PetGroomBossPro Blog — Scheduling & Routes

Scheduling Long Grooms: Giant Breeds, Doodles and Heavy Coats

Every mobile groomer has a few appointments that take over the day. The Newfoundland who comes every eight weeks. The doodle whose owner skipped a visit. The double-coated shepherd in shedding season with De-Shed Treatment ticked. Those long grooms are often good work and good money. They just need to be scheduled on purpose, not squeezed in.

Spotting a Long Groom Before It Surprises You

A second person in the van can change how long a big groom takes, as covered in Groomer and Bather in One Van: Scheduling a Two-Person Grooming Team. Whether you have help or not, the first step is noticing the long stops before you book around them.

In PetGroomBossPro every pet on a visit carries its breed, size and coat, and every job shows the add-ons ticked for it. That means the clues are right on the card:

• Size. Large and Giant sit at the top of the list for a reason.
• Coat. Long, Double Coat and Curly / Doodle coats usually take more time than Short / Smooth.
• Add-ons. De-Matting, De-Shed Treatment and Flea & Tick Bath ticked on a job all point to a longer stop.
• Notes. “Nervous with the dryer” or “needs breaks” on the pet's notes line means slower is better.
• Past notes. The groomer's note from last time — “matting behind the ears is coming back” — tells you what to expect this time.

Because the next visit at a home fills in from the last one, all of that is already there when the visit comes up again. Nobody has to remember that the big fluffy one at the end of the street took most of the morning last time.

Where Long Grooms Belong in the Day

There is no one right slot for a long groom, but a few patterns work for many groomers:

• First thing. A long groom first means the groomer starts fresh, and any overrun pushes the day back once instead of compounding.
• Before a natural break. A long groom right before lunch gives some slack: if it runs over, lunch gets shorter instead of the next customer waiting.
• Not between two fixed times. Wedging a long groom between an 11:00 and a 1:00 that cannot move is how days fall apart.

How to build a day around fixed times is covered in Fitting a Grooming Route Around Fixed Appointment Times.

How Many Long Grooms in One Day?

Only you know how many big dogs you want to do in a day. Some groomers are happy with two giant breeds and a cat. Others would rather spread the heavy work across the week. The schedule helps either way: filter the Scheduled list to a van and the pets on each card make it obvious when a day is stacked with Large and Giant dogs.

If a day looks too heavy, move a flexible long groom to another day while it is still on Pending Jobs. If the client is a repeat client and their day is always heavy, think about changing their slot on Recurring Clients so it lands on a lighter day going forward.

Pricing That Matches the Time

A long groom that is priced like a short one is a scheduling problem as much as a money problem. The Book Now page lets you set a base price per service and a price add-on per size, and add-ons carry their own prices. A full groom for a small dog might be $85 with $30 added for a large dog, and De-Matting priced on top.

When the price reflects the work, the long grooms on your day are paying for the time they take, and fitting fewer stops into that day makes sense.

Telling the Customer What to Expect

Owners of big or heavily coated dogs often do not realize how long the visit takes. When you book them, give them a realistic time and let them know the van will be there for a while. If the visit is the first of the day, they know it starts on time. If it is later, the on-the-way text and the live map in the customer app will tell them when the van is coming.

Long visits mean the van may be parked at the curb a long time, so clear van notes about parking and the outlet or water hookup matter even more here.

Balancing the Week

Long grooms are easier to live with when they are spread out. A week with one or two big grooms per day is usually calmer than a week with five on Monday and none on Friday. Repeat slots make that balance stick, because each client keeps the same weekday, time and van. For all the tools that help balance a mobile grooming week, see the mobile grooming scheduling software page.