I adopted a 10-month old doodle and don't know anything about maintaining this kind of coat. It's kind of in between a lab and a poodle - somewhat but not extremely curly. Big dog - 100lb.

He has a short, poodle-like clip, where ears and tails are long, body clipped quite short (fur is just under an inch long?), legs seem slightly longer. His tail hairs are super long, so I'm guessing all his hair would be long if he weren't clipped. I'd like to keep the clipping up, to reduce shedding and to show off how handsome he is under all that hair, LOL!

I have several questions...
(1) how often should we bath him, and what shampoo do you recommend?
(2) recommended de-shedder or brush styles? He seems to shed lightly.
(3) Any recommendations for how I should learn to clip him? Rather than bring him to the groomer all the time, I was thinking about clipping him myself. I haven't clipped dogs before, although worked as an assistant to a groomer years ago, but I have clipped horses so think I can pick it up pretty easily. What I don't know is which sized attachments I should use for clipping him... would the body be a different attachment from the legs, typically? Any guess for what length of attachment it'd be?

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Great ideas... thanks Ron. I hope your new dog/s are as nice as ours... we are so thrilled with him. An absolute dream to train (one of the previous owner's complaints was that he jumped on people, and it took us about 2 minutes to train him not to). And the most marvelous personality. Best of luck with your guys.
Hi

I also have horses and a goldiepoo (hopefully a labradoodle soon too)... anyhow, because my dog spends a lot of time exposed to hay and shavings and mud, I keep her cut very short year-round. It is easier to give her a sweater or a turn-out blanket when she is cold than to try to keep up with the long hair.

I used to use my horse clipper with the plastic clip attachments but found it to be a bother when the clips would get caught in long doodle hair. I just got an Andis with different sized blades (no plastic clip attachments). Typically, I will just go over her entire body with the 3 3/4 blade. I start will with the 3 3/4 skip tooth blade first .... then change to the 3 3/4 finishing blade .... I trim it in all directions so that there are not a lot of stray tufts. I use the size 10 blade to trim her paws (so that they don't pick up as much mud). Then I use the scissors to trim her head, nose, ears, tail. I do my mother-in-law's doodle the same way and he receives compliments in the city dog-park. I have not had training on how to do this, but I think the dogs both look pretty good. The cool thing about doodle hair is that it is quite forgiving so give it a try.

I also bath my dog as needed ... sometimes just her legs and tummy ... I bring her into the walk-in shower. I use a dog shampoo for her body but use Pantene conditioner for her tail because it is quite long and it really gets the tangles out (I use it for my horses' tailes too!).

Good luck!!
Audrey
Thanks, I can totally follow that. I really like his current cut... short all over except tail and ears... and hope to maintain that. How often do you comb/brush with all that hay etc?

N
Just as needed ... you know when you are watching TV at night and you notice that your dog has a burr or sticks in their fur ... or just because you feel like brushing them. Our dog, Trixie likes to be a lap dog, and sleep with our kids so I am a bit fussy that she not be dirty or smell like a dog. Places to be aware of is between the toes.... I keep that hair really short ... and in the arm-pits. She has picked up little burrs between her toes before and I didn't notice it until I saw her chewing on her paw.

I usually just let the dogs lay down on the kitchen floor and I clip away ... they love it!

Audrey
Geez, they sound easy.
What blade do you use on their face? How often do you find you need to clip them? I've heard everything from every 6 weeks to every 6 months, depending on who I talked to.
nicky
I don't use a blade on their face ... I use the scissors.... keep hair very short between eyes.... and just shorten muzzle hair ... but leave it with the same shape ... also use scissors on top of head ... but not make it too round like a poodle.... just make it shorter and again maintain the same shape as before.....

Audrey
Ok, I think I can do that. It also looks like maybe his legs were done with a slightly longer cut... still short but slightly longer than his body... any ideas if that's likely, and what blade size that would probably be? Thanks,
Nicky
Audrey, thanks - that helped alot. Someone recommended the youtube video on line brushing and it was REALLY helpful. We tried the basic brushing this weekend and it worked great.
Nicky
Yes, I've found it now and she helped me out. I don't know why it took me so long to find the grooming group, but I've got it and Olivia's already helped me out.

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