Poodles and any Doodle require alot of regular grooming. Which means you have to brush them at home, not just take your solid matt of a dog to the groomer every 6 months. This will result in your dog promptly getting shaved down naked with a #10 blade. It will also result in your dog being just another cursed doodle that every groomer you take them to will cuss. Matting is not painless to remove no matter how you do it so your dog will dread the groomer and probably be very bad for grooming if you take it in matted. New puppies should visit the groomer for the first time around 12 to 16 weeks of age (as soon as they have three of their DA2PP boosters and a bordetella vaccine it is generally safe to go) and every 4-6 weeks thereafter. Little puppies should probably go for a "puppy bath" every 4 weeks to build a relationship with the groomer and become desensitized to the salon environment. After that, depending on how long of a coat you want your Doodle maintained at you can adjust the grooming schedule to 6-8 weeks. Remember the longer you want the coat kept the more often they need to go and the more work you need to do at home. The best looking doodles I know of have an every two week grooming schedule alternating appointments between just a bath, brush and sanitary and a full groom every other appointment.
DO NOT WASH YOUR DOODLE AT HOME, unless you have a velocity drier and COMPLETELY comb them out before the bath and after the blow out. You don't give doodles "quick baths"- it is a process every time unless you have them shaved naked.
DO NOT WASH YOUR DOODLE AT HOME, unless you have a velocity drier and COMPLETELY comb them out before the bath and after the blow out. You don't give doodles "quick baths"- it is a process every time unless you have them shaved naked.
THE PICTURES BELOW ARE NOT WHAT YOU WANT TO HAPPEN!!!
Equipment You Will Need
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Metal Comb
This is the most important thing you will need to properly care for your doodle or poodle. If you get nothing else please purchase this $10 comb. If you will notice, one side has finer teeth than the other side. Start combing with the wide side to break up any tangles and then turn the comb around and go back over the coat to get smaller knots and fluff out the dog a bit. Areas that need special attention if you are limited on time include: tips of the ears, behind the ears, under the armpits, tail, and on the outsides of the rear legs where the dog would be putting its weight when it sits. |
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Slicker Brush
This should not be your only tool. It does not penetrate the coat deeply enough to make sure it is tangle free. This tool just finely separates the hair fibers to create that fluffy, "finished" look after combing. |
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Matt Breaker
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EARS
Doodles and Poodles also need proper ear care. They have what I refer to as "poodle ears". It's by no means a scientific term but I started using it early on in breeding Goldendoodles just to differentiate between the ones with lower maintenance, more Golden Retriever type ears, and the higher maintenance "poodle ears". Poodle ears, to me, means that they have an abundance of hair growing directly out of the ear canal. This hair will trap moisture and your dog will then develop a yeast infection in their ears.
If you are not comfortable with it you do not have to do this at home but in the following section I will attempt to educate you adequately so that you know when something is going on with your dogs ears and what to do about it.
If you are not comfortable with it you do not have to do this at home but in the following section I will attempt to educate you adequately so that you know when something is going on with your dogs ears and what to do about it.
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First and foremost you need to understand the anatomy of the ear of a dog. You cannot damage their eardrum with normal cleaning practices. The ear canal on a dog makes almost a right turn at the bottom before you get to the ear drum. As long as you don't use anything bendable that will snake around that turn you will not be in danger of damaging anything. Where the line goes across on the diagram annotating the ear canal is as far as I have ever been able to stick something in a dog's ear. Don't worry about it. So many people are terrified to clean their dogs ears. Don't be. Its ok. For a quick visual tutorial you can click the YouTube link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJJhWT4n6uw |
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Hemostats
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