Question for those who've groomed show poodles, oddly enough!

At work we are currently boarding (amongst others) two mini poodles, a black male and a white female.  The male is in a full lion clip, and had to be groomed every time I'm at work; he's getting done about every 2 or 3 days, and he's in till Feb 3rd.

Now, I'm not used to show poodles - not at all.  I can do grooming for pet poodles into lamb clips, no trouble at all, and they turn out nice.

But, I'm having trouble just getting into the rhythym really - is there a good way to go about it? Also I'm taking out way to much hair with the minor tangles, apparently his owner is almost obsessive that he musn't lose any hairs at all, so I'm getting worried.  It's not vast amounts - a small pile of fluff - but of course that adds up over the time he's in for, and he's going to crufts this year - I don't want to be responsible for a dodgy cut when the time comes because he's lost too many hairs!

I'm using a silver comb, wide toothed.  I was using a Mikki slicker to start and the comb to finish, but I vaguely remember an old poodle breeder complaining about slickers being a very bad thing for poodles, so I erred on the side of caution today.

A very good book on grooming show is an american one - the complete poodle by Del Dahl.  This book is invaluable to beginners or experienced.  In his book he says never to brush a dry coat, always lightly spray with water or a very dilute conditioner with water.  if poss lie the poodle on its side and brush out in layers starting from the stomach up.  Its always good to put the dryer through the coat as you brush it.  if you come across a tangle try to tease it apart with your fingers first then take your wide tooth comb and start from the top and work your way down to the skin.  You will lose a little bit of hair but thats unavoidable as there is always going to be a little dead hair.  on top knot and mane if possible use a pin brush as it will do less damage than a slicker if you are not sure what you are doing.  Washing and conditioning the dog once a week will also help stop tangling.  if I can be of any more help without writing a novel let me know.  Oh and just to make things more complicated blacks and whites have totally different coats and therfore need different care!!  I am surprised at someone going to show their dog at crufts putting their poodle in kennels so close to the show knowing how much damage can be done to a coat in a short time (don't mean that as any offence to your grooming skills but its very easy to wreck a poodle show coat if you don;t know what your doing with it!) Hope I've been of help :-)

If the owner was so concerned about the coat then they should have given you a grooming lesson.
The black should have a stronger coat than the white, and it is OK to use a slicker, but not a harsh one.  Use a good conditioning grooming spray before brushing.  Do a small section at a time.  comb through with the comb.  Some would say not to use a slicker on the mane coat but to use a pin brush.  I would use a slicker. 
You will get a small amount of hair on the brush when you groom;  tease the tangles out with the comb end.
Are you managing to cope with the top knot?  I take it is is banded up?

The white will have a finer coat, so be careful with the slicker.
Could go on for ever but..........

Thanks both, very helpful!

The topknot and ears are banded, not causing a problem though - I've unbanded them, combed them out without problems and rebanded them no trouble, unless you count two bands snapping... so the ears only have one band each at the moment, so I'm keeping a very close eye on them.

I used coat gloss on him last time to ease the combing - I was having problems with static before!  Heck, I find that bad enough on my own hair :)

I'll try with the slicker again tomorrow, I think there were a fair few knots this last time because I didn't do a very good job the first time.  I did the entire mane with the comb last time round - took me a while!  The white isn't too much of a problem - she's in a lamb clip, so no mane or huge topknot to deal with, nice and manageable.