Puff Balls Everywhere

[Linda Karell]

Oh my. . . for the past couple of months--after virtually no shedding at all--Chervil has started dropping big clumps of hair. She has a very thick, soft wavy-curly coat--and it takes considerable grooming to keep it in good shape. I brush her every night, and now I'm getting brush-fulls of hair. It's a bit like the worst of both worlds: lots of maintenance, and shedding, too. I just got a furminator, which pulled out a freaking' ton of hair. I'm hoping this is her baby coat (although she's 15 months old, so maybe I'm in my own fantasy), or at the very least, that she's in a bi-annual shed and won't be doing this all the time.

Well, what does it matter? I love her and she's here for good. So I'll brush and vacuum and whatever I need. I actually find it quite calming and relaxing when I groom her. Here's to the silly, wonderful doodles in our lives: never quite sure what we're going to get, and that's just fine!

[Linda Karell]

Thanks, everyone. Chervil has been spayed, so that's not it. But I usually get her trimmed to 3", and she's going in this Thursday, so I'll ask the groomer what she thinks is going on! Even if the furminator isn't the thing for Chervil (I also have a rake and a steel comb, which I use every night), it works great on the cats!! (I'm rather buried in animal hair right now--ah, spring!)

[Valarie]

This happened with Sophie at 13 months. A fellow Doodlekisses member thought it could be related to coming into heat. I believe that was correct because after we had her spayed she is hardly shedding at all.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

The steel combs are the best thing during this stage in their lives. Peri is 1 year old and we are definitely still pulling out puppy hair - she is not shedding, but when I use a steel comb, you should see the amount of hair I am pulling out. LOTS. I had her cut down to about 1 - 1 1/2" about 3 months ago - it made everything much more managable. We are about to do that again, just to get through this period of coat change. My groomer says she is still going through it.

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

One of the things you can do to find out about Chervil's coat is to take her to a groomer and ask their opinion of whether she is going to shed forever, whether she has an undercoat, and what tools you should use to groom her. My daughter uses a furminator on her lab and loves it but it would not be the thing to use with the type of coats my doodles have.

[Nina, Phil, Harlow & Lacey]

Harlow did the same thing. I made the mistake of using a shedding knife on her and ended up splitting her coat and making matting matters worse. I had her summer clip done about two weeks ago; now were are back to barley any hairs in her brush.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Calla has a similar coat . She too lost her coat in clumps and Is about the same age. I wonder if the furminator is like what is described here:
http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/doodlegrooming/forum/topics/does-...
If so it could cause more problems than it solves. If you're not in the grooming group.
http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/doodlegrooming you might want to join.
There is a ton of good information there. Barb, the breeder who stared the group, recommends steel combs.