Doodle Groomer in Denver area?

[Sabine]

Hello,

I'm new here.We have a female Labradoodle, Minnie, who is almost 7 months old.

Yesterday she was groomed for the first time and now she looks like a cross between a poodle, schnauzer and a duck. In profile her nose /muzzle looks like a duckbill and when viewed from above it looks like a schnauzer muzzle. She has a little pouf on top of her head and her ears "stick out" She was also shaved between her eyes and across the base of the bridge of her nose, but the hair covering her nose seems to not have been cut at all. All that after I brought a two-page "Doodle-Do Groomer Instructions" along, which the groomer gave back to me saying that she knows what I want.

I really don't know if I will be able to groom Minnie myself and am hoping that somebody can recommend a groomer who does doodles in the SW Denver area.

Also now that she is shaved her coat color looks different.                                                              She was black when we got her and now she has some brown behind and on top of her ears and charcoal mottled looking areas on her body. Is she changing color?

Thank you for any input

[Carolyn Shusterman]

Yes our Doodles do change colors.  Sometimes it is the sun that lightens the color. Why not call Minnie's breeder for a recommend.  I am still laughing at your description of Minnie, she is still very adorable    

[Cheri & Bonny]

Can't help with a groomer recommendation, but your experience is pretty common and why so many of us now groom our dogs, learning as we go...

As for changing color, Bonny is almost 3 and is always changing her coat colors.  It's pretty strange!  She'll get a darker patch, even a quarter sized red patch that will grow out into another color by the next time I cut her coat. Kinda fun...

[Bob Johnston]

aww he is cute. I saw the word duck and thought hmm but she sorta does have it a bit with the profile shot. I got really lucky with the groomer I used but read so many stories about grooming for the first time that didnt go as planned. I went with the same long list and described what I wanted and was worried I would get some naked looking thing back. Minnie still looks very doodlely and pretty. as for the color some seem to change daily. Black is the one I notice that has the most change with age either brown or or silver. has her nose started to change color at all yet.

[Sabine]

Thank you all for your replies.

Minnie doesn't look much like a duck in this photo. When the hair on her nose curls upwards is when she looks the most like a duck. A ducky-doodle.

Her nose is deep black, as are her eyes. I guess time will tell what color she'll end up being.

I love the photos of all your dogs, and the ones that are posted in the photo section. Doodles just look so funny.

Sabine

 

[Eric & Rufus]

Well I think Minnie is very cute, but then again...I am partial to the poodle-schnauzer look! (Rufus is giant schnauzer/standard poodle cross - a giant schnoodle!) Minnie looks like she could be his sister.

[Sabine]

Rufus is beautiful. He looks what he is, a Schnoodle. I find that name really funny :-) How tall is he?

Minnie would be a very small sister, at 7 months she is only 24 lbs.

I emailed her breeder with an update on how she's doing and mentioned the bad haircut. The breeder gave me the name of a Denver groomer who has 4 of the breeder's labradoodles and knows what they should look like. We have decided to try grooming ourselves in future and I ordered a grooming set from Doodle Country yesterday. If we botch it, we have a groomer we can take her to. First her hair needs to grow back.

[Eric & Rufus]

I'm not sure how tall Rufus is because I've never measured his height, but he is about the same height as the German Shepherds he plays with at the dog park. At 7 months he weighed about 56 pounds. Rufus put on about 2 pounds a week up until around 9 months or so, then he just plain stopped! Last time I weighed him he was around 77 pounds or so. I haven't neutered him yet though, so I'm hoping he continues to slowly fill out a little more.

I think you'll end up enjoying grooming Minnie yourself. For me, it has been a little stressful trying to gather the "know-how" and decided on tools, but then again I'm a little OCD! Doing the actual hands on grooming has been nice and I think has actually strengthened the bond. Rufus is far more attached to me than anyone else in the family.

Not to mention the money saved!