Hanover County, VA Animal Ordinances: Pet Groomer Rules (2026)

Section 26-6 of the Zoning Ordinance defines a 'pet shop or animal grooming establishment' two ways: a place where companion animals are bought, sold, or exchanged with the public, or a place where dogs and cats are bathed, clipped, combed, or brushed for a fee to improve their appearance or health. The same definition sets the operating standard that applies to either kind of business: every work room, cage, or pen connected with the shop must be kept inside a completely enclosed building, and the operation cannot produce objectionable noise or odor outside its walls.

That enclosed-building and no-nuisance standard is the county's core siting control for groomers, separate from the licensing and rabies-vaccination rules chapter 4 of the county code applies to individual dogs and cats. 2(b)(38), where commercial uses are capped at 4,000 square feet). A groomer that keeps animals or grooming operations outdoors, or that lets noise or odor carry past its walls, is out of compliance with the Section 26-6 standard regardless of which business district it sits in, and the Zoning Administrator in the Planning Department can act on a complaint.