# Growing show coat question!!



## hunny518

Many of you know that Aria is a show dog, and is 19 months old now. We just went through her second heat and during those loooooooong 3 weeks I noticed a huge change in her coat. It became very brittle. Now, since Aria was 9 weeks old I have used great products on her hair as well as a well balanced diet. I have never had problems with breakage, even through her coat change I managed to keep her coat in tip top condition. However, with her coat being so delicate at the moment, I'm fearing that I am going to loose a bit of hair. She is matting up over night. And I don't mean tangles, I mean the beginning stages of pelts are appearing practically overnight. I'm so terrified of the damage to her coat. Also, I'm having so much trouble growing her ears. I've tried wrapping them but she pulls out the wrap within 10 minutes of wrapping them. I band her top knot and ears and sometimes I wrap her top knot, but mostly I stick to just the bands.

My whole point is, does anyone involved with show poodles have any suggestions before her coat gets damaged. What are your favorite products and especially how do you get healthy long ears? I had a band rip out a chunk of her ear hair about a month ago and I'm waiting g for that to painfully catch up with the rest of the ear.
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## ArreauStandardPoodle

The latex bands should not pull out the hair. Are you using the ones from Lainee? Do you have the scisssors made for snipping them? Never ever pull them out- always snip. We start as soon as there is enough growth past the ear leather and keep adding as the length appears. They must always be banded- even when the dog is on the table soaking wet and you are drying, because the little flyaway ends seem to get into their mouths and they then chew them off making raggedy edges. It is awesome on a show dog if the ears are all one length. For me, a mark of success was when we got up to five and six bands in the ears and eight in the topknot. Funny the little games we play with ourselves to help get us through the nightmare of growing coat!


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## hunny518

Yep I use the latex bands from lainee and the only time I've had a band cut through any hair was on her one ear. I don't know if she caught it on something or if for some reason I banded that portion particularly tight that day. I'm up to 7 bands on her top knot and its growing well, but I feel her ears should be longer by now. The best method I have found for her ears is for me to part down the middle and band into 2 sections and then band the 2 sections together into one and then band down as necessary. I don't use scissors to snip the bands out, but instead I use my comb to break them or my thumb nail, personally I feel its faster with out any risk of accidentally snipping a piece of hair for me. The only thing I don't do is band her ears while driving. I will start doing that, never thought about the damage that could be happening there. Lol. 
Do you ever notice a change in their coats when they are in heat? I noticed it in her first heat but I put it down to going through coat change, but it definitely changed this time too. I googled it and I did find that it could be the surge of estrogen that is causing it, but wondering if anyone else has noticed this. When I brush her I get very very little coat breakage, but this last few weeks the hair that comes off on my brush and comb has tripled since she has gone into heat. It no is taking me an extra hour to brush her each night because I have to go extra slow to minimize the damage. Also, her hair is matting overnight. And I don't mean tangles. She is getting huge pelt like mats beginning to form up her neck overnight. As a groomer I used to roll my eyes when customers would claim their dogs matted over night but now I'm beginning to wonder if some of them were telling the trusth.. Lol

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## ArreauStandardPoodle

How old is she? If she is in coat change I would highly recommend oiling her and would be happy to share the best recipe I have found, if that is what you think it is...


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## hunny518

She is 19 months. She finished up her coat change right around 17 months. I just can't do oil. She sleeps in our bed and travels every where with me and I can't have oil getting on everything. My husband would kill me. Lol the whole hair change literally started during her heat cycle. I'm hoping now that she is out of it her coat will go back to normal. Would you think that maybe if I just oiled her ears that Maybe it would help with their growth? I'm still not sure if I want that either though. Lol also I've tried wrapping her ears, but she just pulls them out with in 10 minutes.. I'm not sure if I'm not wrapping them correctly or if it just bothers her that much and she yanks them out. She doesn't mind her topknot or neck wrapped.

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## spindledreams

I would like that for the brownie if we keep showing him with coat... his tail is a problem and will hinder him more then his color but hey it could be fun just to gain the experience.


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## ArreauStandardPoodle

You need an empty gallon jug. Mix 2 Tsps of this: SUMMERWinds - Coat Care Products
and 3/4 cup Coat Handler conditioner in a gallon container. Fill with warm water and shake vigorously. Bathe and rinse dog as per usual. Drizzle this mixture over the dog and work in gently. DO NOT RINSE. Towel and blow dry.


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## dcail

I buy my topknot bands from Paw Marks Paw Marks Has Everything You Need For Your Long Coated Dog her bands DO NOT break the hair! Great Bands!

dcail


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## hunny518

dcail said:


> I buy my topknot bands from Paw Marks Paw Marks Has Everything You Need For Your Long Coated Dog her bands DO NOT break the hair! Great Bands!
> 
> dcail


Thank you. But my bands don't break hair either. I only had one isolated incident. My actual question was if people have any advise other then what I'm already doing to help grow her ear hair and reduce the strange matting that I have encountered with the hair changing during her heat cycle. Its almost as if she is going through another puppy coat change. I might try the oil recipe above on her ears and see if I can tolerate it and hope that helps. Over all I have been very successful with growing her coat since 9 weeks old, I'm only currently running into trouble and I'm looking for solutions to prevent damaging what I've worked so hard on.


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## dcail

I use Pro-Gro™ Conditioner to grow & prevent breakage, Chris Christensen now carries this line since the owners have retired. Hope this helps you thru Aria's blowing her coat I would say.


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## hunny518

Here is a picture of Aria from today's bath. I normally band down her neck but I'm down to one more serving of dog food and need to run to the store before they close.. Lol at 19 months do you think her hair is about what it should be at her age? Maybe I'm just jumping ahead of myself and comparing her to older bitches in the ring. Lol

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## outwest

Jazz is the same age as she is. His ear hair was trimmed straight across several months ago to get the last of the puppy straggles off. Aria has more ear hair than he does. At least, I don't have that many bands in his, but he does have long ear leathers. I just posted a picture in the picture section that was taken in the last couple days. His birthday is 5/24/2012. Isn't hers about the same? Other dogs have much more coat than he does, but I can't worry about that. We do the best we can do with what we have. I can't answer your question about heat and coat, but it makes perfect sense. I know females who have puppies lose hair, for example. There is a possibility that she is still going through coat change. I know that in the last couple months Jazz' hair texture has changed, getting thicker. Maybe Aria is doing the same. Arreau suggestion with the coat handler is how I got through the worst of coat change. I still use coat handler leave in conditioner with every bath. 

Aria looks terrific and you are doing a great job.


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## CharismaticMillie

I think she looks great. This was Tiger at 18 months. We had lost quite a bit of hair during coat change, too.


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## ArreauStandardPoodle

I think she looks great too. Good job!


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## hunny518

Great! Thanks guys! That makes me feel a lot better! I guess I'm not as far behind as I was beginning to fear. I felt like she was done with coat change around 17 months. The matting slowed and her hair felt much coarser. Hopefully it will continue to thicken and hopefully this dry crispy feel will go away soon. Today I conditioned her pretty good and then used my isle of dogs leave in conditioner. I also banded her ears while I was drying her to prevent from FlyAway's getting into her mouth. I've also been gaging the hair that broke off on her ear and there definitely has between some growth. I keep her well banded and brush and use a conditioning spray every or every other day. I've been hoping someone would have some great solution that I didn't know about but I guess there is no magic in growing coat just lots of hard work and many invested hours like I have been.. LOL its good to know that I'm still doing what I'm suppose to be doing though..lol

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## dcail

You have done an excellent job on her coat! Keep up the great work!


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## Ms Stella

I think you are doing a great job Hunny! Piper is 14 months and blacks are easier for sure..her ears are not terribly long..my handler/breeder/co-owner says ears are not the important thing..but the neck and TK. Are you using a band up high on the side of the ears close to the mouth..and then banding that one into a longer piece of hair? That helps Piper as that hair is shorter on her ears.. Here is a picture from this past weekend of hers banded up we put one up high to keep any shorter hairs from coming out 
and here is a side photo..I edit it to make it very sharp for detail..but it has more detail than I see with my eye in person..so it looks rough (isn) but you can see the shape and height of it at 14 months 

and one of her pretty face sprayed up  


Also I don't put the bands so close together..ie:use less bands than you do on the ears or TK..I put them further apart so I use less. I also use the color coordinated canine ones..love them  I don't like Oil either. I used it on Madonna some but she got dirty so fast with it.


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