My Confession; I can't believe I did this to my doodle...

[Meg (Murphy's Mom)]

Halloween Hair Dye...

My doodle has the most beautiful coat. I keep him long and shaggy and he is so handsome. On Halloween night, I got talked into letting the kids use ‘temporary hair dye’ on Murphy. I read the label that said it washes right out.

It is now after Christmas and I can still see that ugly orange color on his back.

I can’t believe I agreed to this.

[Tam]

Oh dear! Too funny what we let our kids talk us into sometimes. I'm sure Murphy will get his normal color back eventually. I read on your other post about cutting him. Lambeau is a a bit curlier than Murphy and we had to shave him down to his skin ("Watch out he doesn't get sun burned!" they said as we left w/him) back in June. He's not as long as he was then, but he's grown back in a full coat (that they want to shave again!-another story altogether).

[Tam]

I also wonder; Target sells something called Folex (no chemicals) that I use to get stains out of any and everything. (it even took a gallon of dog pee out of my white-down comforter) Maybe it would work on Murphy's orange streak. It wouldn't surprise me! It's pretty cheap too. Find it with the cleaning supplies in a white/purple trigger bottle.

[Meg (Murphy's Mom)]

I don't live near a Target store. I haven't tried anything stronger than shampoo. I would hate to irritate his skin. I was thinking that there is a product for taking stains out of white hair. Maybe I should ask my hair dresser about that.

[Cam & Oski]

Meg, this might also help. It's formulated for dogs & they use it to make the tear stains go away by adding a white pigment onto the hair instead of taking the stain away with bleach which can damage the hair:

http://www.chrissystems.com/whiteon.htm

You can buy it at some pet supply stores or just buy it from them directly online. This brand is pretty popular with show dog people & I've used the moisturizing shampoo & conditioner on Oski in the past & it works well :)

[Meg (Murphy's Mom)]

Cam,

The white on white looks like a great idea it sure couldn't hurt. I just ordered a 64 oz bottle. Maybe I won't have to cut his hair after all!! THANKS so much for your thoughts. I will let you know if it works.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Poor Murph! But I'll bet it doesn't bother him a bit, lol.
Meg, I wouldn't cut his hair just for this...would it be possible to just have the orange part on his back trimmed? The color is probably just at the ends, right, not all the way down to the root? Maybe just a little trim would get most of it off.
Don't beat yourself up over it. I used to let my kids paint my dog's toenails.

[Meg (Murphy's Mom)]

Thanks Karen,

Actually I did feel pretty stupid about the whole thing. I was embarrassed to mention it on the forum but now with some of these good ideas I am glad that I did. I am going to try the White on White that Cam suggested. I had never heard of that before.

I thought about cutting it out and leaving the rest but the orange on his back is about 3 inches wide and it goes down to about an inch before his skin. I think it was down to the roots back in October but it has grown out about an inch now. He has a little on the top of his head but I have already cut most of that out.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Okay, so at least that's one answer to your other post about how long it would take for it to grow out if you did cut it...it's taken 2 months to grow out one inch. And I would think the hair growing slower in cold weather thing that they say for people's hair might be true for dogs, too.
It would be bothering me, too, but don't be embarrassed here...you're among friends!

[Meg (Murphy's Mom)]

I was wondering about the hair growth. I can see that it has grown about an inch but I was wondering if it would grow twice as fast if I cut it. You don't really see doodles with more than the max of about 6 inches in length. Does it grow to about 6 inches and then stop?

[Cam & Oski]

One of Oski's friends in Seattle had hair up to 8 inches at one point but they had to cut it because it was matting so much. There was another doodle we used to play with up there that had hair that was around 10 inches. I think it can grow longer but people usually have to end up cutting it because it becomes unbelievably high maintenance.

In terms of how quickly it grows. It sounds like there's a lot of variance among the doods, imho likely related to what type of coat they have as well as how old they are, when Oski was really young 4-8 months his hair grew really slowly but it's sort of sped up after 9 months & now seems to grow about 3/4 inch a month?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Non-shedding dogs' hair never stops growing...like people. That's why it matts...it keeps growing down into itself, and will even "cord" like human dreadlocks, if it's trained that way. Just like people's hair, it has to be cut to maintain a certain length. The dogs that shed (think goldens, labs, shepherds, collies, etc.) lose their hair regularly, (that's the shedding,) and replace it, but it never grows past a certain length, and never needs cutting.
I really think that's an old wives' tale about hair growing faster if it's cut; maybe for people, it helps the hair to grow if you trim off the split ends, but there's no biological reason why cutting the ends would affect the rate of growth.

[Noble Vestal Labradoodles]

Try vinegar, the smell wont last long and it should take it out, vinegar will not hurt your dog~