Manor Lake Australian Labradoodles’ Grooming Tips

We get many questions about grooming Australian Labradoodles and good grooming is very important to the overall health of your Australian Labradoodle puppy or dog.  All groomers are different, so it may take a bit to find one that both you and your Australian Labradoodle are comfortable with.  Below are Manor Lake Australian Labradoodles’ recommended tips.

Choose an established groomer that has been in business for at least two years.  Ask a friend, veterinarian or breeder for a groomer recommendation in your area.

Make an appointment in advance – most good groomers have full schedules and schedule appointments in advance.

Check the surroundings at your groomers – are they organized and clean?   Is the groomer friendly?  Is the groomer knowledgeable and helpful?

Prepare your Australian Labradoodle for their first visit to the groomer by beginning early to gently brush/comb your Australian Labradoodle puppy.  This gets them used to the idea of a brush or comb and prepares you well for a trip to the groomer.

When you take your puppy/dog to the groomer you need to be specific on what you want done.  Specify the coat length that you want on your puppy/dog – i.e. 1 inch, 2 inch, etc.   Do you want nails trimmed?  Ears cleaned?  Be specific.  You may want to take a picture to the groomer of how you would like your dog/puppy to look.

Be on time for your appointment and treat your groomer well.  Pick up your finished groomed Australian Labradoodle on time.

The groomer will be combing/brushing out your Australian Labradoodle dog/puppy – so that when you pick him/her up, they will be most likely be a bit “poofy”.  You may want to spritz a bit of water on your dogs coat after you return home.  This will return the coat back to its normal wave/curl and take out the poofyness.

Your groomer will need to trim nails on your Australian Labradoodle dog/puppy, pluck some hairs from inside the ears, trim between the dogs’ /puppy’s eyes and cut short the hair that is beneath the ears, when the ears are laying flat.

You may also want the coat cut short around the privates on your Australian Labradoodle puppy/dog and also on the underside or stomach.  If  your dog/puppy is active outside, then small sticks/weeds can adhere  in the underside of your Australian Labradoodle dog/puppy’s coat.  With the underside or stomach area trimmed shorter, this prevents sticks/weeds from adhering quite so much.

As far as timing of when you groom your Australian Labradoodle puppy/dog it is up to you.  Usually once every two months is plenty.  An initial visit at around 4 to 6 months of age is a good time to start.  If your puppy is around this age, a good length would be a 1 inch cut puppy cut – this would cut off the older hair on the end of the coat and allow for nice growth of your puppies new coat coming in later on.

Good luck and hope these tips are helpful!

Kim Kochman
Owner/Breeder
Manor Lake Australian Labradoodles
www.manorlakelabradoodles.com
Manor Lake Dog Boutique
www.manorlakedogboutique.com

This entry was posted on Friday, January 8th, 2010 at 12:14 pm and is filed under Advice, Australian Labradoodles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.