Dog groomer job description template (duties, requirements, pay range)

A posting that earns applications from working groomers does more than list tasks.

It tells a candidate what the work is, what it pays, what it demands physically and who decides what on your floor — before they decide whether to spend a lunch break applying.

Write the description before you advertise.

Under the ADA, a written job description prepared before advertising or interviewing is considered evidence of the job's essential functions — one reason to list duties like lifting and restraint accurately instead of generically.

This page gives you the structure and the copy-paste template.

The decisions around it — what to require, how to structure pay, where to find candidates and how to screen them — are in our guide to how to hire a dog groomer.

Job summary you can copy

The summary is the two to four sentences at the top of your posting, and it is where a candidate decides whether the rest is worth reading.

Name the business, the setting, who the groomer works beside, who they report to and what fills the appointment book.

Say the setting plainly, because the setting changes the job.

An independent salon means a shared room and a booked day; a mobile van means routes, driving and solo work; a vet clinic means clinic clients adding grooms to visits; a daycare or boarding facility means grooming next to playgroups and kennels.

A working example, written for an independent salon: "[Business name] is a three-person grooming salon in [neighborhood], [City, State].

We're hiring a full-time dog groomer to own a book of full grooms and breed trims alongside a bather and a front-desk receptionist, reporting to the owner."

Steer clear of vague hooks.

"Rockstar groomer wanted" tells a candidate nothing about the book, the team or the pay — the summary's job is the opposite.

Duties and responsibilities

Build the duties list from the services your appointment book actually holds, not from a generic list.

A salon that books mostly bath-and-brush and de-shedding work is hiring for a different job than one that books scissored breed trims and hand stripping.

A duties block for a full-service salon looks like this:

• Bathe, dry and brush dogs to the finish your service menu describes, from bath-and-brush appointments to full grooms.
• Perform the cuts your book holds — breed trims, pet trims, de-matting and shave-downs where a coat can't be saved, hand stripping if you take terrier work.
• Trim nails and clean ears as part of the groom.
• Watch every dog on your table — skin, ears, lumps, limping, stress — and tell the owner what you noticed so they can follow up with their veterinarian. Groomers spot and refer; they don't diagnose.
• Keep your table, tub and tools cleaned and disinfected to the salon's sanitation protocol, between dogs and at closing.
• Write up each appointment in your booking software, including coat condition and anything the owner should know.

Then add the duties that are yours, not the industry's.

Who the groomer reports to — a lead groomer, a salon manager or you.

Whether reception owns booking.

Whether bathers pre-work the dogs.

What your handling and safety rules are.

Say the handling rule explicitly.

Low-stress handling, loops and muzzles where the dog needs them, and stopping a groom when a dog is too stressed or a coat too matted to work safely.

And no sedation: AVDC, the veterinary dental college, states that prescribing or administering anesthetic or sedative drugs by a non-veterinarian can be very dangerous and is illegal.

Required and preferred qualifications

Separate what a candidate must walk in with from what you can train.

The two things worth checking are the work itself and the handling judgment.

• A portfolio of finished grooms — photos they can walk you through, before-and-after sets, or a groom you watch as a paid step in your hiring process.
• Breed and coat knowledge for the dogs you actually see: the doodle coats, double coats and terrier work your book holds.
• Safe handling — reading body language, loops and dryers used correctly, and knowing when to stop.
• The experience level you'll accept: an experienced groomer, a bather ready to move up, or a new groomer you'll finish training.

Be precise about licensing, because a wrong line here can cost you candidates who know the rules.

In our state-by-state research, no state currently licenses individual groomers by exam — so don't demand a "state grooming license" unless your state actually issues one to individual groomers.

What does exist: the facility, kennel and business licenses your business holds (those are yours, not the hire's), and state rules that differ.

Colorado, for example, lets a groomer hold their own PACFA license to work as an independent contractor at up to 3 PACFA-licensed grooming facilities.

Certification is a preference, not a requirement: BLS lists no certification as required for animal care and service workers.

Write the line as "[credential] preferred", or as "required by [Business name]" where you mandate one as house policy, and check your state's rules on our dog groomer licensing guide.

One more check before you post: your description and the candidate's expectations should match.

Our dog groomer career guide describes the work from the groomer's side — compare your duties block against it.

Physical demands, schedule and working conditions

List the demands honestly — they are the questions candidates ask in the first conversation.

Standing for a full appointment day, bending over a table, lifting dogs onto it and restraining them safely, and exposure to water, dander, dryer noise and sharp tools.

Set the lifting requirement your operation actually needs and write your own number, because posted requirements differ between employers.

Petco's grooming postings state lifting up to 30 pounds; Petsense's list lifting and carrying pets generally up to 75 pounds, over 100 pounds with assistance.

A number copied from another business is a number that fits neither.

Same for the schedule.

Days and hours, whether weekends are required, what holiday or boarding season does to the calendar, and the shift lengths you run — Petsense's postings, for example, describe shifts of generally no less than 4 hours that may exceed 10 hours.

If you hire teens, know the federal floor before you write a minimum-age line.

Under the FLSA's child labor rules, 16 is the general minimum age for non-farm work.

The federal list of occupations permitted for 14- and 15-year-olds does not include animal care, bathing or grooming dogs, or kennel work.

Your own rule sits on top of that, and state rules can differ — check yours.

Pay range and benefits block

The pay block is where postings win or lose candidates.

State the pay structure — hourly, commission, or hourly plus commission — the range or rate, and the tips policy in plain words.

If you want a benchmark while you set the range: BLS OEWS May 2025 puts the national median wage for animal caretakers (SOC 39-2021, the occupation that includes groomers) at $17.00 an hour, with the middle half earning $14.34 to $19.26.

It is a payroll series across all industries that counts wage-and-salary jobs and excludes the self-employed, and BLS publishes no groomer-only wage — so treat it as the occupation's range, not groomer pay.

How a commission plan interacts with overtime law is its own decision; the plan types and their mechanics are covered in our commission vs hourly guide to groomer pay.

Pay-posting rules are state and city law, and they keep spreading.

Washington requires employers with 15 or more employees to include the wage scale or salary range in every job posting — or the fixed wage, where only one is offered.

The posting must also give a general description of all benefits and other compensation.

Colorado's Equal Pay for Equal Work Act requires disclosure of compensation, benefits and how and when to apply in all job postings, internal and public, and bars asking applicants about pay history.

Beyond the states that have put rules on the record, a growing number of states and cities require pay ranges in job ads — check your state and city before you post, and confirm the current rules with your state labor agency.

Add the lines candidates look for and postings leave out.

Who provides the tools: write what you supply — clippers, shears, dryers, shampoos — and if you expect groomers to bring their own shears, know the FLSA's "free and clear" rule (29 CFR 531.35).

When a required tool's cost cuts into the minimum wage or overtime owed in a workweek, the arrangement violates the FLSA for that week.

Then the benefits that come with the role, whatever yours are.

How to adapt the template to your business

The template is written for an independent salon, and four settings change the wording.

Each change matters to the candidate reading it.

• Mobile operation: add the territory and the van. Fill in the routes, the driving expectations — license, record, who drives — and how appointments are sequenced, in the vehicle and driving line.
• Vet clinic: the groomer works inside the clinic's flow, alongside veterinary staff, with clients adding grooms to visits. Name who the groomer reports to and how grooming appointments are booked against the medical schedule.
• Daycare or boarding facility: grooming sits next to playgroups and boarding. Say whether the groomer handles daycare bath-and-brush volume, spa add-ons or a booked groom day, and who owns the grooming room.
• House-call or cat-only: describe the in-home setup and the pets seen. A cat-only menu changes the portfolio you ask for — cat grooms, not dog grooms.

Two wording rules hold in every setting.

First, the license line: state your own requirements as your business's policy and check your state's rules — never write a license requirement the state does not have.

Second, if you are hiring a booth renter or independent contractor rather than an employee, the posting's wording does not settle the question; classification turns on the tests that decide it.

Settle how the role is classified before you write the ad, and confirm the analysis with counsel or the Department of Labor.

Before you publish, read the posting as a working groomer would and check the gaps that make strong candidates skip it:

• No pay range, or a pay structure the posting never names.
• Commission terms hinted at but never explained.
• A tips policy that isn't stated.
• Silence on who provides the tools.
• No handling or safety policy anywhere in the posting.
• Workload expectations so vague the candidate can't tell what fills a day.
• No word on training or a path for a bather who wants to move up.

Then post it where groomer candidates actually look, and write the wrapper as carefully as the description.

Our guide to writing a job ad that gets applicants covers the wording and the channels.

It also helps to see what candidates see: our dog groomer jobs page shows the postings groomers are comparing yours against.

When applications land, score every candidate against the same duties list you just published, and make the interview your next step.

Employer information, not legal, tax or insurance advice. Confirm pay-posting rules with your state labor agency, and licensing questions with your state agriculture department or your city or county.