# How often do Goldens need to see a groomer?



## Megora

See here - Golden Retriever Grooming

To be absolutely honest - the most maintenance you absolutely need to do with your golden retriever is brushing her at least once or twice a week. Everything else is optional and depends on your lifestyle and her specific type of coat. 

With my guy the two main things are -

1. I trim the lighter fluff on his ears to keep it tidy and prevent matting. 

2. I also trim the fur on his feet, mainly because otherwise he will get pine sap stuck to the fluff. 

That's it. I do trim his tail (I hate it when the tails are so long they look like pony tails) and trim the feathering on his hocks, but these aren't necessary.

I don't trim anywhere else.

Aside from the fur, you need to:

1. keep your dog's teeth clean 
2. trim the toenails
3. clean the ears after baths and swimming and every couple months or so


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## Jax's Mom

You will get a variety of answers. My 3 are my pets, companions only. I do not show them, which does make a huge difference in your answers here. I bathe all the dogs myself (and hubby of course), I brush them as frequently as I can, usually once a week or twice, but more during heavy shedding time. This is mostly to keep the hair off my furniture and floors. I do not need to trim my female Lucy. Her coat is much thinner and really has never needed any trimming at all. My oldest, who is 2, Jax, needs trimming around his paws, otherwise his feet start to look like snowshoes LOL. It gets filled with dirt, mud, snow wet...whatever the weather...its in his fur, in beween his pawpads and toes....so I use a scissor a snip away. Thats all! All I can say is BRUSH BRUSH BRUSH. I use a slicker brush and once in awhile use a furminator...very sparingly.

Forgot to mention Boone...poor thing...LOL He is still growing in his coat (10 months old) so all i do is a quick brush when he sits still long enough!


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## iansgran

Goldens are self cleaning dogs, so you really don't have to bath them too frequently. I brush every few days, and one month we go to the do it yourself dog wash, and next month to the groomer. I myself only keep ears cleaned and nails clipped. Any other little trimming if it needs to be done, feet for instance, the groomer does.


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## lgnutah

I haven't ever taken Brooks to a groomer (he isn't shown)\ I just brush him, give a bath when needed, clean his ears if he goes swimming, use enzyme toothpaste once or twice week, and trim nails when needed.


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## Judi

I have a hose in my stalled shower and bathe my Goldens myself using dog shampoo and a washcloth.


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## Radarsdad

I have mine "Summer Cut" every year now. Helps him deal with hot Texas summers. Grows out perfectly by the time cool weather hits. His winter coat comes in just in time. They like it and cool better during field training.


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## Bender

It will depend on your dog's coat and how often you brush and bath him, as well as what you are comfortable doing.

If your dog is very hairy and gets 'grinch feet', it's best to trim out the extra hair between the toes, top and bottom so they look neater and don't track in the dirt and mud as bad. If you find he mats a lot behind the ears, a good groomer can thin out the hair and trim it so it looks need and doesn't mat between groomings. Start now with bathing and brushing him out yourself, at home, so he's used to it and it's routine for both of you. You may find that he never needs brushing, or he needs a lot, and it will change at times when he's shedding (if you find he's matted anywhere, you waited too long). 

Please, do not cut out the mats or shave your dog. It's generally not done well and it causes more problems, and nothing looks worse than the 'do it yourself' mat trim where the dog looks like they had a tangle with a drunk lawnmower (saw one of those today...).

Lana


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## Mavrk

Sunshine is only 15 weeks old, so I haven't had to do much.
1. Comb her daily. She doesn't need it daily, but I like the bonding time and it helps her get used to the handling. Besides I get some loose hair out every time anyway. I occasionally use a pin brush too.
2. I clean her ears weekly or after a bath.
3. I bathe her every couple of weeks. This is more to get her used to it than anything else. I imagine it will be less frequent when she is older. I use a forced air dryer that helps to blow the extra hair away and dry her faster.
4. Trim her nails as needed (thinking of trying a dremel, but am more confident I know what I am doing with nail trimmers).
5. Trim the hair on the bottom of the foot. I couldn't remember what to do with the pasterns (behind the large pad of the foot) so I left it alone. Now that she needs another trim, I realized I should have cut the pastern hair back a little.
6. Brush her teeth a couple times a week or more often if I think of it.

I expect later to have to use the brush more often and to blow off the hair with the dryer more often. I don't trust myself with the ears and other trimming yet. There is a show nearby when Sunshine is 10 months old that my breeder will be attending. She said she could help me out at that time.

I am timid about bringing her to a groomer (not that she needs it yet, but her ears could use a little trim). I don't think goldens are the easiest to trim and I need to research who in my area might be trained correctly.


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## Swampcollie

It really depends upon the individual dogs' coat length and texture. My twelve year old hasn't ever been to a groomer, she has a wash and wear coat. My nine year old needs a trip to the groomer about four times a year to clean up the furnishings. The two year old has short dense wavy coat that I can run a comb through in a few minutes. The only real trimming she needs on a regular basis is the soft fur around her ears. If I learned to trim up the ears proficiently, she wouldn't need to see a groomer.


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## jackie_hubert

Never plan on taking our guy unless he he gets skunked. Do everything myself.


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## LibertyME

its kind of fun to learn how to do the trimming yourself
It would only take about 10 trips to the groomer to get yourself a nice set of shears.
Two trips to get a nice grooming table (optional, but nice on your back)
Two more trips to get an outdoor tub (again optional but nice on the back)

Shampoo/combs and brushes...you would be buying anyway...

PLUS, who knows, you may fall in love with the breed and have two or three goldens at your feet! The bill to take them all to the groomer regularly would be STEEP!!


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## AmberSunrise

I rarely bring my dogs to a groomer. I have 3 goldens who are bathed as needed.
The grooming they need depends on their coats and how much they roll etc. 

Feet and nails are done at least once a week.
Full comb outs done after feet are done (their reward for being good), additional brushings might be done for shedding or just because
Tails and furnishings are done perhaps every 4-6 weeks.
Ears - Towhee is my only dog who needs her ears trimmed and that is down to about every 6 weeks now,
Pants - Casey is 10 yo and hypothyroid which perhaps accounts for the fact that he now can look scraggly (dread locks) if not trimmed every 4-6 weeks; he's the only dog I've ever had that needed this attention  
Faelan has his ruff thinned every 4-6 weeks.

So it does depend on the dog. Groomers can be expensive and can truly do an awful job - besides I find the time spent with the grooming enjoyable; it is truly one on one time and each of my dogs will run into the grooming room and up the stairs to the table by themselves; since I suspect they don't really enjoy having their nails ground or their feet trimmed, I think they enjoy the one on one time too


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## Booker T

I must say that Booker T is very much a >self cleaning< dog. _We often have comments from people asking us where we send him for grooming. _















The thing is:
1. my husband washes him at home. 
2.he gets washed with my hair shampoo and only once every 3 weeks or when he may have rolled in something. 
3.he gets a brush about once a week. 
4.we clip his nails ourselves 
5.we clean his ears after he has been in the water
6. he keeps his teeth clean by chewing on a bone every now and again
*He always looks groomed.* It is such a great feeling knowing that what I have been doing is *ok* and that most of the dogs spoken about above are treated in a very similar fashion.


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## Penny & Maggie's Mom

My crew gets groomed at home. They are bathed every week or two ( good for the skin and coat), brushed every day or two. These are times that we all really enjoy, and a great way to really get to know their bodies. Every couple of weeks we trim nails, clean up grinch feet and trim the hair in the inside of the ear. This allows more air to get to the ear and avoid alot of ear problems.


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## tippykayak

What a dog's coat needs is highly dependent on the dog. Right now, I have Comet, who has a straight coat with a long mane and relatively long furnishings. His pants, mane, and ears will all mat if he's not brushed fairly regularly. He also picks up burrs, partly because of his coat length, and partly because he loves to roll around in the brush.

I would rate Comet's coat a 9/10 on the wash-and-wear scale. Unless he gets something greasy on him, a rinse, towel dry, and brush puts him straight. He gets the 9 because his pants will mat if left totally alone.

My other dog is Jax, and he has a dense, wavy, old-fashioned hunting coat. It's very coarse on the outside (which is correct) and has a dense undercoat. It's extremely water-repellant, and he could probably go for a month or two without maintenance and have no problems (I don't know for sure, since he's on the same brushing schedule as Comet). Three minutes with a grooming rake once a week and after all swimming, and he'll never mat anywhere. He also just doesn't seem to pick up burrs. I'm really not sure how that works, since he seems to charge through the same amount of brush as Comet. He gets a 10/10 on the wash-and-wear scale. I usually towel and brush him after swimming, though I'm fairly certain I could just let him air dry and brush him once a week.

I used to give my dogs summer cuts, but comments from folks on the forum about the way the undercoat works as air conditioning convinced me not to do it anymore, and I'm happier with how they look and don't see any extra problems with overheating. That said, when it's hot out, I always take them to a hiking spot that has a stream or lake at the beginning so they can get wet and carry around water in their undercoats for cooling as we run or hike.

So I don't trim my dogs at all anymore. I sometimes feel I should clean up Comet's "muppet" feet, but Jax doesn't have them. I don't clean up their ears or heads because I actually greatly prefer the natural look of an untrimmed dog to the look of a show groomed dog. I think dogs at a show are lovely, and I have great admiration for people who can groom their dogs for show, but there's something I prefer in the look of a dog who's got a nice coat growing out naturally.












I also don't really bathe the dogs with shampoo unless they roll in something or get stinky after a week of swimming days in hot weather.

So that's a really long answer to a short question. How often does a Golden need a groomer? Depending on the coat, potentially never. If you have a rake and a slicker and your dog's coat isn't going nuts in length anywhere or matting constantly in a spot, it doesn't really need much cutting.


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## SylviaB

Tundra goes to the groomer once a month. He doesn't have a heavy coat at all so he doesn't need any trimming. It's really just for a bath and to get his nails clipped. They only charge $23 and it's well worth it to me since my back gets "cranky".


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## Lilliam

Max is groomed once a month, I'm new to goldens and he's my first, so I want to keep him tidy. I also want him to be OK with being handled by different people and used to different situations.


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## jackie_hubert

Wow, it's so cheap in some of the places! We would pay about 75 dollars just to walk through the doors...I would totally take him if it was cheap, at the very least for the socialization.


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## goldensrbest

I do try, to do the trimming, not good at the feet thing, don't like the hair between the toes, keep it cut, but not good at it, bathed as needed, about three times a year, or so, not often at all. Brushed, daily, teeth, three times a week.


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## vixen

Max has never seen a groomer, is very rarely bathed. I brush and trim when he looks like he needs it.


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## Megora

As far as the bathing - our previous goldens would get baths maybe once or twice a year? 

I'd probably follow the same route with Jacks, except he sleeps on my bed. That means he gets a bath at least once a month... and even more frequently than that during the warmer months since he goes swimming every weekend. 

Since he gets bathed so frequently, we've got the bathtub routine down pretty good. I used to get backaches while bathing Danny from washing him down and keeping him in the tub. That doesn't happen with Jacks because he just stands there and patiently waits for me to finish up and release him from the tub. He will stand there in the tub and wait while I go grab a towel to hold up in front of me before I say "OK" before he hops out.


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## CarolinaCasey

I think it depends on you & the dog.

Does the dog have lots of unruly coat, shed a lot, etc.

Are you a clean freak that doesn't like hair on the couch, or even a speck on the floor? 

Do 'grinch toes' with lots of hair sticking out bother you? If so, then grooming more frequently will be needed.


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## GoldenCamper

It has been almost 20 years and I have never brought any of my Goldens to a groomer. I do like the "show coats" they certainly are beautiful, but I prefer them au naturel. Mostly all I do is brush them out 2x a week (daily in tick season) and keep the feet tidy and nails trimmed. They rarely get a bath and have never had a summer cut.

I agree with Ian'sgran that they "are self cleaning dogs" at least mine have been. They love to roll around in the grass or snow giving themselves a bath. I have received many comments over the years on how great they smell and are often asked if they just got groomed.


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## nicosmom

Thanks so much for all the replies! This has been very helpful. I guess they don't even NEED to see a groomer regularly so that's pretty awesome. I'll try to stick with doing all the grooming myself.


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## MittaBear

I usually try to brush Chester every couple of days. He gets baths more often in the summer, but that's because he swims and goes to the dog park more often and so he gets dirty more easily.

As for trimming, the only thing I will personally do is trim the hair in between his toes so it doesn't get too long.

I like to get him to the groomers every once in awhile to get a good professional job done - this is usually a couple times a year.


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## tippykayak

OK - Update. Comet was getting a little bit of lakewater/algae smell in his mane, so I decided to bathe both the boys. I used an oatmeal and aloe shampoo, rinsed the coats thoroughly, then rubbed a little bit of Cowboy Magic through their coats, with a little extra in the longer sections like the pants, tails, and manes.

Holy wow, I forgot how nice it was to have a properly bathed and conditioned dog. Their coats are absolutely glorious, though a little fluffier than is probably proper. All the long fur is in amazing shape from it.

So anyway, I thought I'd share that their once-in-a-blue-moon bath had wonderful results.


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## JeanninePC99

We do everything at home. 

Bax loves the Kong Zoom Groom and tolerates the Furminator (I don't use it too heavily since he doesn't seem to like it). I also got a dremmel to use on his nails which he seems to deal with much better than nail clippers.

One of the best parts of washing him at home is that I use the same shampoo now as when he was a pup. That smell brings back great memories. When I go to the dog wash, they always want to use a new shampoo or something different. I really just like to use that original shampoo.


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