Well, Fred has been getting extremely knotty and matted, partly to do with his change of coat, and also getting wet and running in the grass doesnt help :-(  so, when he went to the groomers on Saturday i told her to get rid of all his lovely fur!! :-) He's been shaved all over to get rid of the coat and "start again". Hopefully this should help get rid of some of the problems. Bless him - he looks so skinny and not like a poodle at all. Although im sure it will be beneficial to him in the long run.

Aww dont worry I bet he looks lovely! Polo's a 'shorty' now well not totally he's in bikini trim. I did him at the weekend. :-) I'd like to do agility when I get the time and its just more practical.

To be honest Polo he looks really silly! And you can see his testicals hanging down because the hairs so short around them now, looks awful - my parents think it's highy amusing! But for practical reasons it's best all round. he can get as wet as he wants and i wont be fretting that i'll have to deal with all the tangles.
Hows you and polo?

Hi Freds mum, dont take this the wrong way as its not meant as a criticism just trying to help. Did your poodle's breeder or your groomer show you how to brush a poodle properly?  The reason I ask is that I have customers in the past who have told me they brush their dog and I would still get the dog back matted  8 weeks later so I have asked them to show me how they do it and the majority only 'surface brush'. A poodle doesnt cast so the hair everywhere will matt badly if not combed and brushed out properly especially under front legs and ears.  once you have brushed your dog through thoroughly you should be able to get a fine tooth comb through it with no tugs.  The dog you see in the picture attached to this answer is Maisie, my current show dog.  Maisie is regularly down the beach and country park running with our bernese and friends dogs, she comes back soaking wet with twigs, leaves etc through her coat but as you can see with the proper care (helps if you have the correct brushes, which for a pet trim would be a soft slicker and a comb with both wide and narrow teeth) there is no need to have him shaved short unless of course you want him like that.  My other poodle I dont show anymore is trimmed with a short body but longer hair on legs, much like what your picture looks like :-D and that doesnt take too much care, wait until he is TOTALLY dry when he comes back a walk then take the slicker through the whole dog then take the comb through afterwards, if you come across a tangle just gently tease it apart until you can get the comb through it without hurting the dog.  Good groomers don't like sending out shaved off poodles as its not a particularly good advertisement for them so I'm sure if you asked your groomer would show you how to brush him out properly.  If you start practising this now when he is very short you should get the hang of it by the time he grows more hair as many folk make the mistake of thinking that his hair is so short I dont need to bother brushing it then it gets all tangled again then gets shaved off again, its a vicious circle. It will only take you about 5-10minutes each day to keep his coat tangle free. If I can be of any more help let me know :)

great post fifi.....I ts a great idea to give practical suport with grooming. I have afghans and when i think back to my first affie, a rescue, i was rubbish with her coat. I had no one to tell me how. Luckily i learned a lot from the breeder of my current two. you are right, the art of grooming doesnt come naturally, and needs loads of practice.

Yes brilliant post Fifi I've made the mistake of surface brushing with Poles - twice he got matted(I repeated it stupidly) and it took a while to regrow. My breeder has been so patient with me.

Brilliant post fifi :-D

It can be difficult for beginners to get the hang of brushing from the skin outwards, and that's when the trouble starts.   With Long coated/full coated dogs I try to show them how to lift the coat and brush underneath too :)

Hi,
Thanks for the advice but i have been doing all of that. Spend a great deal of time focussing on the trouble areas(behind ears, in the creases of legs) and never just surface brush. i have all the right brushes. Not sure what happened this time but in the past 8 weeks since he was last gromed he has got worse and worse. It has never been a problem before.
The best solution seemed to be to "start again". My groomer is absolutely mortified and has sworn me to secrecy not to mention her as the person who did this:-) Fred has never had a great coat but im hoping that by going really short and back to the beginning will help.
The one good thing is he has always been a black/brown colour. The brown is very visible on his legs,but now that has been cut away he looks a real deep black colour.
thank you for the advice, but unfortunately it is what ive been doing with not a lot of success :-(

You've tried really hard - chin up girl! :-)  Good luck with his coat and its nice that he's black now, that's a good thing. You've done well at the brushing, I didn't brush properly for a while but you did all along. Hope it warms up for Fred and Polo tho ;-)

If he's changing from puppy coat to adult then this is the worst time - once his adult coat is in it should get better ;)    You can buy detangling sprays which help ;)

Thanks guys. I still feel awful though. The groomer knows how much i look after him, but i cant help but feel i've failed and now poor little fred has to pay the consequences by having a shabby coat. Normally children go "aah its a poodle", now people are giving him weird looks wondering what he is!!!! i'm sure one day i'll look back and laugh. At the moment im just embarassed!!! :-)

i don't really know much about poodels, but most of the ones I see seem to be shaved all over anyway. I prefer them like that personally.

To be honest its more practical to have him shorter in this weather. He runs in the wet grass which is a nightmare when his fur is long but at the moment he is really short!!!But he looked really beautiful when he was in a proper clip and actually looked more like a poodle! I'm probably just being fussy. Im the same with my own hair :-)

I bet he looks gorgeous now just like a Spanish Water Dog!!!!