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 Ginny Nightingale on May 15, 2009 at 5:32pm: My new pup--10 months old--is an Australian labradodle and has a thick coat of very soft fur. My other doodle has wiry hair and is easy to groom, but the new one, Lyric, is going to be a full time job. I took her to the groomer'last week thinking that she was all dematted and would get about an inch off the coat and she ended up with a 3/4 inch coat--they took off about 3 inches! They said that there were mats deep down and maybe her puppy coat coming out had caused it to be so bad.
I bought at slicker brush (LesPooches style, but cheaper) and something the groomer sold me called "T*H*E Stuff" Its a silicone spray that you put on mats to help them slide apart and come out with combing. Anyone out there use it? I haven't tried it yet since my doodle is practically bald! But boy is she happy to be free of all that hair! I hope i can keep her longer in the future, but i will have to learn about this coat. This advice from this group is very helpful.

Comment by Sarah on May 14, 2009 at 5:23pm: Thank you Donna!

Comment by Sarah on May 11, 2009 at 4:42am: Hi Everyone. My mum has a 2yr old Wool coated labradoodle who she wants to grow long but needs some tips on keeping on top of matts. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Comment by Nancie & Gracie Doodle on May 7, 2009 at 11:57am: Yep, that is what I have been told...de-matt, brush, comb...then wash!

Comment by Sally, Ditzy Mitzi & Sgt. Pepper on May 7, 2009 at 11:41am: My groomer told me that the dog needs to be thoroughly brushed out and de-matted before bathing as water makes the matts tighter and harder to get out. Then bathed and groomed. Is this incorrect?

Comment by Nancie & Gracie Doodle on May 7, 2009 at 8:23am: Ooops...that is correct...brush then comb!! Sorry, I just sort of blurted it out there in the wrong sequence :(

Comment by Nancie & Gracie Doodle on May 4, 2009 at 10:51pm: I am under the impression that they need a clean Doodle to do the grooming. I have done both. I have bathed my Doodle the day before and combed her out. Then dropped her off in the morning for grooming. It shortens the time they spend at the groomers and since Gracie stresses at the groomers I prefer it that way. Otherwise, if you can't bathe your Doodle, they need to do it. It is easier for them to de-mat, comb and brush them if they are clean. This is just my opinion and from what my groomer has implied.

Comment by Annie Starlight Dancer Hovis on May 4, 2009 at 4:07am: Should we use this groomer who bathes and grooms or one who just grooms? What would u use.

Comment by Betsy D. on May 3, 2009 at 9:02pm: Anybody have a groomer in St. Louis - central to west St. Louis County? I am getting a little nervous about the care of our doodle. We rarely had to do much for our Golden Retrievers, they just went to the groomers and our Poodles were the same. I know I brushed them sometimes, but my mother was in charge. Now that I will be having my own pup, I want to be a little more consciencious about her grooming!

Comment by Susan Dodgson on May 2, 2009 at 8:18pm: I'm in search of a groomer in the Scranton Pa area or nearby. Anybody have any suggestions?

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