SEPTEMBER 30, 2026

5 min read

How much should I charge to groom a doodle?

Photo: Adi.darkblue, public domain (CC0), via Wikimedia Commons

The cost of one flat doodle price

If you charge one flat price for all doodles, you lose money on each long groom. Dapper Doodle Grooming, a doodle specialist in Springfield, Missouri, puts a full Standard groom at 2.5 to 3.5 hours of one-on-one work in its 2026 cost guide, against 60 to 90 minutes for a Labrador or a Beagle. That's an hour of difference between one Standard and the next before anyone mentions mats, and with a flat price you charge both the same.

This guide covers the four things that move a doodle's minutes, a price ladder for Minis and Standards built from published 2026 price lists, how to check that ladder against your own clock, and what to say when someone asks "how much for a doodle?" before you've seen the coat.

Four things that move a doodle's minutes

Goldendoodles and Labradoodles both come in sizes that belong on different lines of your price list, and four things change how long a groom takes:

• Size. Dapper Doodle's 2026 guide bands Minis at 15 to 35 pounds for $60 to $100 and Standards at 50 to 80 pounds for $90 to $140. Katie's Dog Grooming in Plainfield, Indiana, posts $70 to $90 for a Mini and $100 to $150 for a Standard on its 2026 price page. A Mini Goldendoodle and a Standard Goldendoodle share a name, but at those weights the Standard is a much bigger job on the table.
• Coat type. The Australian Labradoodle Association of America's breed standard recognizes two coats: fleece, soft like an Angora goat's and straight, wavy or softly spiraled, and wool, like lamb's wool, spiraling and parting to the skin. Plenty of doodles grow neither and come out flat-coated and shedding, and you groom those more like a retriever than a poodle. Coat density changes the price as well: Doggy Daze charges $10 more for a dense coat than a fine one at all sizes up to 90 pounds on its 2026 price list, and Katie's 2026 page adds $20 when the owner wants the coat left longer than three-quarters of an inch.
• Weeks since the last groom. The 2026 Dapper Doodle guide puts most doodles on a 6 to 8 week cycle, or 4 to 6 weeks for longer coats, and says stretching to 10 to 12 weeks "usually means more matting and a higher per-groom bill." Ask for this number on the phone, since it's the best guide to the coat you'll get before you see the dog.
• Matting. The same 2026 guide says most salons handle light friction mats free or for $10 to $20, charge $30 to $80 for heavy matting depending on severity, and add a flat $15 to $40 shave-down fee on top of the base groom when the mats are too tight to brush. Katie's 2026 list prices matting at $5 to $20.

You set size and coat type once per dog, while weeks and matting change with each visit, so the ladder below prices by size and by the coat's condition on arrival.

The doodle price ladder, Mini and Standard

Start each size at a base, then add the published fees as the coat gets worse. All the numbers come from the two doodle price lists above:

• Mini base, $80. The 2026 Mini ranges, Dapper Doodle's $60 to $100 and Katie's $70 to $90, both have a midpoint of $80.
• Standard base, $120. Dapper Doodle's Standard range has a midpoint of $115 and Katie's has one of $125, so the base sits halfway between, at $120.
• Fees scale with the dog. The Mini takes the bottom of each Dapper Doodle fee range and the Standard takes the top. At the middle of those weight bands a Standard weighs 65 pounds and a Mini 25, so there's about two and a half times as much dog to brush out.

The shave-down comes in under the brush-out because it's faster, and on most pelted coats it's kinder to the dog as well. Heavy mats add $30 to the Mini and $80 to the Standard, so if you charge one flat matting fee, both dogs pay the same for very different amounts of work.

Dapper Doodle and Katie's both price by size rather than by cross, so you can use the same ladder for a Mini Labradoodle or a Mini Bernedoodle. A Standard Bernedoodle over 80 pounds belongs in the large and giant band of the 2026 Dapper Doodle guide instead, at $150 to $180.

Check the ladder against your own clock

Use published prices to see what clients will compare you to, but set your own from what your hour has to earn. Run the Standard base through the 2.5 to 3.5 hours in Dapper Doodle's 2026 guide: $120 over 2.5 hours is $48 an hour, and over 3.5 hours it's about $34.

If your hour has to earn $60, that's $1 a minute. A Standard that takes you three hours, the middle of that range, needs $180 before anyone finds a mat. Price that dog at the ladder's $120 and you're $60 short on each visit. You can work out your own hourly number with how to price dog grooming.

So keep the ladder's shape and set its base from your own minutes:

1. Time your next three Minis and three Standards, tub to last nail, and note the weeks since each one's last groom.
2. Average the on-schedule times for each size and multiply by your per-minute rate to get your base.
3. Time the dematting too and charge those minutes at the same rate. Until you have your own numbers, treat the fees in the ladder as a floor. The matted dog pricing guide covers charging by the minute.

Then book the extra minutes as well as charging the higher price. On FurSlot's booking page the client picks the coat's condition, and FurSlot books a matted or long-overdue coat at 1.75 times the breed's usual minutes, so a Mini Goldendoodle with a usual booking of 110 minutes gets 195, and the dog after it still starts on time.

Quoting a doodle before you've seen the coat

You can't answer "How much for a doodle?" until you know which doodle, so ask the caller three things first:

1. "About how much does [dog's name] weigh?"
2. "When was [dog's name] last groomed?"
3. "Can you get a comb through to the skin behind the ears and under the front legs?"

Then quote the rung instead of a guess: "For a Standard on a regular schedule, [dog's name]'s groom is $[price]. Since it's been over 10 weeks, plan on $[price] to $[price], and I'll give you the exact number at drop-off before I start. If the mats are too tight to brush out, a shave-down is $[price], and the coat grows back even."

Put the matting steps on the note line of your printed price list as well, in the same words you use on the phone.

Look up time and price for every doodle size