Do You Need a License to Be a Dog Groomer? State Rules Explained

No state currently requires individual dog groomers to hold a license, according to our state-by-state research.

The nearest thing to a groomer license in our files is optional: Colorado lets an individual groomer hold their own state license as an independent contractor, working at up to 3 licensed grooming facilities under one groomer license.

It is a license category under Colorado's facility act, with a fee — not an exam-based credential, and holding one is optional.

The AKC and NDGAA put it more bluntly.

On their shared Professional Grooming Credential page, they describe dog grooming as "an unregulated profession with zero formal barrier to entry", where "There's no license, no national exam, no unified training standard".

That is a credentialing body describing its own industry, not a legal survey — but it matches what our state files found.

"None required" is not the same as "nothing applies": facility licensing, kennel licensing, business licensing and state approval of grooming schools all appear in our state files, and which of them reaches you depends on the state and the setting you work in.

Local rules are a city-and-county question — ask the clerk what permits a salon, a home studio or a van needs where you operate.

Four kinds of licensing show up across our state files: state facility licenses, kennel and boarding licenses, ordinary business licensing, and state approval of the private schools that train groomers.

All four attach to a business, workplace or school rather than to groomers as people — the one license category in our files built for groomers themselves is Colorado's optional independent-contractor license, covered above.

Colorado is the clearest facility example.

Its Pet Animal Care and Facilities Act (PACFA, Colorado Revised Statutes 35-80) requires anyone operating a pet animal facility — any premises used for boarding, grooming, handling, selling and more — to hold a facility license from the Commissioner of Agriculture.

PACFA's rules define a "groomer facility" as any permanent or mobile establishment where owners pay to have a pet's skin, coat, hair or feathers cleaned, styled or maintained, so mobile vans are covered.

"Pet Grooming Facility" is its own license class, alongside classes for boarding, training and handling.

Under the fee schedule effective July 15, 2025 (rule 8 CCR 1202-15), a Pet Grooming facility license ran $400 a year and the Independent contractor pet groomer license ran $350.

The act itself was continued to September 1, 2034 by HB26-1183, approved May 28, 2026, which also raised the statutory cap on annual license fees from $700 to $1,500.

Fees are set by rule and change, so treat those as the figures in the July 2025 rule, not current prices.

Facility licenses can also set rules the groomer works under: Colorado's PACFA rules bar grooming facilities from giving tranquilizers, sedatives or any other drug designed to calm an animal during grooming.

Connecticut licenses the same trade from the business side.

Under CGS 22-344, anyone engaged in the business of grooming or maintaining a grooming facility needs a license from the Commissioner of Agriculture.

The state's grooming facility definition expressly includes any vehicle or trailer maintained as a grooming business, so mobile units fall inside it.

The license costs $200 and runs until the second December 31 after issuance — a biennial cycle.

What Connecticut licenses is the business and the facility; our research found no state license for the groomer working inside one.

Rhode Island shows a different route to the same workplaces: a kennel law.

Its Animal Care chapter (General Laws 4-19, last amended 2025) licenses kennels, pet shops, breeders, dealers and auctions, and its definitions contain no grooming category at all.

Our research found no state license or registration there for pet groomers or grooming-only salons.

A groomer whose salon also boards animals overnight is working inside a licensed kennel under that chapter.

Business licensing applies too.

BLS's Occupational Outlook Handbook notes state business-license requirements for self-employed animal care and service workers — and a groomer renting a chair, working from home or running a van asks the city or county what local licensing adds on top.

The schools are regulated too.

In New York, the State Education Department's Bureau of Proprietary School Supervision licenses and registers non-degree career schools and credentials their teachers — one example of the state career-school approval a private grooming academy can sit under.

Our research covers this question state by state, so this page stays at the pattern level.

Three states our files document in detail show three different routes:

This is a sample of our state files, not a complete list of what each state does.

Where a state's research found no grooming-specific rule, the file records that finding as we found it — and the confirming steps at the end of this page fill the gap for your own state.

Fees are the figures published in the sources we read, each with its date.

Fee schedules change, so confirm current fees with the agency before you rely on them.

Groomer-licensing bills keep resurfacing: the examples in our files span New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts, and we record each by bill number and status.

Here is where they stood, as of October 2026, when each status was checked.

New Jersey's "Bijou's Law" is a pet groomer licensing bill that has been filed session after session without becoming law.

A3044, the 2018-2019 session's version, passed the Assembly 68-5-2 on October 29, 2018, was referred to the Senate Commerce Committee, and never became law.

The 2024-2025 session's version, S264 (identical to A1456), was introduced January 9, 2024 and referred to the Senate Economic Growth Committee; the session ended in January 2026 without enactment.

As drafted, S264 would have required individual pet groomers to be licensed by the State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners — at least 18 years of age, of good moral character and passing a board-approved exam.

Supervised trainees and licensed-school students were exempt.

A successor, S387 in the 222nd Legislature, was pre-filed for the 2026 session with sponsor Senator Brian Stack: the same license elements, plus registration for grooming businesses.

It is a bill, not law.

A competing New Jersey bill, S3512 (introduced February 12, 2026, by Senator Anthony Bucco), skips licensing.

It would instead require a person performing pet grooming to register with the Division of Consumer Affairs for a year after three or more valid complaints of negligent grooming in one calendar year.

The complaints it counts involve injury requiring veterinary care, severe illness, escape or death.

New York has two tracks.

A1108, sponsored by Assemblymember Paulin, would require pet grooming facilities — not individual groomers — to be licensed by the Secretary of State, and it sat in the Assembly Economic Development Committee as of October 2026.

The bill's text would add a $40 annual registration fee, a rule that no pet be left unaccompanied on a grooming table, in a bathing area or in a dryer, and one-year record keeping that includes requesting proof of vaccinations.

A referral to that committee on January 9, 2025 was renewed on January 7, 2026.

The Senate track, S6963 (2025-2026 session, Senators Lanza and Murray), would create a Secretary of State "registered pet groomer" certificate under a new General Business Law article.

It was referred to the Senate Consumer Protection Committee on March 27, 2025 and again on January 7, 2026, with no further action listed as of October 12, 2026.

Currently, New York State does not license or register individual pet groomers.

Massachusetts took up a groomer bill too: H.310, "An Act relative to pet grooming" (193rd session, 2023-2024, from Representatives Carlos González and Bud Williams), went to the Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure committee and then to a study order, H.4680, which ended it without enactment.

A search of the legislature's site on October 12, 2026 found no 2025-2026 successor.

Bills are bills: none of these had been enacted as of October 2026, and each one's status can change the day after you read this — check the legislature's own bill page for the current version.

A license is a government's permission to operate.

A certification is a private credentialing body's mark, and the two are not interchangeable — no course, school certificate or association credential is a grooming license, however a job ad phrases it.

Federal career data says the same in its own way: BLS's Occupational Outlook Handbook notes that certifications are not required for animal care and service workers.

So what fills the license's place in hiring?

Practical proof: hands-on experience in the chair, a portfolio of finished grooms, a working interview or trial groom, and references from employers who have watched you handle unfamiliar dogs.

Formal education?

In O*NET's survey of Animal Caretakers — the broad occupation (SOC 39-2021) that also includes dog bathers, kennel attendants, zookeepers and aquarists — 64% of respondents said a new hire needs a high school diploma or equivalent.

Job ads that say "licensed groomer" add a wrinkle worth an interview question.

Outside Colorado's optional independent-contractor groomer license, our research found no state-issued groomer license behind that phrase — the bills that would create one are still bills.

Read the phrase as a signal to ask about.

The employer may mean a voluntary certification, a school or academy record, a facility license the business itself holds, or, in Colorado, that PACFA groomer license.

With no license to earn, competence is demonstrated three ways: voluntary certification, documented training, and the work itself.

Voluntary certification is the closest thing to a formal credential.

NDGAA now operates as "powered by the AKC", and its National Certified Master Groomer written exams are purchased and taken online through AKC Canine College, as of October 2026.

Candidates who pass the written exams and practical evaluations and maintain the required average qualify for the Master exam and the full NCMG designation.

The AKC's own Professional Grooming Credential is a separate voluntary exam: 100 multiple-choice questions, taken as a secure online exam with a 3-hour time limit.

Eligibility for the PGC runs on experience pathways.

The first: at least 360 hours of verifiable grooming experience in the past 18 months.

The second: 25 hours of verified grooming education in the past five years plus 180 hours of hands-on salon experience.

The third: at least 240 hours of verifiable grooming experience in the past five years, with relevant experience such as competition, publishing or educator roles.

Other credentialing bodies run voluntary programs of their own, each publishing its own fees, eligibility rules and renewal cycles on its site.

Fees change often, so check the body's current page before you budget for one.

A grooming school certificate is training, not a license.

Washington's Career Bridge listing for the Maser's Vocational Pet Groomer program states plainly that no certification or license is obtained as part of the training — the award is a Certificate of Completion.

Employer academies are the third documented route, and they belong to the employer that runs them.

PetSmart says new salon hires start training as bathers, bathe over 125 dogs, then attend its paid Grooming Academy — a 4-week, 160-hour classroom program led by District Academy Trainers.

Petco says every Petco Certified Pet Stylist begins with a paid 20-week certification program.

A completion certificate is worth a resume line; it is not a state license.

The proof that travels is your work.

A portfolio of before-and-after photos across coat types, a clean working interview, and references from salons that have watched you handle unfamiliar dogs all count.

Together they give an employer what a license would have had to certify: that you can groom, safely, on your own.

New to the trade?

The dog groomer career guide covers the role, the settings and the routes in — including starting as a bather, the first rung on PetSmart's own salon ladder.

Licensing questions end at the agencies that issue the licenses.

Four places answer them for your state and your city.

Bring the specific question with you: whether your setting — salon, home studio, mobile van or kennel — needs a facility license, what the fee and renewal cycle are, and whether anything changed in the most recent legislative session.

Career information, not legal, tax or insurance advice — grooming and facility licensing is set state by state and city by city. Confirm your own situation with the agency, city or county named above before you act on any of it.