# Puppy Coat Questions



## neVar (Dec 25, 2009)

you've got LOTS of time do not panic. I'm at 11 months with bella and we still have soft puppy legs- but most of her back is 'better' the side of her barrel still are soft. It comes- usually . just give it time. 

As to how often- it depends- if they are dirty bath them!


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## PaddleAddict (Feb 9, 2010)

The puppy coat is definitely softer than the adult coat and doesn't hold it's shape as well. If you poodle develops a nice coat as an adult, you'll she the difference. Some poodles get a nice, coarse coat and some never really develop good coats. It depends on the line, the coat color and the individual dog. What color is your puppy? How are his parents' coats?

For now, the way that you dry the coat will help it look as nice as possible. How are you drying it now? Brushing it striaght while using a handheld dryer will get good results. 

I usually bathe my poodle every other week, but I will bathe as often as once a week with no problems. I like a clean poodle! Just use a gentle shampoo and check to be sure he isn't developing dry skin and you should be fine. 

The coat change can take a long time I hear and I think it's different for every dog. I know that my mini's coat has been gradually changing ever since he was about 9 month old (he's 16 months old now). The coarse hairs started coming in on his back, body, neck and head first. His legs are still sort of soft compared to his back, but every time I groom him I notice an improvement. I don't know if it's typical or not so change so slowly. The up side is that we have experienced very little matting compared to some of the stories I hear. (Although I just found a big mat behind his ear last night and I will be dematting it tonight!)


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## all that jazz (Feb 6, 2011)

Thank you both for your replies. My puppy is brown. I saw the mother twice but was too naive to take notice of her coat quality other than that she looked good. Jazz absolutely won't let me dry him. After a harrowing bath,(he tolerates the first 5-10 min. and then goes bonkers), I can blow dry him WITHOUT brushing for five minutes then I just can towel dry him and then "fluff", brush him after.


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## PaddleAddict (Feb 9, 2010)

My advice: don't give up. If it takes you an hour, just keep going with the drying and brushing. Your puppy is learning that you will give up if he just struggles long enough. He is a poodle and will need regular bathing and drying. He must learn to accept it. 

My mini was actually really good about most of the grooming process from the first day I brought him home because his breeder had already groomed him three times before he left her home (that's three times of getting his face, feet and tail shaved, three baths, three blow-dries). 

However, he was still a pup and fought me on some things, namely his feet being shaved. I had to be very patient and very persistent. No matter how much he struggled, I continued to work on him (gently of course). He just had to learn that grooming was a fact of life and the sooner he accepted it, the easier the whole process was on the both of us. 

Now he is a very good boy on the table. He is still ticklish about his feet, but what used to take me an hour and a half now takes me 45 minutes. Oh, and I am not a groomer, but I wanted to learn how to groom my own poodle. He actually has never seen a professional groomer.


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## spoospirit (Mar 10, 2009)

_The coat change can take many months. I went through at least a year of matting while Bill's coat changed. Billy has a good poodle coat that is thick and crisp. Taffy's was only half that amount of time and didn't mat as badly. Her coat is a typical apricot coat that is thinner and the hair is finer. Each dog is different. Some you hardly notice and others are so bad that the owner sometimes gives up and shaves them down.

I used a lot of detangler after the bath and always sprayed with conditioner when brushing. NEVER, NEVER brush a dry coat. If you don't already do this, learn to line brush your pup. Lay him down on his side, brush a section in a line with a slicker and then run a comb through it to make sure there are no mats. Go up one inch from where you started and brush that line and then comb. Repeat this until all of the coat is brushed out and without mats. You will probably have to do this once a day.

To get the coat to stay full when blown dry with a hand dryer I used Fluff Out (Davis Fluff Out 32oz-Groomer's Choice Pet Products) You spray it all over the coat before blowing. Then you use a slicker and brush from the skin up to the end slowly while blowing on a warm setting. This will straighten the coat and the Fluff Out will make it fuller and it will last for a few days at least. 

Since you have a problem with your pup not cooperating with you for grooming, you will need to do as PoodleAdict suggested. You will need to be very patient and persistent. Both of my poodles had to learn to accept the bath and their grooming table time. They would pull their feet away from me and I would just pick it right back up and continue what I was doing without saying a word. It made grooming a long and tedious time but it was necessary to train them to accept it. In time, they learned that it was part of their life. Now, they love most of their grooming. Their favorite is being brushed out and having their hair banded up. Sometimes they go to sleep.

I hope that everything will quiet down for you soon and you and your dog get to enjoy grooming time.
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