Dog Grooming Prices in Ronkonkoma: What Weight Decides
Lillian Ruff Pet Spa
Grooming prices are hard to pin down before you are standing in the salon. Ours are published, and they are set by one thing before anything else: how much your dog weighs.
Bath and brush runs $35 to $120. A full groom with a haircut runs $70 to $155. Where your dog lands inside those ranges is decided by weight first — a ten-pound Maltipoo sits near the bottom, a big shepherd or a doodle in full coat sits near the top.
Bath and brush: $35 to $120
This is the service for a dog whose coat you are happy with and simply want cleaned up. No scissors, no clipper work on the body. It is the right choice for most short-coated dogs — beagles, labs, pit mixes, boxers — and for long-coated dogs whose owners are brushing at home and want to keep the length.
The spread from $35 to $120 is almost entirely about size. A small dog is a smaller job at every stage: less shampoo, less water, less drying time, less brushing. A ninety-pound dog with a dense double coat can take longer to dry properly than a Yorkie takes to groom start to finish, and drying is the part nobody sees.
If you are not sure where your own dog falls in that range, call and ask before you book. There is no obligation attached to the question, and it is a better use of two minutes than guessing.
Full groom with haircut: $70 to $155
A full groom is the bath and brush plus the haircut — clipper work, scissoring, tidying the face, feet and sanitary areas. It is the service for poodles, doodles, shih tzus, Westies kept in a pet trim, bichons, cockers, and anything else whose coat keeps growing rather than shedding out.
The gap between the two services is the labor of the haircut itself, and that labor scales with size too. That is why both ranges climb together rather than the haircut adding a flat fee on top.
| Service | Published range | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Bath & brush | $35 – $120 | Shedding coats, or long coats you want kept at length |
| Full groom with haircut | $70 – $155 | Coats that keep growing — doodles, poodles, shih tzus, bichons |
Why weight and not breed
Breed is a poor way to price grooming, and anyone who has groomed for a while knows it. Two dogs called goldendoodles can be thirty pounds apart. A "lab mix" from a rescue might be forty pounds or ninety. Half the dogs on the table are honest guesses about their own ancestry.
Weight is checkable, and it tracks the actual work almost perfectly. Bath time, product, drying time, brushing time, the surface area a clipper has to cover — all of it scales with the size of the animal. Two dogs at the same weight with different coats are closer in work than two dogs of the same breed at very different weights.
Why coat condition can move the job
Weight sets the band. Condition decides where inside it you sit, and occasionally whether the haircut you asked for is possible at all.
A matted coat cannot be brushed out the way an owner imagines. Mats sit tight against the skin, and pulling them apart with a brush hurts the dog long before it works. When matting is dense, the humane answer is to clip underneath it and start the coat again — which is a shorter cut than you wanted, and a conversation, not a surprise.
If what is under the coat changes the plan, you should hear about it before the work starts, not at pickup. Ask the salon to call you. It is a fair thing to ask of anyone who grooms your dog, including us.
The same goes for skin. Groomers see a lot of skin — hot spots, scabbing, lumps under a coat nobody had felt. We will point it out and we will work around it. We will not tell you what it is. That is a vet's job, and it is worth taking seriously rather than waiting for the next groom.
Brushing at home is not about looks. It is what keeps the haircut you want on the table.
What to ask before you book anywhere
Grooming prices are hard to compare because two salons quoting the same number can be selling different work. These are the questions that make the numbers comparable — ask us, and ask anyone else you are considering.
Worth asking
- How is the price set — by weight, by breed, by time on the table?
- Is nail trimming part of the service or separate?
- What happens to the plan if you find matting?
- How long will my dog be with you?
- Will someone call me if the plan changes?
Not offered here
- Cats — we groom dogs only
- Creative coloring
- Hand-stripping
- Show grooming
One honest note on nails. If nails are genuinely all you need, a full grooming appointment may be more than the job requires. Call and describe what you are after before you book anything, and we will tell you straight whether a grooming appointment is the right shape for it.
Daycare and boarding are priced separately
These are Ronkonkoma services — 835 Portion Rd is the full-service location, with grooming, doggy daycare, overnight boarding and a retail shop under one roof. The published rates:
| Daycare | Price | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Full day, 4+ hours | $35 | Open 7 days, 7am–7pm |
| Half day, under 4 hours | $30 | — |
| 5-day pass | $162.50 | Saves $12.50 |
| 10-day pass | $300 | Saves $50 |
| 20-day pass | $550 | Saves $150 |
Passes have no expiration date and are non-refundable. Sales tax of 8.75% applies. Boarding is $60 a night for a regular 4x4 private kennel and $75 a night for a premium 4x6, and every boarding stay includes full-day daycare at no extra charge. Meals run 8am, 1pm and 6pm, with custom schedules for puppies, seniors and medical diets. Bring your own food, or we can provide it at $5 a day. Boarding check-in is 2pm to 7pm and check-out is 7am to 11am. Late daycare pickup after 7pm is $5 per fifteen minutes.
Suffolk County Code § 302-13 requires a boarding kennel to hold a current health certificate from a licensed veterinarian before accepting your dog: rabies, distemper, hepatitis, parainfluenza, parvovirus and coronavirus within the past year (or an approved three-year vaccine certified by the vet), and bordetella within the past six months. The bordetella clock is the one people miss — it runs at half the length of everything else. Confirm your dog's status with your vet, and with us, before the trip.
Our second salon at 16 Laurel Rd is grooming only, Tuesday to Saturday, 9am to 5pm. The same published grooming ranges apply. Daycare and boarding are Ronkonkoma only.
Booking takes about a minute
Open the grooming page
Go to the grooming page. The published ranges are there, and booking runs through MoeGo in the browser — no phone call needed.
Pick the location and the service
Ronkonkoma or East Northport, then bath and brush or full groom with haircut. If you are torn between the two services, the test is simple: does anything need to be cut?
Tell us what we are walking into
Say if the coat is matted, if the dog is nervous, if they are older or have had a bad groom before. Mention it when you book, or call and tell us. It changes how we schedule you, and it is better said now than discovered on the table.
Choose a time
Ronkonkoma grooms seven days a week, 9 to 5. East Northport is Tuesday to Saturday, same hours.
Questions people actually ask
Why is the price a range instead of one number?
Because the work genuinely differs. A twelve-pound dog and a ninety-pound dog are not the same job, and no single number describes both. The published bands go by weight, coat condition can shift things inside them, and if you want to talk it through before you commit, call and ask.
Do I need the full groom, or is a bath and brush enough?
If nothing needs to be cut, the bath and brush is enough, and it costs less. Dogs that shed rather than grow — labs, beagles, shepherds — usually never need the haircut service at all.
My dog is badly matted. Will it cost more?
Ask us directly when you book, and describe honestly how bad it is. What matters more than the price is the plan: heavy matting often means a shorter cut than you had in mind, and you should agree to that before we start rather than see it at pickup.
Do you groom cats?
No. Dogs only. We also do not do creative coloring, hand-stripping or show grooming.
Can I board and have my dog groomed in the same stay?
Boarding and grooming are separate services with separate prices, both at Ronkonkoma. Every boarding night already includes full-day daycare at no extra charge — ask when you book if you want a groom added to the stay.
Is there a walk-in option?
Grooming is by appointment. If nails are all you are after, call first and describe it — sometimes a short appointment with us is the right answer, and sometimes something closer to home will suit you better.
Book the groom your dog actually needs.
The ranges are on the grooming page, and booking runs through MoeGo. If anything is unclear, call and ask — we would rather answer it now than at pickup.
See pricing & book ›835 Portion Rd, Ronkonkoma, NY 11779 · Open 7 days, 9–5
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