Doodle Grooming

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A chance to ask a professional groomer for advice.

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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.

Discussion Forum

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Comment by Serena Keating on February 17, 2009 at 6:05pm: I've been to Intergroom a couple of times. It's a great place to pick up tools because you can touch and feel...

Comment by elyse on February 17, 2009 at 3:39pm: Just wnated to share - if you are around the New Jersey area there is going to be a grooming show April 16th - 19th at the Garden State Convention Center in Somerset. You can go to www.intergroom.com and download a free pass. There will be many exibits and lots of good info. Check out their site.

Comment by Denise, Winnie, and AngelAbby on February 16, 2009 at 8:56pm: Explain bangs?? I'm not sure what you mean - unless you mean the hair on their faces above their eyes? I keep Abby's eyes clear of hair so would she be considered as having bangs?

Comment by Annie Starlight Dancer Hovis on February 16, 2009 at 6:34am: who likes Bangs on Doodles i don't, but that is just my opinion.

Comment by Paula on February 12, 2009 at 4:54pm: Thanks Barb I will.

Comment by Barb @ Gemstone Labradoodles on February 12, 2009 at 11:03am: Hi Paula
Since you are in Canada, there is a distributor in Ottawa. Here is her contact info...Marg at TLC Dog 613-745-5808.

Comment by Leslie and Halas on February 12, 2009 at 7:19am: Try doodlecountry.com. From that website, you can e-mail Kemp with a description of your doodle's coat and a picture, and he can recommend the best Les Poochs brush for you. I'm sure there are other places to get them, but I liked the fact that Kemp took the time to figure out which brush was best for my doodle.

Comment by Paula on February 12, 2009 at 7:16am: Barb
How do I get Les Poochs brushes? Where do I purchase them? I imagine that the only way is to order them online. Right?

Comment by Susan, Zeke. Lily & Jasper on February 11, 2009 at 7:13pm: I know a lot has been discussed about Les Poochs brushes but I just wanted to add my 2 cents worth. Love this brush! Lily has a combo coat that is silky curls head to halfway down her back then turns into spiral fleece. She is 9 months old and so far has had only a few matts but this brush takes care of them easily. I highly recommend it.

Comment by Barb @ Gemstone Labradoodles on February 9, 2009 at 10:10am: Interesting discussion on grooming tools and very true about favourites. It is important for professional groomers to have a good cross section of job specific tools. Since most people using this site are individuals with one or two dogs, perhaps a lot of different tools are not required. For that reason I have tried to keep the tool requirements simple and more directed to the individual. [see discussion on tools] I have some different types of stripping tools which I use on my shepherds only. I have never used them on my doodles. I had a helper here in the summer who was an experienced groomer. She used a stripping tool on one of my wool boys and completely ruin his coat. In general, I do not recommend any blade type of stripping tool on doodles. It is better to use scissors and cut though the mat in the direction of hair growth. Having said that, I groom Australian Labradoodles only, so I do not deal with as many coat types as are talked about on DK.

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