Being a responsible pet owner can mean more than keeping your pet healthy and happy. Regular grooming visits are often part of the deal.
Sam Cheow, who lives in Manhattan with four Norwich terriers he calls his kids, spends nearly $11,000 a year to groom them and about another $3,000 on “specialty work” like sanitary trims.
His dogs require a grooming technique called hand stripping, and there aren’t many groomers in the city who can do it, he said. Mr. Cheow considers their grooming a worthy expense that’s essential to keeping them healthy and ensuring a long life.
When The New York Times talked to nearly 50 pet owners for this article, we learned many of them had similar sentiments. The perception that pet grooming is essential to wellness has shifted the industry from one providing hygiene services to a tailored approach focused on health and holistic care. A booming human wellness industry is also extending people’s own health beliefs and practices to their pets.
Dogs may not be doing cold plunges or wearing biometric rings, but it’s not uncommon for them to be given anti-aging peptide therapy medication or getting a grooming session that includes a blueberry mask around their eyes that helps brighten their fur.
“Like human wellness, pet care has moved toward prevention, routine and emotional health rather than crisis,” Mr. Cheow said.
Dog grooming prices depend on a range of factors including the groomer’s expertise, how long it takes to groom the dog and any specific requirements for certain breeds.
And as more Americans are increasingly lonely and isolated and relying on their pets for emotional support, they’re also more likely to view them as family members — and willing to spend more on them, too.
“Dogs have become a kind of emotional infrastructure in a city that can otherwise feel fragmented and transient,” Mr. Cheow said.
Businesses and investors are paying attention, and the pet grooming industry is expected to reach $19.5 billion this year and $46.7 billion by 2036, according to a report published in February by Future Market Insights, a market research and consultancy.
From Grooming to Wellness
Jane Lauder, heiress to the Estée Lauder Companies, joined the pet wellness industry last year when she started a venture fund, TAW Ventures, named after her tiny goldendoodle, Thaddeus Alistair Warsh.
“When I left my full-time job at Estée Lauder, I decided to follow my passion of really raising the bar in the pet industry and really focusing on pet health and wellness and longevity,” she said. The goal, she added, is “figuring out a way to create the trust and transparency for pets that we’ve come to expect in our own beauty, health and wellness world.”
Longevity is on pet owners’ minds, she said, adding that she thinks artificial intelligence is going to help people better understand their pet’s health issues.
As the industry continues to evolve, prices are expected to increase at salons, mobile pet grooming services and veterinarian clinics that offer grooming services.
Ruth Zaplin, who lives in Washington, D.C., spends $500 to $700 every month to get her 1-year-old poodle, Jasper, groomed. “His haircuts cost more than mine,” she said.
Ms. Zaplin takes him to Chichie’s Grooming Spa, which she calls “the fancy groomer in D.C.”
“The Obamas are not too far from me — I’m sure he takes his Portuguese water dogs to Chichie’s,” she said.
She is worried the sessions might become “a challenge financially” once she retires, but she goes to Chichie’s because the groomer uses clippers to groom Jasper by hand.
“She really puts in the hours,” she said of the groomer, noting that Jasper’s last appointment took 10 hours. That session cost her $1,000.
Not everyone can afford those prices. Some owners are learning how to groom their dogs themselves or perform D.I.Y. maintenance grooms between professional ones. Paul Londraville of Greensboro, N.C., got Oliver, a cocker spaniel, a few years after he retired. He also got an electric clipper that attaches to a vacuum cleaner.
“This dog is a freak of nature in the fact that it’s stunning how much fur he can produce,” he said. “If I had to pay for grooming, I would have to live under a bridge.”
Some dog owners said they had crossed international borders to save money on grooming. Nicole Eaton, of Providence, R.I., spends $750 to take Charley, her poodle mix, to Serbia where she and her husband spend the summers. They make up the cost with cheap grooming (about $20) and professional teeth cleaning (about $100, with anesthesia).
Alan Bateman, who lives in San Diego, until recently spent $140 every six to eight weeks for a buzz cut and nail trim for his 8-year-old goldendoodle, Thiago. Because prices kept rising, Mr. Bateman started taking Thiago to Tijuana, Mexico, for grooming as well as vet care. Now he spends less than $40 on Thiago’s grooming session, which includes a cut, nail trim and ear cleaning.
“It’s not a hassle,” he said. “I drive across the border in my car.”
Others are cutting down on their own salon visits, pushing back hair and nail appointments, or giving up small indulgences.
“I used to get my eyebrows laminated,” said Michelle Marques, who lives in Brooklyn with Baldwin, her Lagotto Romagnolo, a rare breed traditionally raised to hunt truffles. “I’ve had to forgo some of my own grooming for his grooming.”
Teaching Dog Parents New Tricks
In November, when one of the reporters of this article, Vivian, sent a text to her groomer asking to schedule an appointment for her 2-year-old Norwich terrier, Porcini, she received an unexpected response.
“Sorry I’m not able to groom Porcini,” the groomer texted back. He said it had been six months since Porcini had been professionally groomed, and that he had expected her to bring him in more regularly. Though he had never made any of this explicit, he effectively fired Vivian, a first-time pet owner, and Porcini as clients.
Michelle Caruthers is another first-time pet owner who was fired by her groomer. The visits were expensive, she said, and she didn’t realize there were rules about how often a pet needed to go.
Dog groomers are adamant that they’re not overcharging: High-quality tools are expensive, said Monique Langlois, whose grooming business, Bone Appetit, in Kalamazoo, Mich., has been open for almost 20 years.
“We’re not trying to charge you something that’s unreasonable because we do have very specialized equipment,” she said.
Groomers say the cost of everything has gone up from water and electricity bills to the steel for the bathing tub to workers’ comp insurance.
Some groomers say they are amenable to working within people’s budgets. Ms. Langlois recommends customers be upfront about what they can afford.
“During the ’09 housing crisis,” she said, “I had people come to me and say: ‘My husband lost his job. I don’t want to give up the dog, but I need to know what I need to do so I can only come every three months.’”
That’s what Kate McDermott, who lives in Port Angeles, Wash., did when she got her 65-pound doodle, Mr. B (for “best boy”). “I was told that it would be between $90 and $150 each time that I went,” she said. “That is un-doable for me.”
Ms. McDermott learned to groom Mr. B, but she still takes him to a groomer for sanitary trims. In those sessions, the groomer points out areas on Mr. B that Ms. McDermott should pay more attention to in her own grooming. The charge? Ms. McDermott bakes pies, cookies and casseroles for the groomer in lieu of cash.
Educating dog parents on what their pet might need is part of a groomer’s responsibility, especially if it’s the person’s first dog, said Lucia Manosalvas, owner of JC Paws in Jersey City, N.J. “It is, I think, our duty as groomers.”
Ms. Manosalvas has trained about 15 people on how to groom and do basic care like ear cleaning and nail clipping for their dogs, she said. One of those people was Vivian, one of the authors of this article, who was desperate to get her dog groomed after getting fired by her groomer.
In December, she paid $500 to take a five-hour class with Ms. Manosalvas to learn the hand stripping technique. Since then, she’s groomed Porcini twice — and without paying $350, before tip. Porcini may not look as good as before, but he doesn’t seem to mind.
Vivian Giang joined The Times as a senior staff editor in 2019. Prior to The Times, she was a freelance writer and editor covering the workplace.
The post A $1,000 Dog Grooming Session? The Pet Wellness Industry Is Booming. appeared first on New York Times.
