Medium Dog Grooming

What counts as a Medium dog

Twenty-five to fifty pounds. Border Collies, Springer Spaniels, Standard Schnauzers, Australian Shepherds, Beagles, Whippets, Bulldogs, and most of the doodle crosses.

This is the widest range on the site in terms of what an appointment involves, because it holds both the lowest maintenance coats in grooming and the highest. A fifty pound Beagle is a bath and a deshed. A fifty pound Bernedoodle is three hours of scissor work.

Almost every disagreement about a grooming price happens in this bracket, and it happens because weight is the number given over the phone while coat is the thing that decides the work.

Where clipper work gives way to scissor work

The practical dividing line in grooming is not between sizes, it is between a dog that can be finished with a clipper and a dog that has to be finished with shears.

Clipper work is fast and consistent. A blade or a comb attachment sets a length and takes the coat down to it, and a competent groomer can do a whole body in a fraction of the time scissoring takes. Scissor work is slow, it is where the skill sits, and it is what produces a shaped outline rather than a uniform length.

Most medium dogs with a curly or a fleece coat need scissor finishing, because a clipper alone leaves a flat, blocky shape that reads as shaved rather than styled. The legs particularly: a scissored leg is round and columnar, a clipped one is not. The head is scissor work on almost every breed.

This is the mechanical reason a doodle costs what it costs. It is not the size, it is the hour or more of standing over the dog with shears afterward.

If you would rather pay for less of that, ask for a shorter overall length and a simpler outline. It is a legitimate choice, it holds its shape longer, and it means a shorter appointment. What it is not is a lesser groom.