Bath & Tidy.

A bath and tidy is the lighter, quicker dog bath option between full grooms. Perfect for short-coated breeds, dogs who've been on a muddy walk, or anyone whose coat doesn't yet need a full clip but could really do with a clean and a tidy round the face, feet and rear.

We bathe with a breed-appropriate shampoo, towel and blow-dry properly (no damp dogs going home), brush the coat out, trim nails, give the face and feet a quick tidy, and check the ears. The whole appointment is usually 45 to 75 minutes.

If you book a bath and tidy and we spot something during the appointment, say a small mat behind the ear, nails that turned out to need more work, or an ear that needs a proper clean, we'll mention it before doing anything extra. You'll know what the bill is before we add to it.

Small dogs from £30, medium from £40, large or doodles from £50. Often the right choice for a Cocker Spaniel between full grooms, or a Labrador after the lake.

A bath and tidy works best as a planned halfway point rather than a stand-in for the full groom. The usual rhythm is a full groom every six to eight weeks with a bath and tidy in between, which keeps the coat clean and the face, feet and rear comfortable without letting length build up unmanaged. It's also the sensible choice after a specific event like a muddy field, a swim, or a roll in something unspeakable, when the dog needs a proper wash and dry but the coat isn't yet due for a clip.

Drying is the part that quietly matters most, especially for double-coated and thick-coated dogs. A coat left damp at the roots can mat as it dries and, in dense undercoats, hold moisture against the skin long enough to irritate it, which is why we towel and then blow-dry down to the skin rather than send a half-dry dog home. If your dog has had a wash at home and gone out or curled up still damp, that is a common reason knots appear seemingly from nowhere a day or two later.

A bath and tidy isn't the right call for every dog, and we'd rather tell you that than take the booking. If the coat is already matted, a bath only sets those mats tighter, because water swells and shrinks the hair and pulls the tangles closer to the skin, so a matted dog needs de-matting or a clip first. Continuous-growth coats that have grown long and need length taken off want a full groom instead. And a heavily soiled or genuinely smelly skin problem is usually one for the vet before the groomer. We'll always tell you at the appointment if a different service would serve your dog better, before we start.