Brushing/Combing

[Debbie and Thomas]

Tonight I tried to comb out my fluffy little 17 week old goldendoodles hair. He did not like this at all. He was rolling around and tried to bite me. I dodged his teeth, held him down and tried to continue. I only covered 1/8 of his body and gave up because I was exhausted and he was too upset. Up until now I was just using a brush but I am told this will not get into their hair deep enough to prevent matting. So I tried it with a dog comb. He is going to the groomers on Tuesday morning and I am worried. I don't want them to have to shave him down. He is just a puppy. Any advice on how to keep him calm while he gets brushed?

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Welcome to my world!!! My advice is to join the grooming group and read many of the discussions on grooming. Personally, Ned doesn't like to be brushed and seldom cooperates. If I really need to brush him (get mats), my DH and I make it a two-person job. It was suggested to me that I set him on a table to mimic the groomer. This has helped me. I also use a good (LesPouchs) but expensive slicker brush. I spray horse mane and tail conditioner on Ned. Wait a bit. Brush with the slicker brush then use a metal comb. I do PART of him at a time. I sometimes offer treats periodically through the session. I have been trying to think of a long lasting thing for him to chew. I sometimes use a nylabone. I try to brush him as well as I can before I take him to the groomer. I swear by the Cowboy Magic products and The Original Horse Mane and Tail spray in product. I take those things to the groomer to use on Ned. You can down load grooming directions to take to the groomer. Take pictures like a doodle calendar. Make sure your groomer either has done doodles or is willing to do a scissor cut and not shave.

[Sandy]

I brush Toby with a slicker brush. I wouldn't say he loves it, by any means, but I get it done. I put peanut butter and cheerios in his Kong, and hold it between my knees as I sit on the floor. He works on the Kong, I work on him. I was advised to push his hair forward, and brush from back to front. That way you can get a little "deeper" in the fur. It was called back-brushing.

[Adina P]

My suggestion is to practice this when he is tired. Take him out for some high energy play outside after a walk and do some puppy push ups (sit, down, sit, down, over and over...wear out his body and brain) and THEN practice the brushing and combing when his energy is low. That will help a lot and prevent some of the fighting.

What I did with Rosco as a pup (and he was the SAME) was give him a bully stick or stuffed kong while I groomed him. Usually it worked great!

Also practice a little every day. DON'T expect to finish the job in one session, break it up so he doesn't have to put up with a whole body grooming, because he's not ready. Also start practice sessions EASY...just show him the comb and give him a treat. Show him the comb, give him a treat. Show him the comb, give him a treat. Show him the comb, give him a treat. Then end the session and repeat later in the day. You want him to salivate and be HAPPY to see the comb because it means TRRRREEEAAAATS! =)

Then touch him with the comb....treat. Then touch him with the comb....treat. Then touch him with the comb....treat.

Work your way forward little at a time until he can be chilled out while being combed. Won't happen overnight...be patient and you may very well HAVE to have him shaved once...the coat change he'll go through in a couple months or at a year will often be more than most can keep up with.

Good luck!

[Belinda Stevens]

That is some good advise there.... treat treat treat! That is how I got Stella to accept taking a bath. I didn't have that much problem with the brushing.

[Debbie and Thomas]

Thanks for the great advice-up until now he was Ok with the brush-I would brush part of him everyday. We have so much snow here so he is constantly getting wet and this can lead to matting, right?? So I decided to use a comb-he did not like it at all. I tried a bit this morning while he was standind beside my desk. He didn't seem to mind at all. I will try this evening when he is tired and offer lots of delicious treats. We'll see. I guess its just one more day in the life of a doodle puppy-SO many things to learn. We're gettin there though.

[JIM MCCORMICK]

How old is your Doodle? Ours is 11months and bites everything. He has even chewed on our wooden chair legs and through an electrical cord attached to an air cleaner that was luckily not running at the time. We had a trainer tell us that he is bored and we need to spend time training him with 100 sits a day.

We have done the training with the sits most days but you can imagine we do not have the time to do 100 sits a day every day. He is still bored and still bites and chews everything. He likes to get into the trash and eat tissues and paper towels also any food he can find. Its hard to stay ahead of him.

He gets more walks than any other dog in the neighborhood. We take him in the morning for a 20 minute walk, he then comes inside and gets a brushing. After that I put him on the treadmill for about 1 - 2 miles every day.
He then settles down in his crate for a morning nap that may last varying times long depending on when we arrive back home. Sometime in the early afternoon he gets a short walk that lasts about 15 to 20 minutes and then back inside for the afternoon outside the cage when he sleeps or plays with a ball. Around 4:30 or 5:00 p.m. he gets another meal and then another walk for 10 minutes. Then he settles down while our evening meal is cooking. He gets a kong while we eat our dinner since it makes him hungry when we are eating and he is not. After dinner, he does some training most nights that lasts about 10 minutes with the sits, roll over, lay, stay, etc. He know all of the commands except the stay breaks down unless he is waiting for his meal to be served. Also, he does not like to do the sits unless he sees a treat in our hands.

At night he gets a 25 minute walk and then a short jaunt outside before he is put into his cage for the night at about 10:00p.m or 10:30 p.m. He does not like to go to bed, but he does it and then does not complain or cry.

All of this is great for interaction with your dog, but he is definitely a dog that needs lots of attention and training. Not sure how long we will be able to keep up this schedule with all the attention and exercise. He loves it and so far we do too but we will be getting older and maybe not able to continue.

He is a very friendly dog and loves children. However, he jumps on children and people when he greets them. We are trying to break him of this habit. So far we have not been able to get him to stop jumping on people when he first meets them. He becomes very agitated but happy with them and demonstrates his feelings with the jumping. Hopefully he will settle down when he gets older. He is just 11 months now. I know our prior dog did this up through two to three years old. Trainer said to give him treats when he greets people at the door with calmness.

What are your thoughts?

[Debbie and Thomas]

Our dog Thomas will be 5 months old this coming Tuesday and frankly I am exhausted. We have done everything "by the book". He is in his second level of obedience/training classes and follows the commands like the star of the class. In fact the trainer uses Thomas to demonstrate. I spend at least 1/2 hr per day reinforcing these commands that he has learned in a training session in which I go thru the commands and treat him for his immediate response. Today we learned to ask him to sit, lie down, and stand in consecutive commands and not to give him a treat until the last command was obeyed. Again-he was an expert. Then me mixed up the commands for example lie down, stand and then sit. Again-he knew what to do. Then we came home and he had a nap. I went out for the afternoon and when I got home-he was a little "beast". He was atacking my pant leg and jumping up. When I turn around and ignore this-he stops-then as soon as I began walking-again he wanted to grab my legs and bite. He then sttled down a bit. This dog seems to know when I have had enough and follows the commands.-then my husband came home and the same thing started al over again. I began to make a nice dinner and tied him on a long leash so he could not reach me in the kitchen , but he continued to (attack) jump and play at my husband. This happens every evening around 5:00 pm and continues until we put him to bed. Frankly-I have had enough. He has bones, Kongs with food are given. toys, etc but this behaviour continues EVERY evening. He is walked a lot as you said and played with more than any other dog I have ever had. I really think he is getting spoiled. So tonight-I tied him up and told everyone to JUST IGNORE him. He laid down and just watched us for over a hour. I have him off the leash right now and he is chewing on one of his many toys or bones in the other room where my husband is watching our pitiful Toronto Maple Leafs lose yet another game. I think it may be time for some "tough love". If not I can see this dog ruling our lives for many months/years to come.
Debbie from Toronto

[Sandy]

Toby is very, very busy too. I am just waiting for the big maturation/slow down. If he gets out of control in the evening he gets crated for 10 minutes or so, which calms him down. Sometimes I do ask myself what we've done, but then he calms down, and it's worth it. I'm just glad I'm not alone in this.

[Debbie and Thomas]

Hi, I like you wonder some time-what have we done-but we are in here for the long haul-right? These dogs are just too cute to get angry with.

[Sandy]

Well.....sometimes I do feel angry, but then I either give myself permission to crate him, or to go out. When he comes out of the crate, or when I get back, I am ALWAYS happy to see him again! And it's going to be painful for me to leave him at the vet's to be neutered in a week in a half, so I guess it's love. :)

[Debbie and Thomas]

Hi, Just to make you feel better(it made me feel better)-we took Thomas to the dog park today and met many doodle owners with their dogs. They all told us how they really clam down as 1 yr olds and become very Calm dogs. Jack and I told them"we are not seeing the calmness yet". They laughed and said "yes they like to be annoying as puppies, the biting, jumping up etc, but when they look back, it wasn't that bad. Hopefully we will be there one day because like you- we just love him and he is very good compared to some puppies.

[Sandy]

Every little bit of reassurance I can get helps! Toby shows signs of the loving, calm dog he will be, but he's definitely not there yet. Grade One Obedience in March - hopefully that will get us over the rough patch. :)