Puppy shedding help!!!

[Nikki]

Otis is 15 weeks and just started shedding out of the blue. Not a ton around the house but I see it on my clothes and by his butt is really short thick hair that I can pluck out in tufts. Is this normal or is this a sign he will shed? I can handle minimal shedding but I had a golden before and couldn't take it. Please let me know if your pup did this if it got better with time. Thanks!

[Jessica, Loki and Moose]

Hi there! I'm in Ann Arbor so pretty close by! I have two F1's. The older one shed on-off growing up and now sheds his undercoat into a brush, but his fur doesn't get on my clothes. The younger one is going through a coat change and he's a hot mess right now. You could try a furminator brush if he does end up with a shedding coat. Good friends of ours use that brush on their huskies and have great success making the shedding more manageable. Without seeing his coat though I don't know if that brush is a good option for him. But it could be something to ask a groomer.

[Nikki]

Thank you! I am hoping it slows down. I'm mad at myself for being upset about it. I had a golden so was really looking forward to no more hair! But he has such a sweet temperament I really need to chill. Thank you so much for the info. I think it could go either way! God is always working on my control issues ;)

[Jessica, Loki and Moose]

I know what you mean though, if you are told your dog will be non-shedding and its shedding, it is upsetting. I would be upset too! My breeder had told me that if I assume they will shed somewhere in between the non shedding poodle and the crazy shedding of a Bernese, I won't be disappointed lol! So she basically told me don't get a puppy from her if I was super super concerned because she can't guarantee anything haha. In hindsight I love this advice but at the time I was confused as to why she couldn't be more specific.

[Nikki]

So do you find just during the coat changes that it's worse?

[Jessica, Loki and Moose]

At least for my guys the coat change time has meant mats are everywhere! My older guy has a none shedding coat but an under coat that does shed, im sure there's a more correct vocab for the different coats so I'm sorry if this makes no sense. So when he was going through his coat change half of his coat had to be brushed out since it didn't shed and the other parts that did shed got matted and stuck in his non shedding top coat, his puppy coat needed to be brushed out I'm assuming. The puppy seems to be doing the same thing, he looks really goofy too because parts of his coat seem to be complete with his adult coat and other chunks are this weird puppy fluff that's falling out. I know some doodles though who shed and the coat change wasn't so bad because they didn't really mat to begin with. Hope this helps!

[Amy and Annabelle]

Another one from Michigan. I have a mini f1b

[Ginny Nightingale]

I have an F1 that sheds a little but she has a very thin coat--sounds like your F1 does not. It is VERY easy to tell if a puppy sheds at as early as 6 weeks--I raise pups and we always tell people that a puppy in the litter is a shedder so that they can turn that one down if they do not want that--if they take the shedder because they do not care about that, they get a discount. If your breeder really said little to no shedding, she or he was not being honest--unless they did not know how to test it, in which case, they are very uninformed! As an example, we had people visiting our 6 week old pups one day and one man had a black polartec fleece on--when he put one pup down, there were pale hairs all over his vest! As I said, it is easy to tell when a pup will shed! She was the only shedder in the litter--but it happens with any labradoodle generation.

I would suggest brushing the coat quite a bit and keeping it short for now--maybe this will calm down as the puppy coat, which might be a bit thicker, thins down to an adult coat--but that is just a guess on my part. Maybe you can get a partial refund from your breeder --and use it for a new vacuum cleaner! ;)

[Nikki]

How can you tell that early? I've had Otis since he was 8 weeks and not a hair fell off until he was 15 weeks. It's not an obnoxious amount I'm just wondering if it'll get worse.

[Ginny Nightingale]

You gently pull on the hairs at the end of the body--just below the tail--usually is a good indicator--I am a bit surprised that you saw nothing at all before now, but then again, doodle coats are a mystery sometimes!

[dal]

My F1 goldendoodle shed more as a puppy than he does now at 15 months.  I used to see little white hairs all over the black bottom to his crate when he came home at 8 weeks.  Nothing in his crate now and barely anything around the house.  The only time I notice any considerable shedding is when I brush him, a fair amount comes out.  But really only when I brush him.  So for Cooper, it definitely got better with time!  He is a mixture of wavy/curly but more wavy.

[Nikki]

That's encouraging thank you so much!