Dog Bite Policy for Grooming Salons (Template)

Every salon grooms dogs that bite. The question is whether you decide how, or whether the newest groomer on the schedule finds out the hard way. Here is how to write a bite policy for a grooming salon: who takes difficult dogs, when to end a groom, how to charge, and wording you can copy.

“The newbie gets all the biters”

An experienced groomer starts at a new salon. On her first week the owner tells her how it works there: the newest groomer takes the biters. Her third dog of the day is a 15-year-old dachshund with a reputation. He clamps onto her finger and doesn’t let go.

The salon owner takes over and finishes the dog herself. Then she tells the new groomer, in front of the team, that she’ll hire someone “who can handle biters.”

A thread on r/doggrooming about that shift drew more than 70 replies, and nearly every one said the same thing: leave. Not because grooming a biter is unusual. Every salon grooms dogs that bite. The groomers were reacting to the fact that this salon had no policy at all, just a habit of passing the risk to whoever had the least power to refuse it.

This post is for salon owners. It covers what a bite policy should decide, who handles difficult dogs, when to end a groom, and how to charge. There’s wording at the end you can copy. It builds on the bite question in our 15 check-in questions to ask before every groom, because a policy only works if you find out about the bite history before the dog is on the table.

Should a grooming salon take dogs that bite?

Yes, most should, but on stated terms. Refuse every dog with a bite history and owners just stop telling you, so you groom the same dogs without the warning. Most dogs that bite at the groomer bite out of fear, for one part of the groom, and are manageable with the right handling.

What doesn’t work is having no policy. Without one:

The decision gets made at the desk, by whoever answers the phone, with the owner listening.
The dog gets passed around. One groomer refuses him, so he goes to the next, and every handover teaches him that the salon is a place where strangers grab his feet.
The risk goes to the junior staff, because the senior groomers can say no and the new hire can’t.

A fully booked salon owner in that thread put her rule simply. She takes serious biters only if the dog can wear a muzzle for the whole groom, and once a dog has a bite history there, the muzzle stays on. She wasn’t going to put her employees’ safety at risk for profit. You can disagree with where she drew the line, but every groomer in her salon knows where it is.

The five decisions a bite policy makes

1. Who handles difficult dogs

Name the person, or the people. Not “whoever’s free.” Most owners who do this well use some version of these rules:

Biters go to experienced groomers only, and those groomers can say no.
A difficult dog stays with one groomer. Groomers in the thread were firm on this. A dog that’s handed from groomer to groomer gets worse, and the salon loses its record of what works with him.
New hires don’t get biters in their first weeks, however experienced they are. They don’t know your building, your dryers or your regulars yet.
The owner or lead groomer takes a share. If you won’t groom him yourself, ask why you’re booking him.

That matters for staff retention as much as safety. Groomers talk, and a salon known for handing biters to the newest person struggles to keep good ones.

2. What changes once a dog has bitten

Decide this once, so nobody has to decide it at pickup with an upset owner. The common rule is simple. After a bite, or a real attempt at one, the muzzle goes on for that part of the groom at every future visit, and it’s noted on the dog’s record. Our muzzle policy guide covers the wording, the alternatives to try first, and the scripts for the conversation at the desk.

3. Sedation and referrals

Some salons accept dogs on vet-prescribed oral sedation, often given the night before and again an hour before the appointment. Others refuse sedated dogs, because sedation can mask both a warning bite and a medical emergency. Either is defensible; deciding dog by dog isn’t. Our post on health conditions owners forget to mention has the rules to set if you accept them.

For dogs you can’t groom safely, keep a referral ready, such as a vet clinic that grooms under sedation. “We’re not the right salon for him, but here’s who is” lands far better than “we can’t take him.”

4. When the groom ends

Groomers often push through a groom they should have stopped, because stopping feels like failing. Write the stop rules down so stopping is just following the policy:

The dog bites, or tries to bite, and a muzzle doesn’t settle him.
The dog is panicking: thrashing, screaming, trying to leap off the table, or not calming between tasks.
You’d need a second person and none is free.
The dog shows signs of a health problem, such as heavy panting, collapse, or a seizure.
The groomer says stop. No one overrules them.

When a groom ends early, call the owner, charge for the work done, and say exactly what happened. Then note what you finished and what’s left, so the next booking can be planned for it.

5. How you charge

A dog that needs two people and ninety minutes isn’t a standard groom, so don’t price him as one. Owners use three approaches:

A handling surcharge, quoted in advance, for dogs that need a muzzle, a second handler or a split groom.
A special-handling slot at a quiet time of day, priced for the full time it blocks.
Pricing the dog out of the book. Some groomers set the price high enough that they’re glad to do the groom if the owner pays it, and fine if they don’t.

If your groomers are on commission, think about who the premium goes to. If the person taking the risk doesn’t share in the extra money, you’re asking them to take on danger for nothing.

Difficult dogs also take up capacity. A biter in the 10am slot often takes the time of a dog and a half, so count that when you set how many dogs each groomer takes in a day.

A quick decision table

Use this as a starting point and adjust the lines to your salon.

What you know about the dog	Who grooms him	Handling	Price
Snappy for nails or feet only	Any groomer past their first month	Muzzle or helper for that part of the groom only	Standard, plus time if needed
Has bitten here, settles in a muzzle	Named experienced groomer	Muzzle for that part of every groom	Handling surcharge
Has bitten here, needs two people	Named groomer plus a handler	Quiet slot, muzzle, split groom if needed	Special-handling slot rate
Bites through a muzzle, or panics throughout	Not groomed here	Referral to a vet groomer	None
Bite history not disclosed, found out on the table	Whoever has him today stops	End the groom, call the owner	Work done so far

When the owner didn’t tell you

This is the case your policy will meet most often. The dog arrives with no warning on his record and bites twenty minutes in. Stop, finish safely if you can, and say this at pickup:

“I wasn’t told about this before he was booked, so we didn’t have the right setup today. He’s welcome back. We’ll book him into a special handling slot with a muzzle for his feet, and that slot is priced for the extra time.”

That wording doesn’t accuse anyone, but it doesn’t let the owner off either. It also tells them what happens next, which is what most of them want to know.

If a bite breaks skin, there’s more to do than talk to the owner: first aid, a written record, and possibly workers’ comp. Our guide to what to do in the first hour after a groomer gets bitten walks through it in order.

Make the policy visible where the booking happens

A bite policy fails for a boring reason: the person who knows about the dog isn’t the person who takes the next booking. The groomer remembers, the front desk doesn’t, and on Monday the dachshund is on the newest bather’s schedule.

The dog’s record has to carry the decision (who grooms him, what handling he needs, what slot he books into) and show it at the moment someone books him. In Packyard that is a handling flag on the pet’s profile, like “muzzle for back feet, book with Sam only,” which shows when the dog is booked and again at check-in.

For writing notes the team will actually read, see how top groomers track pet behaviour notes that actually get used.

Bite policy wording you can copy

Put this with the rest of your terms. Our guide to what a good pet service agreement looks like covers where it sits and why a signature at intake beats a sign on the wall.

Our bite and difficult-dog policy
We groom dogs who are nervous, reactive or have bitten before, and we plan for them. To do that safely, we need to know.
Tell us at booking if your dog has ever bitten or snapped at a person, at home, at the vet or at another salon. Dogs with a disclosed history are booked with an experienced groomer at a time that suits them. Undisclosed bites are the main reason we end grooms early.
Once your dog has bitten or tried to bite in our salon, we’ll use a muzzle for that part of the groom at every future visit, and note it on his record.
Dogs who need extra handling (a muzzle, a second person, or a longer or split appointment) are booked into a special handling slot. The price reflects the extra time, and we’ll tell you the price before we book.
We may end a groom if your dog can’t be groomed safely, even with a muzzle, or if he shows signs of distress or illness. We’ll call you, tell you exactly what happened, and charge only for the work completed.
We don’t groom dogs under sedation unless a vet has prescribed it for grooming and you tell us the drug, the dose and the time it was given. (Edit this line to match your own sedation rule.)
If we’re not the right salon for your dog, we’ll tell you honestly and suggest someone who is.

The short version

Your salon grooms biters already. Decide on what terms, in writing.
Name the groomer. Never default biters to the newest hire, and don’t pass a dog around.
A bite here means a muzzle, for good, for that part of the groom.
Price the time and the second pair of hands, or price the dog out.
Anyone can end a groom, and the policy backs them.

Should Your Salon Groom Dogs That Bite? Writing a Bite Policy