grooming

[Kristen Juarez]

My doodle Henderson is 31/2 months, he is starting to shed. Is he losing his puppy coat?

[Nicky, Riley & Boris]

That sounds terribly young to be changing his coat but I'm not an expert.  He is perhaps just shedding in a normal way.  In other words he may be a doodle who is a shedder  rather than a non-shedder.   Hope this makes some sense.  I think it may be no harm to just check that this is not something else ie. a skin problem?

[Trina L Lavoie]

Ou doodle just started also and he is the same age. From what I read it is very young for this to happen already. I haven't read anything about it maybe being a winter coat. Praying we don't have a shedder since my allergies have been bad with him. Good luck.

[Kristen Juarez]

oh my your allergies too? I noticed last night when I brushed him he was shedding less. But the texture of his  coat is changing and the color.

[Trina L Lavoie]

I have noticed that too. My allergies started about a week after we got Bruno so I am going to try allergy shots to see if it helps. The groomer said that the doodles with a poodle undercoat are better for allergies and apparently he has the lab undercoat. Not sure how true this is but either way it happened!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

In my limited experience of looking at puppy vs adult pictures here on dk, is that a lot of doodles get curlier, the texture changes, and their color gets lighter as they mature. Ned is still apricot and didn't fade but he lost the red ears and tail he had as a puppy. I don't think Ned got much curlier either.  So my own dog smashes my observations to smithereens! LOL

Ned began matting at about 6 months which was my signal that he was beginning the coat change.