Dog grooming franchise costs and Item 19 revenue for 2026: Furry Land, Aussie Pet Mobile, Scenthound, Woofie's, Woof Gang, Splash and Dash compared.
Quick answer A dog grooming franchise costs $137,002 to $560,300 to open. Furry Land is the low-capital mobile entry at $137,002 to $309,702, Aussie Pet Mobile runs $167,325 to $208,650 plus a $100,000 territory fee, and Scenthound leads the membership salon format at $322,999 to $550,769 whose 52 income-reporting Scenters posted a $489,150 median gross revenue.
Six dog grooming brands in our FDD database disclose enough Item 19 data to underwrite against. Their opening costs span $137,002 to $560,300, their franchised unit counts span 19 to 288, and exactly one of them tells you what a unit spends to earn its revenue.
| Brand | Format | Item 7 investment | Franchise fee | Royalty | US franchised units |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Furry Land | Mobile | $137,002 to $309,702 | $65,000 (single vehicle) to $190,000 (five) | 6% of gross revenue or a weekly minimum | 71 |
| Aussie Pet Mobile | Mobile | $167,325 to $208,650 | $19,950 plus $100,000 territory fee | 5.0% to 6.0% | 105 |
| Woofie’s | Mobile, multi-service | $181,558 to $294,936 | $57,500 | 6.5% of gross revenue | 101 |
| Woof Gang Bakery | Retail plus grooming | $191,350 to $560,300 | $49,900 | 7% of gross revenues | 288 |
| Splash and Dash | Salon | $296,880 to $453,420 | $60,000 | 8% of adjusted gross sales | 19 |
| Scenthound | Membership salon | $322,999 to $550,769 | $49,900 | 6% | 148 |
Figures come from each brand’s most recent FDD in the VetMyFranchise database, which covers 2,000-plus franchise systems. Splash and Dash’s figures come from its 2025 FDD covering calendar 2024, and Furry Land’s Item 19 also covers calendar 2024. The others are 2026 filings. For how these ranges sit against franchising generally, see how much it costs to open a franchise.
One correction worth making up front, because it circulates widely on cost-comparison pages: Pet Wants is not a grooming brand. Its FDD describes a mobile subscription and retail store model selling private-label pet food, and its Item 19 reports on “Store franchises.” If a list puts it in a mobile grooming lineup, that list has not read the disclosure.
The American Pet Products Association put US pet industry spending at $158 billion in 2025, up 3.7% year over year. The services category, which bundles grooming with boarding, training, sitting, walking, and insurance, reached $14.3 billion and grew 8%, the fastest rate of any segment in the report. Grooming sits closer to a maintenance purchase than a discretionary one for most coat types, which is the structural argument for the category. The APPA does not break grooming out on its own, so read the $14.3 billion as a services bucket and not as a grooming market size.
That tailwind does not distribute evenly across operators. It shows up in the top of the quartile tables and barely at all in the bottom, which is the pattern every disclosure in this category repeats. Our pet franchise industry analysis covers the category structure; what follows is what the individual grooming disclosures actually say.
Mobile is the low-capital door into a dog grooming franchise, and two brands disclose revenue in enough detail to model.
Furry Land, franchised by Furry Cuts! Petmobile International, LLC, reported on 52 franchised locations open the entire 2024 calendar year. It excluded 22 locations that opened during 2024, four that were terminated or ceased operating, and one founder-owned unit.
| Furry Land quartile (13 locations each) | Median gross revenue | Maximum | Minimum |
|---|---|---|---|
| Top 25% | $614,347 | $850,267 | $519,988 |
| Upper middle 25% | $461,080 | $519,476 | $361,009 |
| Lower middle 25% | $231,830 | $289,370 | $210,002 |
| Bottom 25% | $152,368 | $204,606 | $78,802 |
The top-quartile median is 4.0x the bottom-quartile median. That is a wide dispersion for a system where every operator buys the same Mercedes Sprinter and the same upfit. Item 7 puts the vehicle at $60,000 to $70,000 and the upfit at $53,000 to $60,000, covering water tanks, stainless tubs, and vacuums, all purchased from approved vendors. The initial franchise fee scales with the market area: $65,000 for a single vehicle, $110,000 for two, $140,000 for three, $170,000 for four, $190,000 for five, and $20,000 per vehicle beyond that. Royalty is the greater of 6% of weekly gross revenues or a weekly minimum that steps up from $115 in year one to $231 in year two and $415 in year three, plus a 1% brand development fund fee and a $175 monthly technology fee paid directly to the software vendor. The escalating minimum is the term to negotiate: it charges a slow-ramping location as if it were performing.
Aussie Pet Mobile reports differently and more usefully, breaking 59 franchisees running 378 vans into fleet-size bands for calendar 2024.
| Aussie Pet Mobile fleet size | Franchisees | Median sales | 25th percentile | 75th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 vans | 21 | $288,764 | $223,694 | $356,838 |
| 4 to 6 vans | 19 | $721,254 | $528,591 | $929,718 |
| 7 to 10 vans | 11 | $1,156,456 | $1,078,520 | $1,549,107 |
| More than 10 vans | 8 | $1,680,178 | $1,552,572 | $2,221,224 |
These are the actual percentile cut points, not quartile averages, which makes this one of the cleaner Item 19 presentations in pet services. The 1-to-3-van band is where a first-time buyer starts, and its low reported figure was $30,115 against a high of $516,956. Four franchises that closed during 2024 are excluded from all of it.
The headline fee needs correcting too. Aussie Pet Mobile advertises a $19,950 initial franchise fee, and that number is accurate as far as it goes. Item 7 lists a $100,000 territory fee on the same page, due when you sign the franchise agreement. The real franchisor-side entry cost is $119,950 before you put a down payment on a van, and the down payment runs $25,000 to $30,000 financed or $10,000 leased.
Woofie’s sits in the mobile bracket but is not a pure grooming play; it bundles mobile grooming with pet sitting and dog walking, which is why its territory-level numbers look different. For fiscal 2025 it reported on 46 franchisees operating 74 territories, excluding 22 franchisees who opened during the year and three who ceased operations. Median revenue per territory was $155,554 and median per franchisee was $258,146. Top-quartile territories averaged $432,037; bottom-quartile territories averaged $61,991, with a low of $42,416. Systemwide franchisee gross revenue grew 65% to $19,325,340, which is real growth at a small base rather than mature-system performance.
The salon side costs more and, in the disclosures available, produces more per unit.
Scenthound opened its first franchised Scenter in December 2020 and had 148 operating franchised Scenters plus five company-owned locations at the end of 2025. Item 7 assumes a 1,100 to 1,300 square foot space, with the locations used to build the estimate averaging 1,273 square feet, and $25,000 to $27,000 of the fixture and equipment package purchased from a franchisor affiliate.
Its Item 19 reports on 69 Scenters that had been open a full 24 months as of December 31, 2025, out of 71 that qualified before one was reacquired and one terminated.
| Scenthound 2025 quartile | Gross revenue | Membership fees | Members | Monthly dog visits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top quartile | $759,865 | $380,323 | 718 | 838 |
| Top middle | $564,671 | $289,287 | 579 | 687 |
| Bottom middle | $416,864 | $220,577 | 450 | 526 |
| Bottom quartile | $284,553 | $153,562 | 298 | 364 |
Membership fees run 50% to 54% of gross revenue in every quartile, and dividing membership revenue by member count puts the effective monthly membership between $41 and $44 across all four bands. Member count, in other words, is the whole business. A Scenter carrying 718 members earns 2.7x one carrying 298, on the same square footage and the same $41-to-$44 price point.
Splash and Dash discloses an actual income statement, which is rare, but on a sample too small to rank on. Its 2025 FDD covers 12 franchised locations for calendar 2024, split into four “larger” units above 1,401 square feet and eight “smaller” units at or below 1,400. Two units that closed during 2024 and eight that had not been open 12 months are excluded. The larger group averaged $775,917 in total income and $99,833 in net operating income; the smaller group averaged $585,432 and $67,839. Both groups contain a unit with negative net operating income, at minus $177,799 and minus $48,455. With four and eight units per group, those averages move on a single outlier. Treat them as illustrative and not as a benchmark.
Woof Gang Bakery is the largest system in the category at 288 stores, and its Item 19 is the clearest teaching case in pet services for why the sample line matters more than the revenue line.
Of the 288 stores open at December 31, 2025, only 199 met the base criterion of thirteen months in operation under the same franchisee. Twenty-one were excluded for transferring during 2025, one for winding down, one for a non-traditional format, and 66 for opening after November 30, 2024. Woof Gang then reports four nested cohorts inside that 199.
| Woof Gang cohort | Stores | Average gross revenue | Median gross revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open 13+ months | 199 | $620,375 | $581,857 |
| Open 25+ months | 150 | $672,503 | $620,161 |
| Open 37+ months | 122 | $715,937 | $666,846 |
| Open 49+ months | 103 | $738,802 | $673,712 |
Every step up that ladder drops the weakest stores and lifts the average. The 49-month cohort averages 19% more than the 13-month cohort, and that gap is not entirely maturation; it is also the stores that never made it to 49 months falling out of the sample. A brand quoting “$738,802 average revenue” would be citing a real disclosed number that describes 103 of its 288 stores. Grooming and other services account for 75% to 78% of that revenue, with retail making up the rest.
Furry Land, Woofie’s, Aussie Pet Mobile, and Scenthound all apply a version of the same filter, excluding units that opened mid-period or closed. That is standard practice and not a criticism. It does mean that when you compare two grooming brands on Item 19, you are usually comparing two differently filtered populations. Our median versus average survivorship guide covers how to normalize before you draw a conclusion.
Scenthound is the one dog grooming franchise publishing what a unit spends. Fifty-two of the 69 Qualifying Scenters reported 2025 operating income.
| Line | Top quartile | Top middle | Bottom middle | Bottom quartile | All 52 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross revenue | $755,858 | $564,675 | $518,377 | $377,500 | $554,102 |
| Payroll, taxes, benefits | $303,357 | $266,310 | $259,478 | $207,002 | $259,037 |
| Payroll as % of revenue | 40.1% | 47.1% | 50.0% | 54.8% | 46.7% |
| Rent | $53,791 | $51,344 | $56,879 | $57,736 | $54,937 |
| Rent as % of revenue | 7.2% | 9.1% | 11.0% | 15.3% | 10.0% |
| Royalty and brand fund | $52,910 | $40,106 | $36,961 | $26,760 | $39,184 |
| Local advertising | $35,093 | $27,692 | $27,651 | $27,608 | $29,511 |
| Net operating income | $208,890 | $93,346 | $44,761 | ($9,374) | $84,406 |
| Net operating income margin | 27.6% | 16.5% | 8.6% | (2.4%) | 15.2% |
The table above shows selected expense lines, so the rows do not sum to net operating income; technology fees ($8,083 average), other occupancy, and other operating expenses are omitted. Read the rent line across the row. In absolute dollars it barely moves, from $53,791 to $57,736, because every Scenter leases roughly the same 1,273 square feet. As a share of revenue it doubles, from 7.2% to 15.3%. Same for local advertising, which lands between $27,608 and $35,093 regardless of what the location earns. The cost structure is close to fixed; the revenue is not. That is why the bottom quartile posts a negative $9,374 and the top quartile posts $208,890 on revenue that is 2.0x higher.
Payroll is the one line an operator genuinely controls, and it moves 14.7 points between the top and bottom quartiles. Groomer productivity, scheduling density, and turnover are the mechanism. Nothing in a franchise agreement fixes any of them for you.
If you want to run these figures against your own market and capital position, the franchise investment calculator takes an investment range and a revenue assumption and returns a payback horizon.
Owner-operators who will manage groomers directly for the first 18 months. The Scenthound payroll spread is the argument: a 14.7 point swing in the largest expense line is not something an absentee owner manages from a distance. Pet-industry experience helps less than staffing experience does.
Buyers who can fund the real number rather than the headline. Aussie Pet Mobile’s $19,950 fee sits next to a $100,000 territory fee. Furry Land’s fee scales to $190,000 for a five-vehicle market area. Scenthound’s Item 7 tops out at $550,769. A buyer with $150,000 liquid is shopping in the mobile single-van bracket, which is where the $288,764 median lives.
Multi-unit operators, which the mobile data supports better than anything else in the category. Aussie Pet Mobile’s medians run $288,764 at 1 to 3 vans, $721,254 at 4 to 6, and $1,156,456 at 7 to 10. Fleet scaling is the visible path to a real income in this category.
It works poorly for absentee investors, for buyers in markets where certified groomers cannot be hired at viable wages, and for anyone who has not priced the physical reality of the work. Handling anxious and occasionally aggressive dogs eight hours a day is the job, and turnover in that role is the constraint the disclosures keep pointing at.
If you are comparing three pet brands seriously, the $99 3-Pack Comparison runs the full 12-section report on all three at $33 per brand, structured so the Item 19 sample definitions line up next to each other.
Scenthound has the best disclosure in the category and the highest capital bar, and its own numbers say a quarter of its 24-month-old locations did not clear break-even in 2025. Furry Land and Aussie Pet Mobile let a buyer in for roughly half the money and show a 4x spread between their best and worst quartiles. Woof Gang has the units and the least comparable Item 19. Splash and Dash publishes a real income statement on 12 locations, which is candid and statistically thin at the same time.
None of that makes the category bad. It makes it a labor business wearing a pet business costume, where the operator who can staff and schedule beats the operator who picked the better brand. Choose the format that matches your capital, then spend your diligence time on the groomer market you are buying into.
For the adjacent formats, see best pet boarding and daycare franchises and the mobile versus facility economics comparison.
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About this analysis The franchise data in this article is drawn from VetMyFranchise's structured analysis of 2,300+ Franchise Disclosure Documents filed with U.S. state regulators. See our data & methodology.
It depends entirely on the format. Mobile brands open for $137,002 to $309,702 (Furry Land, per its most recent FDD) or $167,325 to $208,650 (Aussie Pet Mobile, 2026 FDD), with a custom grooming vehicle at $60,000 to $70,000 plus a $53,000 to $60,000 upfit as the largest line. Fixed salons run higher: Splash and Dash discloses $296,880 to $453,420 in its 2025 FDD and Scenthound $322,999 to $550,769 in its 2026 FDD for a 1,100 to 1,300 square foot space.
Judged on disclosure quality rather than marketing, Scenthound is the strongest pick: its 2026 FDD publishes gross revenue and net operating income by quartile across 69 Scenters, including a bottom quartile that lost money. That is unusually candid for the category. For low-capital entry, Furry Land and Aussie Pet Mobile both disclose real revenue quartiles. Woof Gang Bakery has the most units at 288 but reports only on stores open 13 months or more.
Scenthound's 69 reporting Scenters averaged $759,865 in the top quartile and $284,553 in the bottom for calendar 2025. Furry Land's 52 reporting locations posted a $614,347 top-quartile median and a $152,368 bottom-quartile median in 2024. Aussie Pet Mobile franchisees running 1 to 3 vans reported a $288,764 median. Every one of those figures describes a filtered group of units, so read the sample definition before you use any of them.
Scenthound is the only brand in the category disclosing expenses. Across the 52 of 69 Scenters that reported 2025 operating income, net operating income averaged $84,406 on $554,102 of gross revenue, a 15.2% margin. By quartile that runs $208,890 (27.6%), $93,346 (16.5%), $44,761 (8.6%), and negative $9,374 (-2.4%). Payroll is the swing factor: 40.1% of revenue in the top quartile against 54.8% in the bottom.
No, and most franchisors do not require it. What the format does require is the ability to recruit and keep certified groomers, because groomer capacity is the hard ceiling on revenue in both the van and the salon model. Scenthound's own quartile data makes the point: payroll runs 40.1% of revenue in top-quartile Scenters and 54.8% in the bottom quartile, on gross revenues that differ by 2.0x.
They are different businesses. Mobile carries no rent, opens for roughly half the capital, and scales by adding vans and driver-groomers. Salons carry rent (7.2% of revenue in Scenthound's top quartile, 15.3% in its bottom quartile) but run several groomers at once and support membership billing, which is why the membership salon brands post higher per-unit revenue. Aussie Pet Mobile's own data shows the mobile scaling path clearly: 1 to 3 van operators reported a $288,764 median, while 7 to 10 van operators reported $1,156,456.
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