brushing out puppy coat?

[Tammie Miller]

Since the goldendoodle doesnt shed or sheds little, what is brushing out the puppy hair? What does this involve? And around what age is this done?

[Allen and Pamela Kerstetter]

When we got our labradoodle he was 3 month old and we tried to keep him combed once a week, but then the dreaded mats came like overnight when he was changing coat.  We decided to not deal with the coat change by getting Duke groomed.  It was a right choice as his coat is extremely curly. I wish there was a place to learn how to shave as we spend a fortune on grooming every four months. Duke loves being shaved as he can feel our fingers to his skin afterward, so he is always excited when we get it done. But his coat is always so beautiful before we take him.  We do trim the hair (between grooming ) between his toes as that gets long and can cause slippage and brings in dirt. No matter what we love our doodle like you would not believe and you will love yours the same when you get it.  

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Poodles and other breeds with nonshedding thick curly coats usually need to be groomed every 6 to 8 weeks. Four months is an awfully long time to go between groomings, did you mean every four weeks?

[Allen and Pamela Kerstetter]

[Allen and Pamela Kerstetter]

Maybe it is every 3 months as we get him shaved tight and it takes that long to grow back to a nice length.  We have the face and everything done as he looks like a white lab when done, which is fun to watch how it grows back out.  It literately is like having two dogs in one, lab (short hair) and doodle (long hairl,  I should post both pictures as even his personality is different. Thanks for the interest.

[Ginny Nightingale]

I groom doodles and lots of people go four months between groomings and bring in a big shaggy curly-haired blob when those 4 months are over! That is why they often need to be shaved as you describe--the coat has been left to it's own devices for too long! But most people cringe and cry when I shave the dog (I only do that if absolutely necessary for that reason). Sounds like you are OK with that and don't see it as some kind of punishment--in truth, shaving is easier on the dog during the grooming process than the hours it takes to remove all the mats and then cut the coat longer. As long as the dog doesn't get too cold, it is a fine way to deal with a curly coat, IMO.

Sorry this is sideways--oops! but you can see what the typical overgrown doodle looks like when they arrive at my house after 4 months without a haircut. I had already groomed the body and took a picture of his head.

By the way, getting a clipper and shaving the dog is not really that hard--it's the longer cut that is trickier to do--go to the grooming group and take a look and there are instructional videos online too!