# Poodle Critique



## mom24doggies (Mar 25, 2011)

I just gave my puppy a haircut, and want to know what y'all think of it. I'm going for a really full Modern clip; he just doesn't have enough hair for the "really full" part yet.  

The first one is a before, the other two are afters. Sorry, the quality isn't that great.


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## animalcraker (Nov 9, 2006)

Looks wonderful to me, but I don't have any experience grooming poodles. Are you planing on eventually showing him or is he just a pet that you're having fun grooming?


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## BoxMeIn21 (Apr 10, 2007)

I don't know much about grooming Poodles, but he looks great.


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## RubyFeuer (Mar 30, 2010)

I made this picture for you that way it would make it easier to show you what I'm talking about. I think you did a very nice job on your dog just so you know. That being said:

1. Just a little stray hair. Brush it up, or if it keeps falling down then just trim it so the line is smooth. It's so frustrating when you get it all done and then it looks great and then the dog walks around and you keep seeing little hairs that were missed lol.

2. Same issue really, just not a smooth line. Solve same way as 1.

3. The hairs are parted into groups instead of one fuzzy mass making a smooth profile. Solve this by brushing out to fluff up. If it keeps doing that then you can cut it shorter to the part where they aren't parting up and then make it blend with the rest of the leg. You may need to make the whole back of the leg shorter if you do that though to make it a nice line. Over time just make sure you brush the dog very often and keep trimming just slightly as it grows that way it will grow into a nice shape. If you let it go to long then it will be difficult to make it have that nice puffed appearance.
I need to do this on my schnauzer sometimes and it's frustrating because I want her leg hair to be longer like it should be, but my other dogs play with her and over time will make the fur length un even then I have to even it out again to give her a nice shape even though it's shorter than what I want.

4. Same thing as three really. Fix the same way. The joints can be evil for this problem lol.

5. You can see that there are two parts that come to a strange point instead of being smooth. There is one closer to the left side of the area I circled and there is one closer to the right side.
All you have to do is just trim it to go smoothly with the rest of the line.

6. (not shown) Just a tiny fly away hair on the front of the ear.
7. (also not shown) Some parts that are longer than they should be on the tail. You can see them by noticing the parts that are gray and go outside the main dark shape of the tail. Those are just hairs that are longer so they are grey because they don't have the thickness to match the rest of the fur saying that they are out of place.

There are some other minor things that are just the fur decided to be mean lol. Like on the front of the far hind leg you can see where the fur decided to part. Can be so frustrating lol.

Over all I would say 8 out of 10 and 10 being the best ^^ Very well done ^^ Don't be discouraged and it will get easier as you do it more often.
Getting critiqued is good to make yourself better. The only thing you can't do is take these things as personal "attacks" they are just being pointed out to help you get better.


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## mom24doggies (Mar 25, 2011)

RubyFeuer said:


> I made this picture for you that way it would make it easier to show you what I'm talking about. I think you did a very nice job on your dog just so you know. That being said:
> 
> 1. Just a little stray hair. Brush it up, or if it keeps falling down then just trim it so the line is smooth. It's so frustrating when you get it all done and then it looks great and then the dog walks around and you keep seeing little hairs that were missed lol.
> 
> ...


 Thanks for your input!! I really appreciate it.  And I don't ever take this stuff as personal attacks. I asked for a critique.  I will say this though: I totally see what you mean about there being stray hairs/parting; my poodle is going through his coat change (he's like 7 mo) and most of the areas you are noticing issues with are still completely/mostly puppy hair. Which means they curl up really really fast after blow drying, don't scissor right, and generally just don't look as "finished". I've tried everything! I'm a perfectionist when it comes to grooming, I want every stray hair gone. I've even whacked his leg hair down to like 1/2" before, still doesn't look smooth. At this point, I'm just trying to get a good shape going and waiting for the adult hair. Anyway, thanks for taking the time to point this stuff out, I will keep it in mind!!



animalcraker said:


> Looks wonderful to me, but I don't have any experience grooming poodles. Are you planing on eventually showing him or is he just a pet that you're having fun grooming?


 Thanks! No, I would love to, as he's a beautiful poodle, but he's neutered.  As a puppy, he developed an underbite, so his breeder just gave him to me, and I had him neutered at 5 mo. THEN, his bite fixed itself as all of his adult teeth came in. So we're probably just going to do some grooming comps and maybe some agility.


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## RubyFeuer (Mar 30, 2010)

Ahh lol the infamous puppy hair. I had that issue with my schnauzer lol. You can see her as she is now in my avatar lol. Still having issues with getting her leg fur longer because every time it should be that long it is only partially that long because the other dogs ripped up the fur over time with play and stuff. Good luck and continue to do a good job ^^ I'm sure once his fur grows into adult fur he will looks amazing after he gets groomed ^^


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## mom24doggies (Mar 25, 2011)

RubyFeuer said:


> Ahh lol the infamous puppy hair. I had that issue with my schnauzer lol. You can see her as she is now in my avatar lol. Still having issues with getting her leg fur longer because every time it should be that long it is only partially that long because the other dogs ripped up the fur over time with play and stuff. Good luck and continue to do a good job ^^ I'm sure once his fur grows into adult fur he will looks amazing after he gets groomed ^^


 Yeah, puppy hair on a schnauzer does weird things, too...btw, yours is adorable.


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## RubyFeuer (Mar 30, 2010)

mom24doggies said:


> Yeah, puppy hair on a schnauzer does weird things, too...btw, yours is adorable.


Yes lol it was so evil. It took forever to get her eyebrows to acceptable because the people before me weren't doing it right so they were all crazy lol. Thank you very much ^^ I try my best to keep her looking good ^^


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