How often should a golden be professionally groomed? What should a professional groom include?

This depends on the dog, but on the average I estimate about every 8 to 10 weeks for a well kept smart look. A professional groom should include bath, ear cleaning, blow dry, brushing, trimming nails, tidying feet, ears and general neatening to enhance the appearance of the dog. General neatening should include rolling out undercoat, carding dry coat out and minor blending. However, when a dog is blowing coat profusely and or the owner has not been doing maintenance grooming they should expect an extra long visit and to pay extra for these services. By the way it is customary to tip groomers.  more

When the dog is blowing coat or rolling out undercoat, preventing matting and dust bunnies in your house is best served by using an undercoat rake and going over the entire dog in an organized fashion. This is sometimes left up to the professional, but there is no reason an owner can not successfully roll a coat. See below list of tools and use. Keeping your dog brushed out is the most important role and owner can have in grooming.  more