nervous about 1st grooming !

[Mel]

Spike will be 5 months on the 1st June and i have booked his 1st grooming appointment for the day before. His woolly curls are long and he is looking hot now we have higher temps here, for some reason i am nervous about leaving him for up to 4 hours the groomer has been recommended by 2 neighbors and talking to her on the phone she sounds lovely.....i just feel worried about how he will react to being left there and how he will look afterwards .

Anyone else feel like this and had a good experience ?
Am i getting ahead of myself with having him clipped at 5months ?

I comb him through every single evening and he has no matting at all but i am seeing some fluff coming out into the comb now . My main concern is to keep him cooler but i don't want him too short !

[deepnite10]

chance s are he ll be fine at the groomers..the groomers are experienced in putting a dog at ease befor cutting..not to say there won t be a bad experience..but, you ve got to jump in sometime, unless your up to grooming him yourself..

if you ve been brushing him regularly and doing some touch up on his coat..it won t be such a shock to him..

Toby did nt have any problems at his first grooming appt..only problem was that i felt the cut was too short..i changed groomers the second time and the results were the same...

now i use #8 blade all around and shave the belly, giving a sanitary cut along the way..

[Daisy'sMom]

Your feelings are totally natural, I felt the same way when I took Daisy for the first time. Sounds like you've asked around about which groomer to go to which is good. Daisy has been groomed twice. The first time they swore up and down they knew how to groom a Labradoodle, that they had several clients who were doodles. Lesson learned, don't trust just anyone! We were not happy with the results, it took a good two months for her to grow back to the way we like her to look. Therefore, I did more research and found someone with a Goldendoodle who was very happy with their groomer, so we went there the second time. MUCH better results. She was quite poofy for a week or so and she looked a little strange, but honestly after about 2-3 weeks of growth we loved the results. The big difference between our two experiences were #1, we went to a groomer that another friend with a doodle went to and #2, I printed off a picture online of what I wanted Daisy to look like, that helped them tremendously with what to do. Not just anyone knows how to groom and trim a Labradoodle is what I learned. Yes, it will take some getting used to the length getting cut off but Daisy gets hot easily so I'm glad we got it shorter. I will post a before and after picture, I realized this morning when looking for pictures I don't have any recent pics of her since her haircut so I will do that and post.

Oh, and I think Spike will do great being left there for 4 hours. They are like our babies so your feelings are normal, I felt guilty leaving Daisy and the groomer we like now wants the dogs there all day!!! But, I decided this is something we NEED to do twice a year and she has to get used to it. Both times she was groomed they both told me she did wonderful and was just fine.

[Mel]

thanks guys , i guess i am just a nervous 1st time doodle mom !
I am sure Spike will be fine, i just have to be calm and easy going that day so that he doesn't pick up on my mood....

i would love to see pics of Daisy before and after i thought about printing off a pic of Spikes dad from the RB site to take....there is a pic on there of Laguna clipped back and i quite like that length.

Deepnite, i admire you for doing your own grooming maybe in the future i will be confident enough to do that .... i cut my sons and husbands hair with the clippers LOL.

[Daisy'sMom]

Here's Daisy's before and after grooming pics The before picture was a few weeks before her grooming, she literally couldn't see out of her eyes/eyebrows by the time she went in. She was groomed on April 14th and the "after" picture was just taken yesterday, so a good 5 1/2-6 wks of growth since she was cut. We had about 2 inches taken off her body and told them to just lightly trim her legs, otherwise they would look like sticks!! And her face was pretty short when she first came home. In fact, around her eyes initially I felt was too short, they basically cut OFF her eyebrows!! They also trimmed/cut her eyelashes which I'm still having mixed feelings about But now I'm realizing it was good her face was cut so short because it's already grown and filled in quite a bit in just this short amount of time. Oh, and I do think she looks like a puppy again, which I know some people refer to their dog's cut as a "puppy cut" so maybe that's what we got!!?? In the end, we were happy with it.

[deepnite10]

i started looking for a decent clipper that would nt break the bank..most of what i saw were over $100, and a few were twice that much..

it s real important to find the right clippers..many just won t get the job done..but, once you find the right one..it ll pay for itself after the 1st or second cut..

with the clippers in hand..i just hoped i would nt screw things up..but, i put on the largest guard and it worked out perfectly..it went slow at first..took me 2 days ..but, the results were alot better than i had hoped for..it s not show worthy..but, alot better than our local groomers..

here s the sight i used to get ideas about how to cut..http://www.mywahlanimal.com/grooming_guides.jsp

though they did nt have a labradoodle..it does have cockapoo, which help alot..

and i got a Wahl for alot less than $100..

[Mel]

Daisy looks so adorable ! that cut is a great length...Spike is longer than her after pictures but not by a lot....it is just very very thick and the puppy 'fluff' towards the back is getting kind of 'frizzy' looking. I have trimmed around his eyes twice since we got him but now he is overgrown again and i can hardly see his eyes, also his eye lashes are sooooo long and golden !
I do love his curls though, he is like a big ol' teddy bear, i hope he doesn't lose his cuteness onces he is shorter, i know he will look a lot smaller thats for sure !

Deepnite, thanks for the link and the advice, i am interested in doing this in the future for sure. I will see how this first grooming goes next week and then go from there...at least Spike is a mini labradoodle which is less daunting to me than if he were a standard.

[Sally May Jones]

I felt the same way the first time I left my sweeties at the groomers. I was recommended to them by a few close friends and trusted them to do a great job. I wasn't disappointed in the slightest. They were true professionals and they said my babies didn't have any hard times, and even enjoyed it! I guess if you don't have any friends, you could always browse www.angieslist.com.

[Mel]

i am hoping Spike enjoys it too, he LOVES people and he is used to being combed through every night by me so i think he will be fine I am not so nervous now...thanks everyone for your feedback, you have all helped me out (again !)

i will post some pics of before and after on tuesday !

[Daisy'sMom]

Originally Posted by Mel

also his eye lashes are sooooo long and golden !
I do love his curls though, he is like a big ol' teddy bear, i hope he doesn't lose his cuteness onces he is shorter, i know he will look a lot smaller thats for sure !

I would ask the groomer about the eyelashes. Daisy had the most beautiful & long eyelashes and I was horrified to see that they literally cut them off Not only did they cut off all her eyebrows but the lashes, too. Maybe this is standard and there's a good reason why they do that, but next time I have Daisy groomed I will be asking about it, I was upset about it for a couple days. Spike won't lose his cuteness but he will look a little different, and again to be totally honest, my hubby and I felt weird and didn't bond as well with Daisy for a few days after. And like you said that you expect, she looked A LOT smaller and just different. But, I still don't regret it because she was too long and shaggy and we knew after 2-3 weeks of growth she'd look much better and she does She's back to her old self in looks just looks cleaner and not so "unkept".

[nelly]

Our 8 mth old labradoodle got her first cut and she looks so skinny and terrible! I am MORTIFIED!! I feel I cannot take her out anywhere. Thought it would do her good in this Texas summer heat. I think I should have stayed the entire time with her (local PETCO groomer). I had looked at the fake hair sample on a board and picked a length. WRONG ! Should have held up the length I desired and cut longer than that. Her legs are like sticks!

ANYTHING to do to make it grow faster? How long do you think it will take it to grow back?

[Daisy'sMom]

Originally Posted by nelly

Our 8 mth old labradoodle got her first cut and she looks so skinny and terrible! I am MORTIFIED!! I feel I cannot take her out anywhere. Thought it would do her good in this Texas summer heat. I think I should have stayed the entire time with her (local PETCO groomer). I had looked at the fake hair sample on a board and picked a length. WRONG ! Should have held up the length I desired and cut longer than that. Her legs are like sticks!

ANYTHING to do to make it grow faster? How long do you think it will take it to grow back?

I'm not sure that you can make it grow back faster But just know that in 2-3 weeks I think you'll see a good change/difference in growth. And I had a similar thing happen when we took our Daisy for her first grooming - we took her to Petsmart and while it wasn't as bad as what you are experiencing we were still pretty surprised and unhappy with the results. I won't take her back there and since then did lots of research in my local area for groomers. Not just anyone can groom/cut a Labradoodle even tho they say or think they can. Daisy has been groomed twice and both times we told them to just barely scissor trim her legs to avoid the "stick" look. ugh!!! Hang in there and we'll hope the next month or so goes quickly for you so you can get some growth back.

[Nikkiey]

Juneau turned 9 months old yesterday and we have yet to have him groomed. He has such a lab coat that I don't think we're ever going to to have to. I've had to trim the hair around his eyes and his 'beard' about twice, but the rest of his fur is the same. I guess the trade off is he sheds - quite a bit actually. He is an F1 but managed to take on a lot of the lab characteristics. People do still recognize him as a labradoodle though just because he's got more of the shagginess to him.

I'm sorry the grooming didn't work out the first time for some, but just know that it will grow out/fill in nicely eventually! And plus, I'm sure your dog doesn't mind it

[lindamarie]

Well? Mel? How did it go? Any pictures?

[Mel]

sorry for delay !!!
Spike did really well the cut was cute, a bit poodly around the head but he does have a curly wooly poodly coat so we can't avoid that. He was much cooler and easier to comb through in the evening. It has all grown back now and i think i will take him back in a week or two for another cut.
He did get diarrhea for a couple of days afterwards which i think was stress, it cleared up with chicken, rice and pumpkin.
i will post some pics of his cut soon