Took my collie-mix to the dog-groomer's today for a bath; 6 hours and $60 later...?

I took Spike to Petsmart a couple of days ago.

He had a bath with shampoo and conditioner. They brushed his teeth, clean his ears, and ground his nails. It took 3 hours And cost $49.95.

$60 is a lot for a bath, but with dogs with a long, thick coat, it is a lot of work.

6 hours can be excessie, but some grooming salons bathe the dogs in the morning and do the clipping in the afternoon, so dogs might be there all day. Some dogs might take longer to dry as well.

There are places that don't charge as much or take a long. Many will only keep the dogs a long as it take to groom them, so maybe a couple hours depending on the dog. Costs vary, so it is best to contact them and ask for an estimate. If you can, take your dog it to be looked at by the groomer so they can give a more accurate estimate rather than going by a description on the phone or a photo.

Don't know how big your dog is, but if this was just for a regular bath and trim, I'd say it's about 20.- out of line.

I take my 2 long hair dachshunds to the groomer about every 2 months, they get washed, coat groomed and clipped (one is very, very hairy, way more than normal dachshunds and always has lots of tangles in odd places), ears cleaned, anals expressed, nails clipped -- and they end up looking too cute with bows in each ear.

Excellent groomer, very patient and gentle - and he charges 40.- per dog for this.

The normal time is about one and a half hours from drop off to pick up. He does not schedule lots of dogs so that any have to be kept waiting for hours, that's not something I would allow as dogs get too nervous waiting that long.

If I were you, I would finder another groomer. Shampoo, brush, minor clipping of coat, ear cleaning, anals expressed and nails clipped should be no more than 40.- Never paid more than that anywhere.

I don't know where you live, but $60.00 is about right for the size dog and amount of hair your dog has.

Remember, they first had to get all the knots out of the coat, then shampoo, trim, clip nails.

A couple of months ago, I was recuperating from surgery and brought my standard wire dachshund to the groomer for a simple bath. That's it, I do the grooming myself, but I couldn't kneel to bath her. Just a simple shampoo & nail clipping was $30.00 and my dog is 1/4 the size of your dog.

Also, it took 6 hours because not only was your dog probably quite a bit of work, but don't forget, she has other dogs there besides you. You don't say how big the place is and how many groomers there. They also probably had him under the dryer. They won't have you come and get him until his coat is dry.

Sounds about right money-wise for a big, long-haired dog (at least where I live). That's why I groom my own.

A lot of grooming places keep the dogs waiting a long time. I don't like that, so if I use a groomer I use a mobile groomer who comes to the house.

You could try that with your dog.

A very busy groomer who had to do several baths, plus nails, plus a few trims or shaves, will take that long to process one dog. The dog gets bathed in turn, then set up to dry. Then it will wait until the table is free to do nails. The groomer cannot be leaving dogs on the table to check out dogs that are done. So it is common to have a time after which the groomer expects to be done with all the clients for that day, and can spend a moment or two with each owner as they come in for their clean pooch.

I used to work as a dog groomer. This is typical. You have a number of dogs to work on at one time so dogs have to be there for longer than their groom actually takes. All dogs need to be bathed in the morning so they have time to be fully dried, so you don't get to them all in perfect order.

$60 is a lot of money if your dog wasn't trimmed. (Maybe not in groomer prices, but just in general. I've been out of the business for a long time, so I'm not up on today's prices.) My recommendation? Unless you have a dog that requires extra grooming for a high maintenance coat, skip the groomer. Go online and find a tutorial to clip his nails at home. Bathe him, brush him, trim any extra hair from paws and ears, put ear solution in to keep his ears clean, and call it a day.

Good Luck!

No it should have not taken 6 hours. There could have been other dogs in front of yours, or they ran into some complications but 6 hours? Heck no. I would've been picked up my dog and took him else where. $60 honestly isn't that much. I pay $30 for a long haired chihuahua. Did the dog have matted hair? Or maybe he gave them some trouble? I don't know. I would have asked what all that included and they would have explained the price to you. I would call around to other groomers and see what their starting prices are and go from there

$60 is cheap especially if this was a total brush out on a long haired dog. You were charged only $10 per hour if your dog was worked on for the whole six hours. My going rate (and I'm cheap in the area) is a minimum of $25 and than $20 per hour that I'm working on the dog. So I would have charged you $145 if I worked on your dog for six hours.