Mixed breeds, shaggy look and the grooming dilemma

At Head to Tail, we LOVE mixed breeds and groom many adorable cockapoos, labradoodles, goldendoodles, shi-poos, yorki-poos, schnoodles, cavichons, etc. These mixed breeds are complex in terms of grooming as their hair texture and propensity for matting is difficult to determine.

ALL DOGS SHED. Depending on the hair type, the shedding hair may not end up on your floors but may remain on the dog and mix with the new hair growing in. This creates matting if the dead hair is not removed by brushing and combing.

Many pure and mixed breeds come to our shop with beautiful and fluffy looking long hair and we get requests to leave that hair longish to create a shaggy or fluffy look. Underneath that beautiful hair however, we often find significant matting that cannot be detected unless one runs a metal comb through the dog. This creates a dilemma for the groomer as any haircut or trim longer than 1/4-1/2 of an inch requires the dog to be completely combed through and mat-free. Therefore, at times, we have no choice but to cut certain dogs very short although these dogs may appear to be in good condition when they were brought in.

No groomer enjoys not being able to fulfill their customers' requests and no groomer looks forward to 'shaving' a dog. At Head to Tail, we always try to salvage the coat by brushing, conditioning, force-drying and conditioning some more to remove matting and when we do resort to cut a dog's hair short, it is because we have determined that further de-matting is not possible and would create too much stress for the dog and the groomer.

After a very short haircut, many dog owners tend to wait a long time before grooming the dog again. If the goal is to maintain the dog in a short trim, one can save on the cost of professional grooming by doing a short-shaved haircut every few months. However, if the goal is to grow the hair back and keep a shaggy-fluffy look, a 4-6 week interval is best so as to avoid irreversible matting again.

It is also important to note that it takes a few grooming sessions to really know what haircut is best suited to the dog's hair structure and lifestyle and we will be happy to advise you on how to maintain your dog in good condition between grooming appointments.
Click on the following link for an interesting read about Goldendoodles from BBird, a well-known authority in pet grooming.
http://groomblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/grooming-goldendoodle.html