What do I need to know about a dog before I put it in the book?

Every grooming booking is a promise about time made before anyone has seen the coat, and the gap between the booking you took and the groom you actually do is where a day falls apart: a matted double coat booked as a tidy-up, a nervous dog booked into a two-dog hour, a first puppy clip booked as a maintenance trim. The real decision is how much you ask before the slot is held. Ask nothing and the diary fills quickly, then you absorb the difference yourself in unpaid minutes, a queue running late, and a price you cannot raise once the dog is on the table. Ask too much and owners give up halfway through the form. Most groomers settle on five answers: breed, size or weight, how the coat has been kept since the last groom, when that was, and anything about behaviour or health that changes who handles the dog. Those five set the duration and the price, which is what a booking really is.