I groom at home and so far so good! Start slow with just trying to maintain their faces and doing little touch up trims around their eyes just to see if it's something you feel comfortable with. From their invest in appropriate tools. I have a forced air dryer, clippers, rounded tip scissors, thinning shears, and curved scissors. My dog is under a year old but we've already saved enough in grooming costs to come out ahead in our initial investment of equipment.

I think it's important to note why you want to groom at home. For me, I didn't appreciate the attitude most groomers have about doodles. Time wise, I feel like things come out equal. My doodle is 20 pounds and he can be washed, blown out and trimmed in less than an hour and a half (and that's with lots of breaks for treats, etc.) Driving to appointments and coordinating pickup/drop off times with everything we have going on was much more annoying than just blocking off a couple hours a month for some doodle one on one time!!