Dog Groomer Requirements: Education, Age, Skills and Physical Ability

No degree appears in the requirements this page traces — BLS's profile of the occupation and the employer postings below.

BLS says animal care workers typically have a high school diploma or equivalent and learn on the job, and it describes pet groomers as typically learning under the guidance of an experienced groomer, with grooming school as the alternative route.

O*NET, the federal occupational database, puts animal caretakers — the job family that includes groomers — in job zones needing very little to some preparation, with on-the-job training ranging from a few days to one year.

That range covers the whole occupation, kennel attendants included, so read it as the entry floor rather than the runway to skilled grooms.

The postings back that up.

Petco's Junior Groomer posting says a high school diploma or GED is preferred, though not required.

A Pet Supplies Plus franchisee's groomer posting lists a high school diploma or GED, and Petsense by Tractor Supply's lists a high school diploma or equivalent.

None of those postings asks for a degree.

So the diploma question is answerable from the posting: have your high school diploma or GED handy.

Read the line closely — preferred at Petco, required at Petsense and the Pet Supplies Plus franchisee, and the whole education bar in the postings that state one.

For the full picture of the role these requirements lead into, start with the dog groomer career guide.

The FLSA's child labor rules (29 CFR 570.2), administered by the U.S. Department of Labor, set a general minimum age of 16 for non-agricultural jobs.

Fourteen- and 15-year-olds may work only in the occupations the regulations specifically permit, and employment that is not specifically permitted is prohibited.

That permitted list includes office and clerical work, cashiering and selling, and clean-up work — it does not name animal care, bathing, grooming or kennel work, which is why these jobs start at 16 under federal rules.

Employers and states add their own layers.

PetSmart's Pet Groomer and Pet Bather postings state that applicants must be over 18, except in Montana or where state or local law requires otherwise — the company's own hiring policy, not a legal minimum for grooming.

A Pet Supplies Plus franchisee's groomer posting likewise lists age 18+.

Petco's Junior Groomer posting, by contrast, spells out its experience and availability requirements and states no minimum age.

The practical read: federal law puts the floor at 16 for this kind of work, and the fastest way to learn whether a particular salon will hire you at 16 or 17 is to read its posting and ask.

Check your state labor department's rules too, since state child labor laws can be stricter.

Experience is the requirement that bends.

At the entry door it barely registers: Petco's Junior Groomer posting asks for 0-1 year of animal-related experience and counts shelter volunteering or pet sitting toward it.

Groomer titles ask for more, and each employer words it differently:

• PetSmart's Pet Groomer posting asks for prior grooming experience, or six months as a Stylist in Training with PetSmart's Salon Academy training and safety certification completed, or passing the salon technical evaluation.
• Petco's Groomer posting asks for completion of Petco's Pet Stylist Apprentice program, or previous experience as a professional groomer and/or completion of a technical grooming training program.
• A Pet Supplies Plus franchisee's posting asks for at least 1 year of professional grooming experience.
• Petsense's groomer posting asks for at least 1 year of grooming or styling experience and comfort with dogs and cats, plus completion of the Paragon Level 1 & 2 training Petsense provides.

Three of the four postings name a training route that runs alongside or instead of prior experience: PetSmart's Stylist in Training path through its Salon Academy, Petco's Pet Stylist Apprentice program, and the Paragon training Petsense provides.

That is why the bather, trainee and apprentice jobs matter — they are how you bank the experience the groomer title asks for.

Availability is on the same checklist.

Petco's Junior Groomer posting requires weekend, evening and holiday availability, and BLS notes that part-time work is common for animal caretakers, with schedules that can include evenings, weekends and holidays.

One more line to read before you accept an offer: tools.

Petco says it provides groomers with supplies and equipment, including brushes, nail trimmers, clippers, blades, shampoo and dryers.

Petsense states that groomers must provide their own tools — clippers, blades and shears — or be willing to purchase the required ones.

The Pet Supplies Plus franchisee's posting asks for the ability to provide your own grooming tools and equipment, clippers, blades and shears among them.

Same trade, opposite answers; the posting decides.

When your experience line reads true against a posting, browse dog groomer jobs and compare the requirements side by side.

The physical bar is real, and BLS names it plainly: stamina.

Animal care workers must be able to kneel, crawl and lift heavy supplies such as bags of food, and BLS notes they risk injury when caring for animals.

How much weight counts as heavy is each employer's own call, and the posted numbers vary:

• Petco grooming postings require bending, kneeling, lifting up to 30 pounds and standing for long periods, in work environments that can be noisy and wet.
• PetSmart's Pet Groomer and Pet Bather postings require frequently lifting up to 50 pounds and occasionally team-lifting more than 100 pounds, in a wet environment with abundant pet hair.
• A Pet Supplies Plus franchisee's posting sets its bar at lifting up to 65 pounds.
• Petsense postings describe lifting and carrying pets generally up to 75 pounds — over 100 pounds with assistance — plus wet conditions, sharp instruments, perfumed shampoos and pet waste.

Read those as four employers' answers, not an industry number.

Around those numbers, the postings describe the work: standing for long periods, bending and kneeling, wet environments and abundant pet hair, and pets whose weight is set by the animal rather than by you.

Petsense postings add a scheduling dimension to the physical list: shifts generally run no less than 4 hours and may exceed 10.

If you are weighing whether your body can do this work, the honest test is a full day, not an hour.

Certifications are not required for animal care and service workers, per BLS — so no certificate is a prerequisite for the job itself.

Licensing is a separate question, it belongs to state and local government, and it does not always attach to the worker: BLS notes that many states require self-employed animal care and service workers to have a business license.

That question gets its own pages: the dog groomer license guide covers what states and cities actually regulate, and the certification guide covers the voluntary credentials and what each body asks of candidates.

Mobile grooming is one of the settings BLS lists for groomers — a self-contained business that travels to clients' homes — and what separates the mobile checklist from the salon one is the driving.

Entry doors exist on the mobile side too: Bark & Mane (formerly Aussie Pet Mobile) franchisees were advertising Dog Bather, Dog Grooming Trainee, Junior Groomer, Mobile Groom Tech and Dispatcher roles alongside experienced mobile groomer roles in October 2026.

The franchisor's careers site advertises paid training, fuel costs covered, supplies and tools provided, office-managed scheduling, and a company van — a Mercedes-Benz or Ford equipped as a grooming salon.

Each location's franchisee is the employer and sets its own terms, though, so treat the brand-level list as a menu rather than a promise.

On the driving side, the federal commercial-driver rules under 49 CFR 383.5 define a commercial motor vehicle several ways.

A single vehicle falls under the weight definition at a gross vehicle weight rating of 26,001 pounds or more.

A truck-plus-trailer combination falls under it at a combined rating of 26,001 pounds or more, with the towed unit over 10,000 pounds.

Vehicles designed to carry 16 or more passengers and placarded hazardous-materials loads are covered too.

Those thresholds describe the rule, not any particular van.

Our research did not verify grooming vans' weight ratings, so check the GVWR of the vehicle you would actually drive.

States can add requirements of their own.

The rest of the mobile checklist is the salon checklist with the van day folded in.

The work travels to clients' homes, so the vehicle, the route and the client's door are part of every appointment.

At Bark & Mane, appointment scheduling is advertised as office-managed rather than the groomer's to juggle — though each franchisee sets its own terms.

One caveat on the checklist above: its physical and experience requirements come from salon employers' postings, so read a mobile posting as the salon bar plus the driving side, and weigh the posting itself.

Career information, not legal or regulatory advice. Child labor rules come from the U.S. Department of Labor and state labor agencies, licensing from state and local agencies, and each posted requirement from the employer that wrote it.

Confirm the current rules with each before you act on them.