Grooming

Before taking your puppy home, you must consider their ongoing needs such as maintenance of their coat.

Whether their coat is straight, wavy, or curly, the first 6 months of maintenance are quite easy. A simple grooming regime of regular brushing sessions of 10 minutes, 3-4 times a week, will keep your puppy’s coat free of knots. Abundant rewards and positive reinforcement will help your puppy associate grooming as a pleasant experience! We recommend buying a comb, brush, nail clippers and a slicker brush to help keep your puppy knot-free.

You can bathe your puppy as often as you wish, providing the shampoo is free of soap and detergents. It is important to avoid aggravating their skin; you will find that most baby shampoos are suitable. We recommend making this a weekly routine, so your puppy gets used to happily going in and out of the bath. Conditioning sprays can also be used after bathing to moisturise their coat and provide a lovely scent!

Your puppy’s nails will need to be trimmed once every 2-3 months with nail clippers. If you choose to do this yourself, please be careful and be conservative with the amount you cut off - the very end hooks are enough. Alternatively, any dog groomer should be able to do this for you at little cost.

It is highly beneficial to desensitise your puppy by regularly touching the membranes around their ear canals, as later in life their ears may need to be plucked of excess hairs to prevent a build-up of wax. Also, regularly check your puppy’s teeth so you recognise any future changes, such as discolouration. 

When your puppy reaches 6 - 8 months of age, you will notice that their adult coat starts to come through. Their adult coat will feel thicker and this is when it could start to matt. All dogs moult, however, the Poodle crosses are low-non shedding so require grooming to brush out the puppy coat. We recommend their first professional groom to take place at 8 months of age and every 8-12 weeks after that depending on your puppy’s coat type.

Searching for a groomer in your area can be difficult, so please look for a groomer who is used to grooming Poodles and Poodle crosses. We recommend asking for the adorable ‘teddy bear’ cut.

Please be specific about what groom you would like and always ask for a scissor cut rather than a clip. In the unlikely event your dog does get matted, some groomers will ask you to sign a disclaimer and will need to clip your puppy’s coat short in order to let the new coat grow through. In any case, it is best to maintain the coat with regular brushing and grooming so your dog can always keep its teddy bear looks.

In between regular grooming, you should keep the fur around your puppy’s eyes and bottom trimmed – this can be done with nail or baby scissors. Please be extremely cautious when using scissors near your puppy’s face and ensure they are in a calm and relaxed state of mind. You may need some assistance to help keep your puppy still and prevent any possible injuries. 

Below you will find a short video provided to us by Barkdale Dog Grooming and Spa -www.barkdale.co.uk - showing some of the techniques that should be used to keep your doodles coat in tip -top condition between grooms.