Poodle Grooming Instructions

Tips And Techniques For Poodle Groomers

Poodle grooming instructions vary by who you talk to and how they learned to groom poodles.

This is the basic way of how I groom my poodle.  If you need a show quality cut you will have to go to a dog groomer.  But I encourage you to start to learn to do it yourself.  It will take time to learn but after a while you will get the hand of it.

Poodle Grooming Equipment

Bathtub

Dog Shampoo

Dog Show Conditioner

Dog Grooming Table

Clipper

Scissors, sharp and blunt tipped

Pin Brush

Comb

Lots of Towels

One Great Assistant

I always bath and dry dogs before I groom them.  This gives a chance for mats and tangles to come out before you even have to worry about trimming around them.

Try and brush out the poodles coat before the bath.  This is an extra step, but I find it saves time later.

A good dog show conditioner really helps to get mats and tangles out of the coat.

After the bath I always wait until the coat is completely dry before trying to groom otherwise the clippers don't work as well.

I use the clippers first when poodle grooming to cover large areas quickly.  Depending on the cut I shave the whole body, leaving the bottoms of all four legs, the head, and the tail.

The bottom of the four legs I try to round out with a scissors to form pompons, the same with the tip of the tail.

The head, I used a blunt tipped scissors for and trim around the ears, and the hair away from the eyes.  Rounding out the remaining hair.

When you first start out grooming poodles start by removing only a small amount of hair at a time to avoid making big mistakes.