Looking at grooming jobs? Keep 100% and groom on your terms.
Salon chairs take a cut. Lead sites charge you per enquiry. Booking software wants a monthly fee. WashDash does none of that — founding groomers get a free public booking page, a live calendar, and customers near them, free forever.
Your services, your prices
Full grooms, bath & brush, de-shed, nails, cat grooming — list what you actually offer, priced by you.
Your area, your hours
Set a travel radius and weekly hours. Van-based or in-home — both work on WashDash.
Instant bookings
Customers book your real open times. No phone tag, no chasing quotes, no per-lead fees.
Thinking about taking cats?
Cat grooming is its own skill set, not a dog groom with a smaller animal in the tub. Sessions are shorter, restraint tolerance is much lower, and the judgement calls are different. Groomers who take cats — and say so plainly — are easier for cat owners to find, because cat owners search for cat grooming specifically rather than for “pet grooming”.
A badly matted cat is usually a clip, not a de-matting job. Cat skin is thin and mats tent it up where it's easy to nick, so the humane answer is generally a short clip — often a lion cut — rather than working through the mats. Unlike northern double-coated dog breeds, cats aren't double-coated, so the coat grows back normally afterwards.
Where the line sits matters too: if a cat can't be handled safely while awake, that's a veterinary conversation, not a groomer's call. Being upfront about what you will and won't take on is part of the service, and it saves everyone a wasted visit.
On WashDash you list cat grooming as its own service at your own price, so a cat owner nearby books the thing you actually offer. If you want the customer-side view of this work, see our cat grooming pages on de-matting, lion cuts and sanitary trims.
Grooming jobs in the GTA vs. working for yourself
WashDash doesn't post grooming vacancies — no salon jobs, no bather or grooming assistant roles. We aren't an employer. If you're searching for grooming work around Toronto and the GTA though, there are two different routes, and only one of them needs somebody to hire you first.
In a salon or a mobile company's van, the employer supplies the tub, the table, the dryers, the products and a booked-up day, and pays you hourly, per dog, or on commission. What you give up is control: you don't set prices, you don't choose which dogs come through the door, and the clients belong to the business, so the book you build doesn't follow you when you leave.
Independent, that flips. Your prices, your hours, your travel radius, your clients — and your costs. Kit or a fitted van, insurance, products, the vehicle, HST registration once revenue crosses the CRA small-supplier threshold, and the quiet weeks are yours too. It is a genuine trade-off, not a free upgrade, and most people don't jump straight across. Evenings and weekends first, widening as the calendar fills, is the usual route.
Two setup questions land straight away, and both are cheaper to think through before you buy anything. The first is whether you work out of a fitted van or inside the customer's home — in-home or in the van sets out how the two actually differ on water, power, space and the dogs each suits. The second is whether to take a salon chair at all; mobile groomer vs. salon in Toronto is written for owners rather than groomers, which is exactly why it's worth reading — it is the reasoning your future clients are using when they choose.
Starting as a bather or grooming assistant
Bathing and prep work is how most GTA groomers actually got in. You bathe, dry, brush out and prep dogs for the groomer, and you learn handling on a lot of animals quickly — which is the part that can't be learned from a course. Ontario licenses no groomers and mandates no certification, so nothing about the trade is gatekept by a qualification. The flip side of that is real: since no exam sets the standard, who trains youis what determines whether you come out able to handle a frightened senior dog or a matted doodle safely. Ask what you'll actually be allowed to do, and how soon.
Cat work is worth naming separately. Far fewer groomers take cats, so the people who do are easier to find and are usually booked further out — and cat owners search for cat grooming specifically rather than for “pet grooming”. It is a different skill set, not a dog groom on a smaller animal, so it's worth learning deliberately rather than by accident.
If you're weighing up going independent, our guides cover the licensing, insurance and setup questions in detail: how to become a dog groomer in Ontario and how to start a mobile grooming business. And because the licensing answer genuinely changes at the city line, we keep a dated, sourced table of it: do you need a licence to groom pets in the GTA?
What the demand actually looks like over a GTA year
Two things decide whether an independent book holds up: what you can charge, and how evenly the work arrives. Neither is a mystery, and both are easier to plan for than to discover in month three.
On price, the honest answer is that there is no GTA rate card — a groom is quoted off coat condition, size, temperament and how long it's been since the last one, not off a breed name. What actually moves the price of a dog groom is the customer-facing version of that conversation, and it is the one worth sending to anyone who asks you for a number over text before you've seen the dog.
On timing, the year is not flat. The spring coat blow is the busiest de-shedding stretch there is, and it arrives for every double-coated dog in the city inside a few weeks — the spring shed-out covers what that season asks of a mobile groomer. A lot of first enquiries also come from owners of one heavy-coated breed who have been trying to keep on top of it themselves and have run out of road; golden retriever grooming at home is that customer mid-decision, which makes it a fair picture of the brief you'll be handed.
Groomer questions, answered.
Is this a job or self-employment?
Self-employment. WashDash isn't an employer or a franchise — you run your own grooming business, set your own prices, hours, and service area, and customers pay you directly. WashDash gives you the booking page and sends customers your way.
What does it cost?
Nothing for founding pros — free forever. No commission on bookings, no monthly software fee, and no pay-per-lead charges. You keep 100% of what customers pay you.
Do I need a grooming van?
No. Van-based groomers and in-home groomers (you work inside the customer's home) are both welcome. Your profile makes clear how you work so customers know what to expect.
How do bookings arrive?
You keep a live calendar of your real open times. Customers see those times and book instantly — no phone tag, no callback requests. You get notified and the slot is held.
How are groomers vetted?
You confirm your business details and insurance during onboarding, and keep your availability current to stay listed. That's what earns the badges customers look for.
Do you post grooming jobs or grooming assistant vacancies?
No. WashDash is not an employer and doesn't list salon vacancies or assistant roles, so if you're after a wage job this isn't that. What it is: a free way for a groomer who already works independently — or wants to start — to be found and booked without paying for leads.
Can I list cat grooming?
Yes, and it's worth listing separately from your dog services at its own price. Cat owners tend to search for cat grooming specifically rather than 'pet grooming', so spelling out that you take cats makes you findable to people who are often struggling to find anyone who does.
I'm looking for a grooming assistant or bather job — can you help?
Not directly: WashDash posts no vacancies and isn't an employer, so we have no assistant or bather roles to offer. Those jobs are advertised by salons and mobile grooming companies themselves, on the usual job boards and often just on their own social accounts. Worth knowing before you start: bathing and prep is the normal way into this trade, and because Ontario mandates no certification, the quality of the groomer who trains you matters more than any course you could take first.
Are there cat grooming jobs in Toronto?
Cat-only grooming roles are rare as employment — most cat grooming in the GTA is done by independent groomers or by salons that take cats alongside dogs, rather than by dedicated cat-grooming employers. That scarcity cuts both ways: far fewer groomers take cats, so a groomer who does, and says so plainly, is much easier for cat owners to find. WashDash isn't hiring, but you can list cat grooming as its own service at your own price and be booked directly for it.
Do I need a licence to groom pets in Ontario?
Ontario has no provincial licence or mandatory certification for pet groomers — the trade isn't regulated at the provincial level. Municipal business licensing is separate and does vary by city, so check your own municipality's rules before you start. Our Ontario groomer guide walks through this in more detail.
The services GTA clients ask for by name
These are the customer-facing explainers for the work you would be booked for. Worth reading before you list — they set what a client arrives expecting, and they are written to talk people out of the jobs that are wrong for their animal.
Groomer guides
The GTA is short on groomers. Be the one people can book.
Founding spots are limited per area. Setup takes minutes, and your calendar is yours from day one.
Claim your founding-pro spotPrefer to talk it through first? Book a free 15-minute founding-pro call and we'll walk you through how it works.