Poodle Grooming

I will give you my view on this from the groomer's perspective. I have seen this hundreds of times, and here is how it goes:

if your dog has only been groomed by a competent, professional groomer, she has never been been cut, sliced, dropped, or had nails cut to bloody stumps. Your pet is used to grooming, and while she may not be crazy about it, she accepts it and is not in fear for her life .

As a novice groomer, you will be working on a tiny dog with legs that can snap like twigs if you hold her wrong. professional clippers are not toys, and will cost you $150.00+ for the clippers, and about $30.00 for each blade. You also need a grooming table and harness. A low-end table will run you about $150.00 for a poodle, even a tiny one, you will need 3 blades. I am not including scissors, brushes, combs, mat breakers, shampoos, conditioners, blowdriers and other supplies you will need.

If you hold the blades incorrectly, you can easily slice off part of an ear, dislodge an eyeball, or puncture private parts. Once you cause your dog pain, he will never forget it, and begin to struggle against you. Your dog will not sit still, and everything will go downhill from here. You have invested close to $500.00 to groom your own dog, and you are not going to give up.

About 5-6 months later, you will call your groomer back. I get your dog to groom, and am happy to see the overgrown little guy again. but I soon realize the cute little dog i could easily handle and give a beautiful puppy clip to it now a monster on the table, in fear and fighting me every step. This dog will never again be easy to groom, and will be upset by the process forever. This makes me insane when people clip their dog's nails at home and turn it into a WWF wresting match.

I will also now charge you $15-20 more because more time is involved to safely and professionally groom your pet.

If you really want to groom, find a local grooming school and learn how to do it correctly. Grooming dogs is not easy. it requires patience, kindness,knowledge, practice, and an eye for balance and symmetry.

I suggest, if you want to save money, have your groomer cut your dog very short all over with a # 7 or #8 blade every 12 weeks. it is very short, but it lasts longer. You cut your grooms from 12 times a year to 4, and the savings is substantial. Hope this helps!!

Very interesting, Wadzlla! Thank you; I had no idea of the cost of equipment or challenge of difficult dogs. It's hard work, I realize. What I do for my Westie to cut down on cost is have him get a "puppy cut" which is pretty much 1" all over except he gets the Westie face and "carrot" tail. Maybe he looks funny to others, but it works best for us. When his face grows out too shaggy, I take him for a face trim and "sanitary trim" which isn't too expensive, and that tides us over several more weeks. The usual Westie cut is just too impractical as he runs in a field and gets really messy, picking up dirt, grass, sticks, etc. He needs a neater cut.

Thanks again Wadz for the informative post.

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I tried to groom my 6 lb. Pom myself with some pet clippers I bought off Amazon for around $50. I thought "well the clippers are less than the cost of one grooming, what a way to save money!" Like you, my pom does a basic shaved cut aside from his head and tail. "I can handle this, just stick on the shortest guard and we're good to go!" Right? Wrong.

My Pom ended up looking like he had mange. It was awful. You need expensive clippers to get through that puff. I retired from grooming and moved on to cutting my guy friends' hair with the clippers!

Sigh, that is probably exactly what I would do, go back to the groomer with my tail between my legs! Thanks for the info.

On 6/22/2014 PalmTree11 said:

I tried to groom my 6 lb. Pom myself with some pet clippers I bought off Amazon for around $50. I thought "well the clippers are less than the cost of one grooming, what a way to save money!" Like you, my pom does a basic shaved cut aside from his head and tail. "I can handle this, just stick on the shortest guard and we're good to go!" Right? Wrong.

My Pom ended up looking like he had mange. It was awful. You need expensive clippers to get through that puff. I retired from grooming and moved on to cutting my guy friends' hair with the clippers!

That's funny, Palmtree. I once tried to trim the hair over my dog's eyes so he could see better. What a botched job that was. I'm sure the groomer noticed my handiwork when I finally did take him in.

Pandora, just go on some sort of modified schedule as Wadz above suggested. Thankfully she was here to guide you away from "hobby dog grooming."

I have a 10-lb, miniature poodle who I have been grooming almost all her life. I got her when she was only 5 mo old, and I was in college at the time. So as a college student, I did not have a lot of spare money especially for dog grooming. I started grooming her myself, from giving baths, blow drying, hair trimming (I use shears/scissors, never clippers), nail trimming, ear cleaning, tooth brushing, the whole nine yards. She was resistant to be groomed at first (who isn't??), but now she is so used to it. I receive compliments ALL THE TIME how " sparkly" she looks, and people always assume that she is freshly groomed, when in fact she is between baths What I am saying is, grooming your own poodle yourself CAN be done, you won't have to rely on groomers 100%. The key is to start young, and start slow. Be sensitive and intuitive to your poodle's limits (poodles are sensitive dogs, by the way!), if you are too forceful it is going to traumatize him/her and you will lose your chances for good. And I break down the grooming into several sessions: one day for bath, blow drying, and brushing, the next day for nail trimming, the next day for ear cleaning, and so on. It feels less traumatizing for her as opposed to an intense 2- hr grooming marathon. But every dog is different...you just have to see what your poodle can/cannot handle based on their reaction. Good luck!!

I'd love to have a poodle myself because I find them really cute and adorable. But I'm so angry at my mum would never let me have one she says they are really difficult to manage and I'll need to have special grooming for them. She doesn't want the hassle of grooming him, cleaning up his fur and yeah affording all this. This saddens me

The grooming I have done is using shears. She is traumatized by everything so that is one reason I thought it would be easier to groom her myself. I do bath her, she runs behind the couch when she hears the water running! I clean her ears, same effect. Somehow, no matter how sneaky I am, she knows when I am getting the ear cleaning supplies together! They are smart! I thought taking her places like the groomer would help socialize her and make her not be so anxious but it doesn't work. She barely passed puppy training class! I love her though and am trying to do what is best.

One thing I will say in regards to her fur, is that she does not shed. But the fur requires a lot of time and care.

On 6/23/2014 Pandora Girl said:

The grooming I have done is using shears. She is traumatized by everything so that is one reason I thought it would be easier to groom her myself. I do bath her, she runs behind the couch when she hears the water running! I clean her ears, same effect. Somehow, no matter how sneaky I am, she knows when I am getting the ear cleaning supplies together! They are smart! I thought taking her places like the groomer would help socialize her and make her not be so anxious but it doesn't work. She barely passed puppy training class! I love her though and am trying to do what is best.

One thing I will say in regards to her fur, is that she does not shed. But the fur requires a lot of time and care.

May be "bribing" her with her favorite treats will help? That is the fantastic thing about poodle hair (they have hair, not fur), is the non-shedding part, hence considered hypoallergenic. I shed more than my dog does hahaha....