care get a board of their own
Type “groomer” into a general job site and the results fill up with hair stylists, barbers, retail cashiers and warehouse jobs that happen to mention pets.
A salon owner who needs an experienced groomer before the holiday rush gets buried in that pile, and a bather who wants to move up to the table has to scroll past dozens of ads that have nothing to do with animals.
Each job on this site involves hands-on work with pets or the business around it, whether that means bathing and de-shedding, hand-scissoring a breed trim, running a daycare playgroup, cleaning kennels or booking appointments.
One job title can describe very different days depending on who is hiring.
A “groomer” might work on commission at a big-box salon, rent a booth in an independent shop, drive a mobile van alone or finish show coats, and the skills, pay setup and hours in each case are not the same.
That is why the jobs, pay pages and guides here are grouped by the work itself, not by the title an employer happened to pick.
Who operates GroomerHires
My name is Gabriel Meierotto. I started GroomerHires, and no page goes live here until I have read it and approved it.
I am not a groomer, a bather or a kennel attendant. I have never worked a grooming table, run a daycare playgroup or trained a dog for a living, I hold no grooming certification, and this site has no tie to any salon chain, grooming school, certifying association, veterinary practice or government agency.
Please read nothing here as legal, veterinary or employment advice, because it is not meant to be.
What I look after is the board itself: putting grooming and pet care openings in front of people who can fill them, and keeping each listing correct and simple to follow.
When a page talks about certification exams, state or local permits for grooming and boarding businesses, or pay, it points you to the agency, the certifying group or the federal wage tables so you can check the source yourself.
If you have a question about a permit for your own salon or kennel, or about a certification you are working toward, ask the office or organization that issues it.
How grooming and pet care jobs reach the site
Salon owners, daycare and kennel managers, district managers at pet store chains, shelter staff and recruiters can list their own openings directly.
The site also gathers grooming and animal care jobs that employers have already put on their own websites or on public job feeds.
Each of those jobs sends you to the employer's original ad, so your application goes straight to the salon or kennel and no middleman handles your information.
Placement changes with one paid option only, Featured, which puts a badge on the job and lists it ahead of Standard posts on its role and city pages.
Nothing else an employer buys moves a job up or down.
Where the grooming career guides get their facts
Bathers, new groomers and people thinking about opening a salon use the certification details, permit rules and pay numbers in these guides to make real decisions.
A wrong detail could mean a missed permit or a low offer accepted, so each guide sticks to these rules:
- Any claim about permits, facility or kennel licensing, or certification exams links to the agency, law or certifying organization behind it.
- Each state page lists the date its permit and licensing details were last compared with the source.
- Wage figures come from BLS OEWS with the occupation code shown, and because BLS has no separate code for groomers, the page says which broader group (such as animal caretakers) the number describes.
- When a law or rule changes, for example a state starting to license grooming facilities, the page explains what changed, cites it and stays clear of legal advice. Proposed bills are labelled as proposals, not law.
A “reviewed by” line appears only when a named grooming or animal care professional with relevant experience has really gone through the page.
We do not make up reviewers, and we never give a writer a certification or title they do not hold.
Use the guides as a starting point when you compare salons, weigh commission against hourly pay or think about moving from bathing to grooming.
For anything specific to you, such as which permit your new shop or mobile van needs, check with your state agriculture department, city or county office.
Spotted an error?
States change their kennel and facility rules, certifying groups update their programs, wage tables come out every year and good grooming jobs get filled fast, so some details here will fall out of date.
Send the page address and the sentence that looks wrong to [email protected] and I will look into it and correct it.
Groomers, shop owners and daycare staff often notice these changes first, so a quick note from you is always welcome.