Golden retriever grooming

Golden retriever grooming, without the haircut.

Name: Bay Area Mobile Dog Wash
Telephone: (408) 599-8317
Price range: $75–$155

Grooming a golden is brushing the feathering, washing down to the skin, drying the undercoat completely, and keeping nails and ears in order. None of it needs clippers. Most of the brushing is a home job. The drying is the part that usually needs a pro.

The coat

What you are grooming.

Coat

Double coat with feathering

A dense undercoat under a water-repellent outer coat, plus long feathering on the ears, chest, legs, belly, and tail.

What goes wrong

Damp undercoat, tangled feathering

The undercoat holds water for hours, which is where the musty smell and many hot spots start. The feathering tangles behind the ears and on the back legs.

Haircut needed?

A golden coat grows to a set length. Shaving it ruins the insulation, and nothing about golden care requires clippers.

Our price

$115

Most goldens are our large tier. A smaller female under 60 lbs is $95. Nail trim and ear cleaning included.

Home or pro

Which parts you can do, and which a pro does better.

Brushing the feathering

At home: Yes, and it is the most useful thing you can do. A slicker and a comb through the ears, chest, and pants two or three times a week stops tangles before they knot.

At our visit: We brush out before and after the bath, and work any loose tangles free with a comb rather than cutting them.

Washing

At home: Doable if your golden will stand in a tub. The hard part is getting shampoo down through the undercoat, then rinsing it all back out.

At our visit: Warm water worked to the skin by hand, then a rinse that runs until the water is completely clear.

Drying to the skin

At home: This is where home baths lose. A towel and a quiet home dryer stop at the outer coat, and the damp layer underneath starts the smell.

At our visit: A forced-air dryer parts the coat section by section until the undercoat is dry right down to the hide.

Nails

At home: Fine if your dog tolerates it. Many goldens do not, and a big dog pulling a paw back is how quicks get cut.

At our visit: Included in every wash, clip or grind, your choice.

Ears

At home: A weekly look and sniff, and a wipe of the flap after swims.

At our visit: Checked and cleaned at every wash, included. If something looks off, we tell you.

Shedding is its own subject. The brushing tools and the spring and fall peaks are on the golden retriever shedding page.

The visit

What a bath-and-brush does for a golden, step by step.

01
Coat check before any water
Hands through the coat to find packed undercoat, tangles behind the ears and on the back legs, and anything on the skin worth a second look.
02
Pre-bath brush-out
Loose surface coat and light tangles come out dry, because water tightens a tangle and makes the rest of the job harder.
03
Warm wash to the skin
Warm water from the van, shampoo worked down through the undercoat by hand instead of floated on top of the coat.
04
Rinse until it runs clear
On a golden this takes longer than the wash. Shampoo left in a coat this dense is a common cause of itching and smell.
05
Nails, ears, paws
Nails clipped or ground, ears cleaned, and each paw washed between the pads, where burrs and foxtails hide in summer.
06
Forced-air dry and finishing brush
Section by section until the undercoat is dry at the skin, then a final brush through the feathering. Loose undercoat blows out here too.

A cream colored golden retriever sitting in our portable wash tub before the bath — One of ours: a golden settled in the tub for the coat check, before any water.

Working down a golden retriever's front leg to the paw during a wash — The leg feathering and paws get worked by hand, one at a time.

Golden problems

The smell, the hot spots, and the ears.

The musty smell. Golden owners describe it as sour or like corn chips, and it usually shows up a day after a swim or a home bath. It comes from yeast growing in undercoat that never fully dried. More shampoo does not fix it. A dry that reaches the skin does. The full explanation is in why a dog smells after a bath.

Hot spots. Goldens are known for them: a patch of skin that turns red, wet, and raw fast, often under the ear, on the neck, or at the base of the tail. Damp undercoat against the skin is a common trigger, which is one more reason the dry matters. An active hot spot needs your vet, and we will not wash over one.

Ears. Floppy, feathered ears hold moisture after swims and baths. A normal ear smells like almost nothing. A yeasty or sour ear, head shaking, or scratching at one side is a vet question. Our ear cleaning guide covers the at-home routine.

A wash is not a treatment. If the smell survives a professional wash and full dry, or the skin stays red and itchy, stop washing more and ask your vet. Skin infections, ear infections, and allergies all get worse while they are bathed instead of treated.

Price

$115 for most golden retrievers.

That is our large tier, flat. A smaller female under 60 lbs is $95. It covers everything above: brush-out, warm wash, rinse, full forced-air dry, nail trim, and ear cleaning. Nails and ears are included in every wash, never added on.

In the spring and fall shedding peaks, add the $15 de-shedding treatment for $130 total: a de-shedding shampoo left to soak so the dryer can pull out far more loose undercoat. How often to book is on the golden retriever bathing schedule.

CALL: (408) 599-8317 Book Now

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Frequently asked

Golden retriever grooming questions.

No. A golden's coat grows to a set length and stops, so there is no cutting schedule to keep. Some owners like the feet, ears, or feathering tidied with scissors for looks, which is a salon groomer's job and not something we do. What every golden needs is the rest of grooming: brushing, a proper wash, a full dry to the skin, nails, and ears.

No, and no reputable groomer will. The double coat keeps a golden cooler in heat, blocks sun from the skin, and often grows back patchy after a shave while the shedding continues anyway. The summer fix for a hot golden is clearing the dead undercoat with a de-shed so air can move through the coat.

Not over an active one. A raw, wet, or oozing patch is a vet visit first, and washing over it can make it worse. We will tell you and rebook once your vet has it under control. The better news is that a full dry to the skin is one of the best ways to stop the next one, because damp undercoat is where many hot spots start.

Because the undercoat stayed damp. A golden's coat can feel dry on top while the layer against the skin stays wet for hours, and that is where yeast grows. The fix is drying to the skin, not stronger shampoo. If a golden still smells after a professional wash and a complete dry, ask your vet to check the ears, skin, and anal glands.

The bath cadence has its own page: our golden retriever breed guide lays out the schedule, including swim season. Between visits, brushing the feathering two or three times a week is the part that matters most.

More on the undercoat work on our de-shedding page, and what every visit includes on the mobile dog bath page.

Brushed, washed, dried to the skin.

Bath-and-brush for your golden at your driveway, $115 for most goldens, nails and ears included. No haircut, because a golden never needed one.