# Tail hair not "poofing" and ? on color



## pollar34 (Dec 15, 2014)

I have an almost 11 month old standard poodle. I have not trimmed his tail hair since I got him at 3 months old. It doesn't seem to yet have that "poof" when that I can get with his top knot fresh after a bath and brush. His top knot is very easy to get a "poof" and looks like a show poodle hair but I can't ever seem to get his tail hair to look like that - more so, it just looks like straggly hair even when freshly bathed and brushed. Is that normal for his age and will be able to be poofy more so in the future? I've attached a picture of his tail hair and his top knot. Also, I was told he was going to be blue colored but is still very black to me (his mom is blue and his dad is red/white parti). I have noticed that he has this brown color on the end of his mouth and around the bottom of both of his eyes. I know blues can have a brown hue to them but I have also been reading about "bad blacks" and am wondering if that is what I have. He was random stiff white hairs throughout his coat as well. I've attached pictures for you to see the brown coloring and when he was a pup with a shaved nose to see if you all think he is a blue...

So questions: Why won't his tail hair "poof" and is he a blue, a black, or a bad black??

Thanks!!


----------



## N2Mischief (Dec 3, 2012)

He might not have gone through coat change yet. Puppy hair is very soft.


----------



## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

I think I can answer some of our questions, not all.
The brown on his muzzle and under the eyes could be staining, which happens when tears or saliva keep the coat wet for too long.
It looks like he has a couple of small white mis marks, including an adorable heart on his chest, but all poodles will have random guard hair which are coarser and grow faster sprinkled through the coat, and they are often a very different color than the coat, black on silvers, white on blacks.
I agree with N2 that his tail may still have puppy coat - and I think that if you trim it, getting some of that puppy coat off and making it shorter it will actually pouf much better. In general poodles tend to have the poorest coat on their tails and with some of them it is a lifelong issue. 
My Timi is a Toy not a standard, but at 17 months I would say that her tail is still only 60 percent adult, 40 percent puppy. But luckily it is thick, so I still have hope
As for color I have no idea what you might get with a Parti x solid cross, it might also depend upon what the generations above them are, but in the photos that I am seeing ion my screen your boy looks blue to me. In colors that have a fading factor working on them (silver being a more extreme example), it usually does take a couple of years before they clear to their final color.


----------



## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

Oh and by the way, I know you did not adk, but I do believe that your boy's tail is shaved just a bit too high up at the base.


----------



## poodlecrazy#1 (Jul 2, 2013)

I agreed with tiny poodles, if you shave just a tiny bit of hair off at the base and shorten the longer hair he will have more of a poof. It might take a while for it to be full with adult coat but letting more hair on that tail grow will make it look more poofy. It took up to 3 years for my tpoo to get a nice poof to her tail. She took for ever to get her adult coat. The brownish colors look like saliva/bodily fluid staining to me. In some pictures he looks super black especially around the muzzle but in a couple of other pictures he looks blue. It could take years for him to clear to blue. My girl is black and she has the white course guard hairs too. I don't consider it making her a bad black, it just makes her cute. ? 


I would stop shaving the tail around this point where the red line is. comb the long hair down and trim any hair that passes that line. Then you can try to shape it into a round poof. It will take a while to grow out that hair though to get it looking nice and round. Remember you can always take off more but it takes forever to grow it back.


----------



## pollar34 (Dec 15, 2014)

Thanks guys!! I groom him myself and am more for his comfort and my ease of maintenance... I shaved higher up on his tail because when it was shaved lower, it would tickle his butt and he would do spins ... LOL!! I felt bad for him so I shaved higher haha!! I guess I should try to just take some length off the tail hair and let it grow back further down and try that. Silly boy!


----------



## BeBe67 (May 13, 2015)

I cant help you,but just wanted to say, I feel your pain. Look at Luna's ugly tail  but I love her anyway 

I think the last photo says it all. She looks as if she is saying "What Happened to MY HAIR????" "i AM SO EMBARRESD "


----------



## Raven's Mom (Mar 18, 2014)

I totally feel your pain! Raven is 19 mo and her tail is still pretty scraggly too. You can look back at my former posts on the same topic. Her body hair is not a consistent texture all over either so I hold out hope she is just not through coat change. However, many here felt this might be as good as it gets for her, at her age, when I posed the same question.


----------



## Marcie (Aug 2, 2011)

Tiny Poodles said:


> Oh and by the way, I know you did not adk, but I do believe that your boy's tail is shaved just a bit too high up at the base.


I agree with Tiny Poodles. His tail band should only be shaved so that when his tail is down the band comes to the bottom of his anise. Keeps the tail hair clean. I have seen some poodles with the hair that does not poof and it was long and look more like a cascade but that is if his tail is not docked at all. If it is docked then you might want to shorten the hair so that the weight does not drag is down. Being only 11 months he probably still has his baby hair and it will probably be beautiful once he is an adult. He is still beautiful.


----------



## mvhplank (Dec 5, 2012)

Neely is a blue (black dam, blue sire), and the sire's owner said when you see a brown cast in the pictures, that's a sure sign of a blue. He's not fading very fast.

He's got very dense tail hair, as you can see, and I shave the base of the tail a little longer than some of the recommendations here--but there are no hard-and-fast rules, you just have to decide what looks good on your dog. The hair on his tail and cap will go floppy if I let it get too long, which may be why hair spray is so heavily used for AKC shows (use of any "product" is not allowed at all in UKC conformation).

This picture is from July 27, 2013, age 1 year 5 months, earning UKC Show Champion and Group 1:










This one is from March 15, 2015, with this new Rally Advanced title ribbon:


----------



## dogs123 (Jun 14, 2012)

I agree with all that has been said...I have owned about 9 poodles in my life and have always clipped my own.

I was once told many years ago that on a poodle everything is 1/3. The tail, if docked, should be 1/3 off....and when the tail is clipped, only clip the bottom 1/3. Then, what I do is comb the tail hairs all the way to the end, and scissor off down to about 1 1/2" -2" from the tail....then I comb all the hair back down to the rectum, and scissor down to where I clipped...then round it out. 

Also, I blow dry the hair....I hope this helps. Also, on You-tube they have videos that can help. I could be the tail hairs are long and heavy...and as he gets older, his hair will thicken up.

BTW...I think he looks like a faded black....and he looks so sweet...lucky you.


----------



## littlemystery (6 mo ago)

BeBe67 said:


> I cant help you,but just wanted to say, I feel your pain. Look at Luna's ugly tail  but I love her anyway
> 
> I think the last photo says it all. She looks as if she is saying "What Happened to MY HAIR????" "i AM SO EMBARRESD "


Did your girls tail change? My girl is 11m and has this same kind of ugly tail 😭


----------



## TeamHellhound (Feb 5, 2021)

Jpn119 said:


> Did your girls tail change? My girl is 11m and has this same kind of ugly tail 😭


It looks like they haven't been back on the forum since 2016. 

This is my guy at 17 months. His tail is still a bit scraggly looking when it gets long. If I keep it a bit shorter, it looks fuller. 

2022-7-7 New haircut. Who dis? DSC_4320 by Rosemary Elwell, on Flickr


----------



## littlemystery (6 mo ago)

TeamHellhound said:


> It looks like they haven't been back on the forum since 2016.
> 
> This is my guy at 17 months. His tail is still a bit scraggly looking when it gets long. If I keep it a bit shorter, it looks fuller.
> 
> 2022-7-7 New haircut. Who dis? DSC_4320 by Rosemary Elwell, on Flickr


Thanks, hes beautiful, my girl is taking forever to coat change lol, but hopefully by the time shes 2 she'll be finished. I know her lines run late.


----------



## PeggyTheParti (Sep 5, 2019)

Jpn119 said:


> Thanks, hes beautiful, my girl is taking forever to coat change lol, but hopefully by the time shes 2 she'll be finished. I know her lines run late.


You’ve got a few threads going about your girl’s coat, so I’m going to close this old one to avoid any confusion.

If anyone would like to weigh in, here’s the most recent:









Is this normal for a poodle puppy?


My girl is about to turn 1, and her coat is taking a long time to change, according to her breeder her lines can take up to 2 years to finish coat change. Her tail is just so scraggly? Limp? Straight? Its not nice like her body hair. Is it normal poodle puppy coat or is this just improper coat...




www.poodleforum.com


----------

