First Grooming? And color change?

[Alissa Edwards]

Curious as to when you all first started grooming or sending your puppies to be groomed (whether just for private areas or a full grooming). If you did a puppy visit, did they do anything at that visit?

Also, did your dogs color change from puppy to adulthood? And can I see pictures of the change? We have a very dark chocolate boy and breeder says he'll fade to cafe mocha color, but I see lots of dogs on here that are regular chocolate and adult?

TIA!

[Brittney & Cally]

I have only ever done sanitary grooming for Cally and I started her at 14 weeks. Cally goes every 4 weeks. She gets a bath, nails done, teeth brushed, brushed, feet trimmed, ears plucked, ears trimmed, face cleaned up and her privates trimmed up. They also blow dry her which I do not like the look so after spending 40 bucks on a grooming I bring her home and spray her with a spritzer or water to relax her coat! Cally is still a puppy but so far her coat has gotten darker since I picked her up. I do brush her every day and have since I picked her up so she is use to being brushed and things like that. The sooner you start them the better to a degree. After she had her third shots she went to the groomer the next week.

[Leslie, Yogi & Maci Bear]

Yogi has a patch of darker brown that keeps spreading on his backside. I'Il post a picture later from my laptop.
I started grooming him as soon as we got home at 8 weeks. At 23 weeks so far I have used an Andis clipper on his belly (just to get used the the feel) and also used clippers and scissors to trim the fur between his pads. I trim his claws about every 2 weeks, and also trim the hair between his eyes at least every week. Oh yea, also clean his ears every week. He's been bathed and blown dry three times. He's pretty comfortable when I do all these things because we started right away.
I figured I'd rather do it myself than rely on others after reading how many times doodle moms are unhappy with the results from the groomers.

[Wanda Klomp]

Hi Alissa,

As a specialized Doodle groomer I just wanted you to know that chocolate is a hard colour. most chocolate Doodles will fade colour, depending on the coat colours off the parent dogs and grand parents ;-) Also Doodles that are born bright white often become more cream coloured and cream coloured pups can become lighter :-)

[Barb @ Gemstone Labradoodles]

Puppy pic at 6 wks and adult picture at 2 years.

click on picture to make it look normal

[Pam Thomas]

Will a groomer teach me how to do ears and sanitary? grooming for in between regular? And what is the best brush and comb to start at first? thanks-so many questions before I get her

[Stephanie and Ragley]

I asked my vet how to do a sanitary and she went and got clippers and showed me exactly how it is normally done free of charge. I also had her look in Ragley's ears to see if ear hair would be an issue. I'm sure the groomer could do the same. I have a furminator slicker brush right now for Ragley because I didn't want to splurge on a Les Pooches before her adult coat comes in. I still need to invest in a good comb. Right now I just have a flimsy plastic one that does the job, but is not ideal and combing is a must. You think you can get everywhere with a slicker but you just can't. 

[Rose Coward]

I use the tips from these Youtube videos for grooming Molly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k18gW7ryA-I&list=PLu3w21HrwaGnMp...

I prefer the shaggy look over the giant Bishon style cut.  I say that tongue in cheek we teased around lately that when someone asks what kind of dog Molly is we'll tell them a standard Bishon.  :)

Though currently we're keeping the coat a little shorter until we're done with the puppy coat molting.

[Stephanie and Ragley]

Ragley got a sanitary trim at the vet at 17 weeks, full bath and brush at petsmart at 4 months, and I take care of trimming around her eyes for now. I want to do all of her grooming myself so I'm not too knowledgable about a normal groomer schedule. Similar to Brittney, I did not like the look of the blow dried look from the groomer when she went for her bath- it looked as if they used a straightener on her and she had a horrid middle part and they dried her bangs into her eyes lol I was embarrassed for her haha Ragley's color is so varied depending on the lighting and the way her hair falls. I've heard someone on here refer to her type of coloring as a "fading red"- she has dark tips, and her hair is dark red for a couple of inches closest to her skin, but the middle is more of a light caramel. For the most part now she looks dark apricot/light red, but if she was trimmed, she would look just as dark or darker than she was as a puppy. Her dad is a red standard poodle that has maintained his rich color through adulthood so I think she will hold the red. I know a lot of red poodles fade to a cream though.