I pay £24 for Ted every 3-4months

I do my own not many groomers can hand strip but would still do my own anyway

More can than you probably think - but a lot chose not to, because to be honest, a lot of people are not prepared to bring the dog in often enough and are not willing to pay for the time taken, so commercially it is very often not viable. Also pet coats are often so poor it would need too much work to keep it in. I know where I live nearly all of us can hand strip properly.

Well around here when I was looking for one they were as rare as hens teeth.

I show my dogs so they need a little every day so I had to learn myself

To pass your level 3 C&G you have to take a handstrip module now. As I say most know how to hand strip but many don't choose to do it because it is not commercially viable

Show grooming is of course totally different and as you are aware you need to keep at it, bringing a dog into the salon every few months and expecting it to turn out like a show specimen is not going to happen. Unfortunately a lot of people expect that. I get it with the min wires all the time, but when explain that I do mine nearly every day, people are gob smacked. Most groomers would not undertake hand stripping for show for a customer anyhow because of the upkeep

I pay £20 for Rupert (full bath, groom, remove tatty bits)
and £30 for Poppy (Rough Collie)

My OH & I learned how to groom our CKCS ourselves. He gets his glands checked at the vets when he goes in for worming and flea treatments.

£28

that includes bath, dry, cut, nails and anal glands

Molly goes three times a year (Yorkie). Flea bath, condition, dry, nails and glands.

I have just been charged £19. It has gone up a fiver from £14.

I've never taken a dog to the groomers, even my cocker spaniel I did myself and the current lot apart from Frankie my terrier are all short haired but I do their nails, bath them, dry them etc myself and have never had any dog need attention to their anal glands. Frankie has his hairy butt clippered every couple of months and his facial hair trimmed so that he can see but that's about it apart from bathing and nails.