I take Penny in every 4 months or so for a "big" grooming and get her shaved down nice and short on the body and her head trimmed up nice and evenly. The girl who grooms her charges me $30 for that.
In between, I tidy-up groom her myself, using scissors to tidy up the hair around her eyes and clippers to give her sanitary trims beneath her tail. I always do her nails myself, once a week. I think a pair of scissors, strong nail clippers, and an inexpensive set of hair clippers was a great investment, considering how much money it saves in the long run. Penny's no show dog, and my main interest in grooming her isn't to make her drop dead gorgeous but to keep her clean and healthy, and we can manage that very well at home.
