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Whilst grooming services are great, they can become costly, especially if you have a pet that requires regular clipping. A good alternative is to invest in a set of dog clippers and have a go yourself!

Before purchasing, we've set out a few things for you to consider below:

Which ones do you choose?

There's a huge choice out there, with the major brands being Oster, Wahl and last but not least Andis. Each have their plus and minus points. Being honest, it really will come down to personal choice which model you choose. However, here's a few things to consider:

- Will they be for touch ups in between visits to a professional dog groomer, or will you be doing the job yourself? If you're planning on clipping more frequently, then you'll be better off with one of the 2 speed dog clippers.

- What type of dog do you have? How often you clip your dog depends on the length of the coat, it's texture, and ultimately the style you're aiming for. Long haired breeds, such as Afghan's, will need clipping as much as once a month, whereas short haired breeds will need shearing much less often.

- What texture is the coat of your dog? A single speed dog clipper is generally good enough to achieve good cuts for thin and normal fur. When grroming thick fur, you'll more likely to require dog clippers with a higher clipping speed.

- How confident is your dog? Are loud dog clippers likely to cause a problem if your animal is nervous?

- How easy are they to maintain? Consider how often they need cleaning, blades changing, availability of blades and accessories for the clipper model you choose.

- Are they user friendly? Some of the more heavyweight models can be heavy to use all day in a grooming parlour. Or the vibrations for particular models may not be to your liking.

- Consider if you want cordless dog clippers or not?

How to groom your dog.

Assuming you decide to do the grooming yourself, we've laid out a few tips for you below:

Preparation - The first thing you need to do is de-mat and brush your dog. Trying to clip matted fur will quickly ruin your dog clippers. Using a long-toothed metal comb, with some scissors handy, begin by using the teeth of the comb to raise the mat away from the skin slightly so you can use the scissors to cut underneath the matted area. Curved scissors are good for this. Once you have cut away as many of the mats as you can, finish off by using something like a double bristled brush.

Bath and dry your dog - Use a good shampoo that doesn't leave any residue behind, this will make it much more difficult to clip the coat, since the residue will hamper the blades.

Secure your pet - Use a non-slip mat and a lead or grooming table to do this.

Select your blade - You'll probably want to use a long blade to start with, then get progressively smaller as you wish to style the coat.

Turn the dog clippers on - get your dog used to the noise and vibration of them by putting them next to their ear, or resting them on their neck.

Get going! - Using long slow strokes in the direction of the fur, start clipping your dog down the back of it's head, neck and back.

Clip the ears - Place the ears flat on your hand and again use strokes in the direction of the fur.

Clip the legs and underneath - Clip down the side of each leg and then trim the belly underneath.

Trim the face - Using a smaller blade or trimmer, trim carefully around the eyes, mouth and nose.

Re-brush the dog - Brush the dog down again to remove any excess fur and to highlight any areas you may have missed.

Clean your equipment - Make sure you take the blades off, clean your dog clippers and oil them.

Check out this video on youtube for how to do what we've described above: