Time for the once/twice per year groomings

I'm starting to get THE CALLS! You know, the people that only come in once or twice a year. Last week I had an Airdale, he usually comes in twice a year. He is always matted, stinky and has all kinds of things sticking to his coat. The owner came in with a calendar photo and asked me to get him "looking like this". I had to shave the dog all over with a #7 and to boot, I cut his ear. I have never cut a dog's ear before. I was shaking so hard, I didn't think I could finish the groom. There wasn't a lot of blood, so I cleaned it, dried it and put the liquid bandage on it. I told the owner I would pay for any vets bills resulting from this, if he has to get it seen to. BTW, this dog also has hip problems, so I don't want to make him stand for lengthy dematting.

We haven't had to many calls for our once a years yet, but its been so cold. As soon as this warm weather hits i'm sure we'll be flooded with calls!!!!

The other night my husband was looking at my visa bill and asked why i spend so much money on shampoo, blah blah blah, anyway this conversation to us to the question of why don't i make a larger raise on my once/twice a year dogs?In a september i did a small price increase across the board, but i see what he's saying. Those once a years only get done once a year, so should we charge more than what it costs us to do a every monther?Regardless what we charge they will only do there dog once a year anyway? Curious as to what others do.

I never thought about charging more for the once a year groom. It's an interesting idea. Silly me, I actually only charged my customer $50.00 to do his Airdale because I felt bad about cutting his ear. Normally, I would have charged $65.00.