Dog grooming books to boost your skills

If you run a dog grooming business or plan to start one, it’s important to have strong skills to earn and satisfy clients. Plus, you’ll need to stay up to date on trends and techniques in the industry to improve your services. A great way to do this is by reading the best dog grooming books. But if you’re not sure where to find the right titles, we can help. 

This guide will list the best dog grooming books to support your business, including: 

• Dog Grooming for Dummies by Margaret H. Bonham
• All Breed Dog Grooming by Denise Dobish, Gary M. Ernst, Susan Gutman, and Sandy King
• The Dog Groomers Manual by Sue Gould
• The Dog’s Mind by Bruce Fogle 
• The Encyclopedia of Dog Breeds by Juliette Cunliffe 
• How to Start a Home-based Pet Grooming Business by Missi and Kathy Salzberg

You can also read our guide on starting a dog grooming business from home. 

To succeed as a dog groomer, you’ll need to know how to create a clean, finished look. If you’re new to the dog grooming business, you may benefit from a beginners guide to establish your skills, from prepping a workspace and getting the right tools to learning techniques. 

Dog Grooming for Dummies by Margaret H. Bonham outlines the basics of dog grooming so you can learn valuable techniques and approaches. Plus, this guide can offer valuable tips on working with animals. 

With the book’s useful information, you can prepare yourself to offer services worth paying for. This guide lays out the information in a way that’s easy to grasp, and it’s useful to refer back to it as you practice dog grooming. 

The guide All Breed Dog Grooming by Denise Dobish, Gary M. Ernst, Susan Gutman, and Sandy King offers a more in-depth guide on dog grooming techniques once you establish your foundational skills. This book was also written by expert dog groomers and handlers, so their step-by-step instructions are well-informed. 

This dog grooming book also explores different tips depending on the breed you groom, covering 164 breeds. Since breeds vary in hair types and textures, they require unique approaches to grooming. For example, some dogs have hair rather than fur, or some are prone to shedding. 

Similarly, each dog breed has a unique temperament and trending styles. Knowing these differences will allow you to offer the best services and stock the right tools and treatments to create great doggy looks. 

The more dog grooming guides you reference, the more tips you’ll pick up, so you may also want to look at The Dog Groomers Manual by Sue Gould. This book works as an ultimate reference to every aspect of the dog grooming business with helpful illustrations. It also offers tips on altering grooming methods based on a dog’s appearance and behaviour. 

Gould is also a Guild of Master Groomers member and has had a long and successful career as an international dog groomer. 

Aside from sharpening your dog grooming skills, you can benefit from learning more about dogs and their psychology or thinking processes. With The Dog’s Mind by Ben Fogle, you can develop your understanding of how a dog thinks and behaves. Fogle, an experienced vet, outlines how dogs see the world and learn. 

This knowledge will help you better care for and work with dogs for your business. For example, if a dog is nervous while grooming them, knowing these signs and how to soothe them will allow you to better do your job. 

The Encyclopedia of Dog Breeds by Juliette Cunliffe is another way to learn more about dogs and their care needs. This book is great to have on hand to reference when you come across new breeds. The vaster your dog knowledge, the more professional and valuable you can be for your clients. 

Lastly, if you want advice on starting your own dog grooming business, or input on improving an existing business, you may want to check out How to Start a Home-based Pet Grooming Business by Missi and Kathy Salzberg. This book is a great way to learn about dog grooming, specifically in the context of small businesses. 

This book covers the logistics of setting up a home-based grooming business, which will help you organise and prepare yours for success. It covers everything you’ll need to know, including marketing, pricing, and writing a business plan. Hearing from an author who did it successfully is both motivational and a great way to learn what to do and avoid. 

As you strengthen your skills with these dog grooming books, you can increase your client base and earn more money from your business. But, financial management can be stressful and time-consuming when you’re self-employed. That’s why thousands of business owners use the Countingup app to make their financial admin easier. 

Countingup is the business current account with built-in accounting software that allows you to manage all your financial data in one place. It includes automatic expense categorisation, which labels your business transactions with HMRC approved labels so you can find them. 

Then, the receipt capture tool reminds you to snap a picture of your receipt when you make a purchase. This way, you can have organised records. These expense features will help you track how much you spend for your business and help you adjust and budget for growth.

Plus, the Countingup app lets you create and send unlimited invoices on the go. When your pet grooming clients pay invoices, the app will notify you and automatically match it to a payment. Alongside these tools, the app generates tax estimates and cash flow insights, so you can confidently keep on top of your business finances wherever you are. 

Start your three-month free trial today. 

Find out more here.