There Is No Going Rate. There Isn’t Even a Going Cocker Spaniel.
Every week someone posts it!
“What’s everyone charging for a Cocker Spaniel?”
And look, we’ve all been there. You’re trying to sanity check your price list, you’re tired, and you’re staring at a very opinionated spaniel thinking, surely someone out there knows The Number.
What most groomers eventually figure out is that there isn’t one. There’s no fixed price. There’s no magic rule. That perfect, predictable Cocker Spaniel the industry used to imagine doesn’t actually exist in the real world (and probably never did).
The whole idea actually came from something much simpler. And a bit outdated.
Where the old idea really came from
It wasn’t research or careful business planning. It came from the old timing culture.
Groomers were taught that certain breeds “should” take a set amount of time, and salons based their price lists around those expectations. A Cocker was slotted into the one hour category, so it got the one hour price. Nobody was looking at the dog in front of them. They were following the board on the wall.
That made sense in the older style of grooming. The industry was smaller, trims were simpler, and salons weren’t working with the huge variety of coat types, behaviours, and custom styles you see today. And owners definitely weren’t rolling in with toy cavoodlechons and cock-a-doodle-collies that look like someone hit randomise on a dog generator.
Dogs have always been individuals, but the industry didn’t really operate that way yet. Breeds were treated like predictable categories rather than living beings with their own quirks, coat histories, and needs.
Today’s grooming reality
Two Cockers can walk in ten minutes apart and feel like they came from different planets.
One is brushed at home, comes every 4 weeks, hops on the table like it’s their job and practically assists you. The next one hasn’t seen a brush since the last solar eclipse, screams if you point at a nail, spins like a rotisserie chicken, and somehow weighs double what they look like.
Same breed. Totally different workload.
This is why the old timing formula doesn’t hold up anymore. Not every dog fits the mould, and honestly, very few ever did.
The industry shift
The truth is every dog is an individual. We all say that, but most businesses (salon, home, or mobile) don’t actually build their pricing or scheduling around it yet. And that’s ok, because the whole industry has been stuck in the old breed time system for decades. But the shift is happening. Bit by bit, groomers are starting to look at the dog in front of them instead of the breed list. Their behaviour, their coat, their nerves, their size, their age, their history with grooming, their tolerance levels, their whole vibe.
Because two dogs with the same breed label can need completely different time, support, and safety. And if the groomer pretends they’re the same job, the dog pays for it, and so does the groomer’s body. Individual dog thinking isn’t some perfect philosophy you have to nail overnight. It’s just a tiny pivot in how you see the work. A click of the dial. And honestly, even that small shift changes everything.
So what is the real question?
It’s not:
“What’s the going rate for Cockers?”
and it’s not even
“How long should a Cocker Spaniel take?”
The real question is:
How long does THIS dog take ME, in MY workflow, with MY skill set, in MY business, today?
Because that is the only true constant. Everything else is just noise!
What actually goes into pricing
Pricing doesn’t come from a breed name.
It comes from:
your overheads (including your ongoing edcuation and professional development WINK!)
your tools
your body
your time
your experience
your recovery after the spicy ones
your handling skills
your finishing work
the coat in front of you
the behaviour in front of you
the honest truth of how long it takes you
A number in a comment thread can’t tell you any of this.
And yes, use the word “from”
If everything is a fixed price, you’re basically locking yourself inside a Stephen King horror novel and hoping the monster skips your page.
Base prices start at “from” because dogs are individuals, not products on a shelf.
So where does this leave you?
You do not have to guess your prices.
You do not have to match your neighbour.
You do not have to squish yourself into someone else’s timeline.
You just have to know:
What does this dog cost me to groom well, safely, kindly, and consistently?
That’s it.
That’s the whole game.
And once you start pricing like that, you stop chasing the going rate and start running a business that actually works for you.
With love,
igroomhub x
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