Doodle Grooming

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Coat types

Doodles come in three main coat types. Wool, fleece and hair. If you consider a woolly wool coat to be at one end of a scale and shedding coarse hair coats to be at the other end, your doodle could have a coat anywhere in-between. Not only that...it could be a combination of more than one type. Coats can also be very curly, somewhat curly, spiral curls, wavy or quite straight.

Hint for maintaining your favourite look.

You will find lots of pictures on this site of great looking doodles. Use them to take to your groomer to show what look you like or use them to follow for home grooming.

Coat Change from Puppy to Adult
Somewhere between 8 and 12 months doodles start growing their adult coats. Matte time! Since they don't shed, you need to comb the puppy coat out. This takes quite a bit of dedication and this stage can go on for several months. If you let your puppy mat at this time and resort to shaving, you STILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH THE PROBLEM. You cannot shave it away. At some point, you must comb that puppy coat out. To make this stage easier, scissor the coat to about 2 inches in length so there is less to tangle. A seriously good way to reduce brushing is to buy a high speed blower. It produces cool air at high volume and really helps clean and untangle the coat.

Combing your doodle.
Use a steel comb. Start from one foot and brush..yes brush with a brush..the hair up. Then start down at the foot again and brush down in layers, making sure to always get to see the skin in the area you are working on before you go on. After about and inch or two, comb where you brushed. If the comb won't go thru, start again. Work thru the whole coat in this fashion.
Make sure you hit all the areas.
inside, outside and back and front of legs
upper and lower chest
sides, back and under tail
top of head and neck all the way around
under ears, chin and face
If a wool dog is very matted, it can take 10 hours to demat. If you have a fleece coat that is in good shape, it should take an hour or less to brush and comb the whole dog thoroughly.
Worst trouble spots: in front of hind legs, armpits, under tail and neck

To Do List for regular maintenance.
1. brush and comb twice a week or when ever you feel mattes ..dampen after brushing
These things to be done every 4 to 6 weeks
2. trim hair from between eyes as required to keep it from poking into the eyes
3. shave belly
4. trim hair from around anus and on male or female parts to prevent messy mattes that can get infected from bacteria
5. clip nails
6. trim feet ...inside of feet, around toes and trim length so it just barely touches the ground.
7. trim hair above eyes so it does not obstruct sight
8. pull hair from inside ears and clean with ear cleaning solution
9. shave hair from base of ear to increase airflow into the ear

Links to Grooming Information from this forum.

coming

How to trim feet
You can trim feet with scissors or clippers. I prefer to use a combination of both. I first cup the dog's foot in my hand so the bottom is visible and keeping my scissors flat to the bottom of the foot, I trim all hair sticking beyond the foot. Next I take my clipper with a number 10 or 40 and trim inside between the large pad the the small toe pads. From the top of the foot looking down, I pull a hair back from toes and scissor hair from around nails and between toes. You can to this with a clipper too and make 'poodle toes'...not to be confused at all with poodle feet. You want the foot to have lots of volume from the top, but look clean underneath.

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Comment by Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie on April 13, 2015 at 8:56pm: Some doodles look great really short and some really don't. It depends upon the body shape. I tried short on Clancy once and he looked horrible, but at the romps I see lots of doodles really short and they look great. I think shaved bald due to matting doesn't ever look good, so if short prevents the real shave down, then short is wonderful!

Comment by Diane, Hurley and Sidney on April 13, 2015 at 6:19pm: Well, Hurley has never been trimmed, cut or shaved except where his collar hits and under the legs. Tomorrow will be his first time to get a summer cut. I am a nervous wreck. I really like his coat long but it is constant brushing to keep the mats at bay. Every time he plays with his doodle buddies he gets extremely matted from their romping around. Every time he goes for a swim he mats. I love our brushing time but I also realize he gets so hot in summer. We live in the Las Vegas area so heat is definitely an issue.

So his two doodle buddies are being trimmed back tomorrow and I think I will give it a shot this year. Hurley's coat does not grow fast so it is going to be forever for his coat to get real long again but in the interim I won't have to get him groomed every other week. He is also so skinny I am afraid he is going to look emaciated and people will think I never feed him.

Comment by Jen, Lachlan, and Declan on April 13, 2015 at 5:13pm: I've shaved Declan's tail more than once. It seems to be the only part of him that mats and I'll turn around one day and phoomph! it's all matted again. Tails seem to be such a sensitive area for brushing that once it reaches that point I'd rather just start over than put him through any discomfort - as it is he loves being groomed and I don't want that to change. It grows back fast enough.

Comment by Stella on April 13, 2015 at 3:15pm: I clip my doodles ears and tail short. I do it so they are the same length as the rest of his body. I just like it better that way!!

Comment by Debb, Lucy & Oscar on April 13, 2015 at 3:03pm: Barbara, I don't cut my doodles' tails short, but I've seen some that do. My 2 seem to tolerate tail brushing really well. I use a Chris Christensen 27mm T-Brush (pin brush) and a Safari mat rake for any mats I encounter. Here's links, if you're interested:

http://www.amazon.com/Safari-De-Matting-Comb-for-Dogs/dp/B0002ARR2W

http://www.chrissystems.com/grooming-tools/brushes-/pet-grooming-sh...

Comment by Barbara Brian on April 13, 2015 at 5:09am: My doodle is 2 years old and I take her for grooming every two months. My concern is her tail. Does anyone have their doodle tails shaved or cut very close? I don't currently but am considering it. She hates having her tail brushed out.

Comment by Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie on March 26, 2015 at 2:12pm: Thanks. He didn't shed as a puppy, but now he sure does! He is a good example for those who think their F1 won't shed because it didn't as a pup. We hoped, but didn't happen. His personality is as sweet as his photo.

Comment by Diane, Hurley and Sidney on March 26, 2015 at 10:00am: Love his coloring!!!!

Comment by BG and Gavin on March 25, 2015 at 5:39pm: Gorgeous eyes! He has a mixed coat that looks very similar to Gavin's.

Comment by Ricki and Tara (doodle) on March 24, 2015 at 9:31pm: Looks like he's ready for the hot weather! Love his eyes!

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