usvi-on-line
Puppy's First Haircut
Are you sure you have the right dog? Holy cow, what a difference!Pia wrote:I think they sent you home with the wrong pup - are you sure it's himsoooooo cute
Pia
A close friend of mine had some sort of chow mix and his (the dogs) coat was out of control. No matter what they did, it was a matted mess. They had to shave him down and like you, it was like a totally different dog.
Honestly, I would have never guessed that was the SAME dog! Jasmine has hair that mats too. What kind of brush do you use? Giving her a bath when her hair gets too long is a very bad thing. SO TRUE!
Jasmine hates being brushed. I use to do it so much that she was scared to sit on my lap and would never come to me. I started having her groomed every other week. She get a hair cut once a month and a bath and brush out on the other week. You might consider that.
I think what you little girl was so thoughtful and such a great gift for those in need!
XO
Jasmine hates being brushed. I use to do it so much that she was scared to sit on my lap and would never come to me. I started having her groomed every other week. She get a hair cut once a month and a bath and brush out on the other week. You might consider that.
I think what you little girl was so thoughtful and such a great gift for those in need!
XO
What a CUTE ‘Doodle!
Currently, we have a Maltese mix that has a bit of Poodle in him. Maltese hair is like human hair in that there is no undercoat so it mats and snarls easily. Throw in a little bit of Poodle and the coat is much more dense and tends to mat even more. With a Labradoodle you are fighting a combo of two types of dense coats and that isn’t easy. I feel for you - Unfortunately, you don’t have a wash n’wear dog here – lol. Just a few things I’ve learned (the hard way) since having a number of different types of coated dogs.
- You can’t wash a matted dog. Well, you can, but the mats will dry even tighter and pull the skin even more when the dog moves. Mats are painful to an active dog. We clip out any mats under the legs and any mats located too close to the skin or that we can’t remove with the proper tools– the main thing is for the dog to be comfortable.
- The following tools will help to effect a good grooming and keep the mats down: a pin brush, a slicker brush, a large steel comb that has two sizes of teeth – one set of each size at each end; a mat splitter, a decent quality professional haircutting scissors. There are groomers' supply resources online.
- Static and dry air are the enemies of easy coat maintenance. Use quality dog grooming shampoo / conditioner, like Coat Handler or another professional product. Dry the dog thoroughly – a wet coat will mat like crazy if you let it go. Never brush a dry coat without using a spray (whether the dog is just bathed or in between baths) – use a d-mat, anti-static or detangler spray made especially for pro grooming – mist the dog and mist the brushes. Using this type of spray will also keep the coat cleaner as it contains silicone and helps the coat to shed debris and dust.
- Sometimes the coat needs a light mink oil spray if it is too dry and flyaway even after using the silicone spray (especially here in our dry Chicago winter weather). The dog should be brushed 3-4 times a week to avoid having to do a big de-matting job that might be overwhelming to both you and the dog.
This Doodle coat is a lot of work and more so since the dog is good size– the breeder should have warned you. Sometimes your best friend is a clippers and keeping the dog clipped short if you want to maintain the dog at home. Get him done professionally first and begin to keep the clip up every two weeks so you are just doing maintenance and not trying to carve a dog out of a pile of hair after waiting a couple of months.
Good luck!
- Margy
Currently, we have a Maltese mix that has a bit of Poodle in him. Maltese hair is like human hair in that there is no undercoat so it mats and snarls easily. Throw in a little bit of Poodle and the coat is much more dense and tends to mat even more. With a Labradoodle you are fighting a combo of two types of dense coats and that isn’t easy. I feel for you - Unfortunately, you don’t have a wash n’wear dog here – lol. Just a few things I’ve learned (the hard way) since having a number of different types of coated dogs.
- You can’t wash a matted dog. Well, you can, but the mats will dry even tighter and pull the skin even more when the dog moves. Mats are painful to an active dog. We clip out any mats under the legs and any mats located too close to the skin or that we can’t remove with the proper tools– the main thing is for the dog to be comfortable.
- The following tools will help to effect a good grooming and keep the mats down: a pin brush, a slicker brush, a large steel comb that has two sizes of teeth – one set of each size at each end; a mat splitter, a decent quality professional haircutting scissors. There are groomers' supply resources online.
- Static and dry air are the enemies of easy coat maintenance. Use quality dog grooming shampoo / conditioner, like Coat Handler or another professional product. Dry the dog thoroughly – a wet coat will mat like crazy if you let it go. Never brush a dry coat without using a spray (whether the dog is just bathed or in between baths) – use a d-mat, anti-static or detangler spray made especially for pro grooming – mist the dog and mist the brushes. Using this type of spray will also keep the coat cleaner as it contains silicone and helps the coat to shed debris and dust.
- Sometimes the coat needs a light mink oil spray if it is too dry and flyaway even after using the silicone spray (especially here in our dry Chicago winter weather). The dog should be brushed 3-4 times a week to avoid having to do a big de-matting job that might be overwhelming to both you and the dog.
This Doodle coat is a lot of work and more so since the dog is good size– the breeder should have warned you. Sometimes your best friend is a clippers and keeping the dog clipped short if you want to maintain the dog at home. Get him done professionally first and begin to keep the clip up every two weeks so you are just doing maintenance and not trying to carve a dog out of a pile of hair after waiting a couple of months.
Good luck!
- Margy
XOXO - I've never used one like that - it's probably a new style. Mine is pretty old - I have replaced the blades twice. It looks like a slightly smaller version of this one:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/3 ... AA280_.jpg
I like this one because I can get all the way through the mat, starting at the ends and working toward the skin (hold the mat from behind with your fingers resting on the dogs skin- grasping the hair away from the skin so you are pulling against your own pressure on the hair and not the dog's skin – wish I could explain that better). There's a thumb guard that keeps my finger away from the blades on this one, too. It's probably all in what you get used to, though - this is the first/only type I've used.
When we got our first Maltese we were getting them groomed every two weeks. We kept them in a long coat and the grooming costs were pretty steep but I couldn’t imagine tackling this chore myself. Then we had a really bad experience with a groomer and almost lost one of them. I bought a video through a grooming school on how to groom this type of "parted-coated" dog to see if I could learn to take care of them myself. I had groomed our Min. Schnauzers when I was living at home but those were mostly clipper cuts with some scissoring of the legs and beards. It took some time and the guys got a couple of funny haircuts but eventually I got the hang of it. This is the modified puppy groom I do now on our little Maltese mix rescue, Snow:
<img src="http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t127 ... een2-1.jpg">
He tolerates grooming pretty well – with a breed that takes a lot of grooming, though, you have to start them getting used to it pretty young – either that or have a lot of patience and food bribes handy.
What kind of dog do you have?
- Margy
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/3 ... AA280_.jpg
I like this one because I can get all the way through the mat, starting at the ends and working toward the skin (hold the mat from behind with your fingers resting on the dogs skin- grasping the hair away from the skin so you are pulling against your own pressure on the hair and not the dog's skin – wish I could explain that better). There's a thumb guard that keeps my finger away from the blades on this one, too. It's probably all in what you get used to, though - this is the first/only type I've used.
When we got our first Maltese we were getting them groomed every two weeks. We kept them in a long coat and the grooming costs were pretty steep but I couldn’t imagine tackling this chore myself. Then we had a really bad experience with a groomer and almost lost one of them. I bought a video through a grooming school on how to groom this type of "parted-coated" dog to see if I could learn to take care of them myself. I had groomed our Min. Schnauzers when I was living at home but those were mostly clipper cuts with some scissoring of the legs and beards. It took some time and the guys got a couple of funny haircuts but eventually I got the hang of it. This is the modified puppy groom I do now on our little Maltese mix rescue, Snow:
<img src="http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t127 ... een2-1.jpg">
He tolerates grooming pretty well – with a breed that takes a lot of grooming, though, you have to start them getting used to it pretty young – either that or have a lot of patience and food bribes handy.
What kind of dog do you have?
- Margy
-
mindehankins
- Posts: 3014
- Joined: Fri Mar 06, 2009 8:21 am
- Location: Western NY State
-
chicagoans
- Posts: 1586
- Joined: Thu Jan 18, 2007 2:51 pm
- Location: IL
Margy, you do a great job of grooming Snow!! What a good looking pup! I see similarities between mine, Minde's, and yours. Do you remember the name of the DVD??
I have the same de-matting tool and liked it a lot at first but the screw and the end is loose so I try to hold it together with my thumb (awkward). And one of the blades turns if I don't hold it tight enough and I have stabbed her a couple of times. So, it is time for me to get a new one. I try to tighten it and that doesn't work--there is only one nut and there use to be two . . . I need a new one.
Jasmine is overdue. The place I normally bring her to had the roof cave in from snow overload. I know I need to call somewhere else but I really like this groomer--there are two groomers closer but the always shave her--I told both of them that I didn't want her shaven short but the do it anyway. Right now I can't give her a bath because of the mats--it is time to quit procrastinating!! They will probably shave her and she will freeze outside BUT she will smell better and I can start over with keeping her unmatted.
"trying to carve a dog out of a pile of hair" HA!
Gina
I have the same de-matting tool and liked it a lot at first but the screw and the end is loose so I try to hold it together with my thumb (awkward). And one of the blades turns if I don't hold it tight enough and I have stabbed her a couple of times. So, it is time for me to get a new one. I try to tighten it and that doesn't work--there is only one nut and there use to be two . . . I need a new one.
Jasmine is overdue. The place I normally bring her to had the roof cave in from snow overload. I know I need to call somewhere else but I really like this groomer--there are two groomers closer but the always shave her--I told both of them that I didn't want her shaven short but the do it anyway. Right now I can't give her a bath because of the mats--it is time to quit procrastinating!! They will probably shave her and she will freeze outside BUT she will smell better and I can start over with keeping her unmatted.
"trying to carve a dog out of a pile of hair" HA!
Gina
Minde - LOL - - sometimes I think it would be easier to start with a block of ice and a chainsaw and make an ice sculpture rather than trying to carve a dog out of a mess of tangles and uneven outgrowth - lol.
Gina - DVD??? I got this video so long ago that DVDs weren't even a gleam in a techie's eye as yet - lol. It was a VHS tape. I get my Coat Handler stuff and supplies from Cherrybrook Pet Supplies online and they have breed-specific grooming DVDs available on their site:
http://www.cherrybrook.com/
They also have the combination combs, mat splitters, pin and slicker brushes, etc., available and in lots of different sizes. And, they have THE STUFF and Miracle Coat Lusterizer Spray which are my "go to"s for blow-dry and de-matting sprays and can be tough to find. It's also the only place outside of a dog show that I can find the Proline Blue Minx shampoo for white dogs, too.
- Margy
Gina - DVD??? I got this video so long ago that DVDs weren't even a gleam in a techie's eye as yet - lol. It was a VHS tape. I get my Coat Handler stuff and supplies from Cherrybrook Pet Supplies online and they have breed-specific grooming DVDs available on their site:
http://www.cherrybrook.com/
They also have the combination combs, mat splitters, pin and slicker brushes, etc., available and in lots of different sizes. And, they have THE STUFF and Miracle Coat Lusterizer Spray which are my "go to"s for blow-dry and de-matting sprays and can be tough to find. It's also the only place outside of a dog show that I can find the Proline Blue Minx shampoo for white dogs, too.
- Margy