Clipping my Poodle at home

[Pat Davis]

Hi all, i'm new here, and I was wondering if anybody clips there Poodle there self?
If so any tips would really be appreciated. I started to clip mine for the first time, well I got the body pretty good, but i'm scared to do the legs and face, do I put one of the combs on the clipper?
I don't mind taking him to a groomer sometime, but from the ones i've had work on him, i've only found one that knows how to do him right.
And Petsmart! i'll never have him groomed there again, I feel like I could do as good of job if not better than most of the one's i've used. Thanks for any tips

[Dawn]

I have tried grooming at home. It didn't always come out looking...good, but oh well. I quit because of the sheer amount of time it took. What size poodle do you have and how wide is your clipper blade. As far as a comb on the face and legs, that depends on how short you want it cut. I clean shave mine's face, but I don't even shave her legs. I just scissor them. It is pretty difficult doing their face, and I wouldn't recommend doing it unless your dog is very, very calm. Don't sit down and expect to get the whole thing done in one sitting. Both you and your dog will get much too tired and irritable. I know have mine professionaly groomed. It doesn't always look how I want it to, and it's certainly not cheap, but it's worth it.

[Pat Davis]

Hi Dawn,
I guess I won't shave his face b/c he's very hyper.
The blade is not very wide I think it said it's a #30 just payed $45 at ebay for it, but it said works great on Poodles.
Mine is a Mini, 20lbs. but I can tell if he had been groomed recently, it would be pretty easy to just go over him every couple weeks.
Thanks again

[Dawn]

Yeah, we still do touch-ups in between groomings on mine's face. My mom's is done with scissors. So we don't really have to worry about him. Another reason you probably wouldn't enjoy doing it yourself is cleaning their feet. That is so hard to get the blades to catch everything, especially the hair between their toes.

[Pat Davis]

Thanks, I guess thats what I will do, just touch him up.
You have a toy don't you? so cute, that's what I thought mine was supossed to be ha ha!

[Dawn]

Yep, I have a toy. She's still small for a toy though. Sometimes I think it'd be fun to have one a bit bigger, but she can do it all anyway.

[Angel]

I have a toy poodle who I started clipping myself. I got so frustrated with doing everything I have decided to take her in for a full groom and try and do touch ups between visits. She is a pup so maybe when she is older and stays still I can do it myself. I did her face one time, but it was really hard. Her feet were really easy for me she just sat there like she was getting a pedicure or something!! lol

[moe]

Have Standard poodle that I groom at least once per week. Doing this way helps me keep up with it. In the winter months I allow hair on chest area grow a little longer than the warmer months. I run him every day and when it snows or rains he gets dirty and he needs to be washed down.He doesn't like to be washed.I do cut the hair on face as short as possible.

If I let it grow to long he developes problems with excessive moisture.
Cutting his front feet isn't too difficult however, the rear feet are something else.He doesn't like it very much and sometimes kicks.

I hope that this helps perhaps if someone knows of a way to cut excessive around rear feet please let me know.

Sincerely,

Moe

[Dawn]

Well, my poodle got groomed last week. They practically shaved her. Claimed that she was so matted that was all they could do with it. Did her brother the same way. Funny there wasn't a mat on her before we took them. It had been almost exactly a year since her surgery and her hair was just growing back in nice and full on her legs, now it's like 1/4 of an inch long. I've never been so mad before.

[Rebecca]

Hi, everybody:

This is my first visit to the forum. I have a 1 yr old red toy poodle, Rudy, that my husband brought home to me last year. He was the cutest ball of fur. And I particularly loved his beautiful coat and after 2 visits to professional groomers with results I didn't like, resorted to grooming him myself. (Dawn - your 11/03 message tickled me as my husband said he saw arrows coming out of my eyes after I picked Rudy up from his first grooming. I had asked for a "lamb or puppy" cut and when I picked him up - he was shaved so close you could see his veins under his skin - the woman told me "he's not a puppy anymore, he's got a gentleman's cut now!". To say the least, I was not a happy camper.) But his hair finally grew back out. I try to bathe him at least every 2 - 3 weeks and use a brush and scissors to trim him with. He'll sit pretty still for me when I trim him - but I was looking for tips on clipping when I came across this website. I might be writing too much come to think of it. Guess I better stop!