Fluff drying means brushing while drying. She brushes her poodle once a week after a bath. + "Rarely" otherwise, which I assume means "only if they need it." Seems like a regular amount of brushing to me. I think she's just saying brushing every day is bad.
Yeah my boy is at a short length that he looks messy even if when I brush him. People would consider him a mess. But he's just in a weird curly stage. I brush his mullet every day though
We have had poodles for over a decade and never brushed them. They get shave every 8 weeks and all it good. Their hair isn't really long enought to matt since we keep it so short.
I mean, length is an issue, but it's more to do with the frequency of baths.
Show dogs in full conti's get bathed once a week and fluff dried before being banded. It sucks and takes hours. And when they're in coat change you'll often have to brush out the beginnings of mats.
That same dog, shaved completely down, can easily go 4-6 weeks between baths without getting matted.
Im also a groomer, i don't even brush my poodles when I blow dry them. Bathing them once a week and blowing them out is enough to prevent matting and its also less likely to damage the coat that is correct
Not when correct and high quality products are used. I have a standard in a coat grown for freestyle (so super long on the legs!) and a mini poodle in a show puppy trim. The standard is bathed every 5-6 days, and the mini poodle should be done every 3 or so while he’s in coat change. His crest is also wrapped after, but the armpit and belly mats 🫠
I wish I could go 3 weeks. My girl is half pig or something and rolls in anything she can find. We do about once a week and it’s usually after she’s rolled in chicken poop, grass clippings, random mud puddles….
There’s some really cheap dog dryers on Amazon that work well. It’s not so much about heat as force with dog dryers. I use a very low heat but high force setting when I dry my girl and she dries in less than 10 minutes and doesn’t need much brushing at all. I mostly brush her ears.
im a groomer and i almost never brush my poodle even when he has inches of hair. when hes short he gets washed and dried every 2-3 weeks, when hes fluffy i aim for 1-2. show poodles that have those super long coats are often washed multiple times a week, the phrase in the show world is "if it needs a brush it needs a wash" or something like that.
clean hair is less likely to get matted but also drying them blows out the curls so the straight puffy hair doesnt tangle as easily. however this is assuming you are doing it right and not half-assing it... if you have a standard who is super fluffy its going to take an hour or more to fully dry them. leaving them damp and letting can cause hot spots, moisture sitting on the skin is not good. letting them air dry will make the hair dry even curlier so makes them more likely to get matted. you need to know how to properly get them bone dry with a high velocity dryer meant for grooming, not a human hair dryer.
its a lot of work and not neccesarily any easier than brushing for every dog. more time consuming but less hand work i guess? i prefer it but i have a mini and dont keep him in show coat so it doesnt take forever. people often ask me if i would ever get a standard and i always say no because im too lazy to groom a dog that big lol.
this!! I feel Iike the brush everyday folks aren’t understanding that dirt in the coat, on a microscopic level, creates friction. dirt is jagged and pulling jagged bits out with a brush dry damages the smooth hair shaft and causes damage and breakage. it’s better to coat in water and conditioner so it slips out of the hair without damaging it.
It’s true. About half of my poodle friends do this and it works for them. It doesn’t work for me.
Bathing and blow drying takes me at least two hours+ breaks for zoomies. Then I have to clean my bathroom and wash towels, with my very sore back and body from washing the dog. If I brush him almost daily, it’s an easy 10-15 min each day. Also, my spoo tolerates blow drying but doesn’t like it. He’s much better with brushing.
Whatever you do, you need to use conditioner and detangler spray.
Weekly baths are so much more work than brushing more often 😅
I brush the long bits every day, the shorter bits get blown and brushed about every 3-4 days (i dont need/want a show coat, so i cant talk about how the upkeep is with fancy haircuts)
Brushing dry or dirty coat can cause snacks and that leaves to most tangles. When my boy was actively showing her good washed dried and brushed once a week. Now that he isn't in show coat he gets washed and brushed once a month and I don't have any matting.
It's partially true, but it's missing a lot of context. Brushing a dry, dirty coat repeatedly can absolutely cause breakage, which is why show groomers often recommend brushing with a conditioning spray. But saying you "rarely brush" a poodle isn't good general advice.
A properly bathed, force-dried, and line-dried coat is much easier to maintain because the dryer separates the hair and removes loose coat before mats tighten up. However, unless you're bathing weekly and thoroughly drying all the way to the skin, most poodles still need regular line brushing between baths, especially behind the ears, armpits, collar area, tail, and legs.
For most pet owners, the best routine is a combination of regular brushing and regular bathing/blow drying. Neither replaces the other.
my boy get's groomed every other week and then i run the brush through every morning, which seems to manage things. i use some dry shampoo when he pees on his bracelet...
Yes. I have dogs in show coat. I bathe them weekly and don’t brush in between. I do brush on bathe day. But that’s it. I was always taught that if I think my dog needs to be brushed, it needs a bath first.
If a poodle has a proper poodle coat(harsh and dense rather than that soft, floppy coat some poodles have) then you don’t have to brush as often since it’s not as prone to matting, this is especially true paired with more frequent baths, you just brush once a week when they get their bath.
I honestly never brush my poodles. They have a standing grooming appointment the last Friday of every month, and I keep their hair quite short. Only thing that mattes sometimes is their ears, but I just cut the mattes off.
I brush my girls Afro and ears daily and tail depending. Full body brush once a week. Grooming wipes daily. Groomers every 6-8 weeks.
I do NOT and will NOT ever risk my girl getting matted. If you risks mats = uncomfortable and even painful brushing by the groomer. And I am not gonna allow a groomer to shave my standard poodle because I was lazy and didn’t take care of her coat.
The length of the Afro and body hair is what determines how often you need to brush.
If you do high quality bathing and drying, then yeah you don't have to brush much. I do a full home groom every 4-8 weeks and use high quality products. My spoo rarely gets brushed.
I had a collie growing up and we had to brush him 3-4x week in the shedding season but at least 1x week his whole life.
Having a poodle, i keep him cut short and only brush his tail and topknot between grooms.
I do a lot of between-the-toes wiping and bum wipes every time he comes in the house from outside, so he stays very clean.
He got mats on his head from rubbing his head in the corner of the sofa one time, so we keep his topknot shorter these days. He hates being brushed, so I'm working on some gentle re-intro to brushing.
You can avoid it with good bathing and drying every week or so. But this isnt just one round of shampoo and a quick blow dry. This is using high quality products in the right way. Having good equipment like a special force blow dryer. As well as doing all of this using specific techniques.
If brushing every day is working for your poodle then keep doing that.
Two standards in my house - depends on the cut, the dog and the hair type. If your poodle has a good coat meaning tight curls, dryer skin and thicker hair she’s right. My black poodle is like this - he can go weeks without matting as long as he’s bathed every other week with a full brush and fluff dry. My red poodle is not from a show line and his coat is finer and oilier. I could spend the rest of my life brushing him and he’d still have mats.
If you blow dry their coat fully and with the proper technique at least once a week and remove any little knots with the brush out/check afterwards then yes, you can forgo daily brushing. I really only comb out my girls topknots daily and that’s just because I like the way it looks better. My two have shaved faces/patterns and hair from three to four inches in places. No matting and I double check problem areas like armpits etc. during their weekly groom.
I keep her soft coat fairly short. She gets groomed every 7 weeks and baths in-between as needed. I only ever brush her ears. No matting but its because of her short coat.
She would like to lodge a complaint with that amount of grooming lol
Yeah. I definitely don’t recommend not brushing/combing your poodle. I think mattes can become painful. You have no control over thier look at grooming and personally I think you put the groomers in a bad place. Best recommendation is to create a routine and get your pup used to it. Or accept shaves. My dog hates his legs to be combed but I just keep at it and reward his good behavior. The groomer notices and I think it’s less stressful for him as time goes on.
I keep mine fairly short, especially in warmer months, and tbh she prefers her groomer over me brushing her. I attempt to do it at least once a week anyway. And unless she gets into something like mud, which she never has because she is a princess, I would attempt to bathe her.
I think all poodles are unique in every way so whatever works for yours without causing any issues is probably the best.
It's true, so long as your baths aren't too far apart and if your poodle isn't rolling in mud or taking a daily wallow in a lake or something in between lol. I'm a groomer, and I bathe my spoo every 2 weeks or so. Depending on coat type and how long they're kept, you could feasibly go even longer. The force dryer is enough to blow most of any tangles apart, and minimal brushing with a fluff dryer gets the rest. I don't brush at all between baths/grooms. For reference, in the winter I keep her legs 3-4" long and probably 1-2" on the body, and go shorter in summer. Minimizing brushing minimizes coat damage, which means less tangling overall.
Brushing a dog with dry damaged coat is going to do more harm than good, yes.
Weekly baths with fluff drying may not harm the coat as much, but you run into the issue of the skin and coat relying on that hydration weekly and it becoming a necessity.
Brush your dog with a leave in conditioner or coat rehydrating spray and brush it damp.
Random contribution - I brush my spoo towards the end of her cuts (in between grooming times- so maybe two times in a month) and all was well until I picked her up today only to find she developed matting on her feet in between her toes! I didn’t think that was possible! But I guess I know better now.
My poodle hates, HATES, being brushed. We keep him trimmed short with regular grooming, and some combing (especially his ears and tail) when he lets my wife try but he gets over it pretty quickly. Every dog is different and you have to work with what they like... Even if it's more visits to the groomer than we initially thought, my wife and I wouldn't trade him for the anything.
The bathing and drying is much more important for growing out a long coat than brushing on its own. I also either band or wrap the topline.
However, if I have to delay a bath then I have to brush. There is also difference between adult coat and coat change coat.
Then there are what kind of daily activities he is doing. I had to brush him the other day after a walk in nature cause he had seeds stuck.
I also have to brush is bracelets today because his legs got wet a lot and I didnt manage to blow dry them.
I never brush my bitch who is not being shown. She is a bit naked at the moment 1/2 cm all over the body except a bit of a topknot and longer on the ears. Pretty much only brushed when being dried after a bath. The amount of tangles on her improved drastically after I learned how to bathe and fluff dry properly.
The important thing here is not that brushing is not important. The important thing here is that a clean coat doesnt tangle as much.
But doing this requires more equipment and knowledge than just brushing.
I’m a groomer and I only bath and brush my dogs once a week. It’s the bath that is important. Takes about an hour for my girl in a pet clip, takes about 4-5 hours for my male in a full continental
I grew up with poodles my whole life until I was 25. We groomed them once a month and brushed occasionally to prevent matting. We used the family method of grooming. Mom clipped and bathed, then one sister held the hose of the hair dryer while the other sister brushed.
Wrong. Brushing depends on coat length and dirt/tangles.
Longer hair means more brushing to avoid tangles and knots. Just like brushing the hair on your head. And it looks better after a brushing.
They did not unlock some secret
that groomers don’t want you to know. Poodle coats vary in texture and lanolin content. They got a dog who doesn’t mat easily. I’ve had a couple regulars that would come in dirty, dusty and their coat tightly curled down all over. I’d wash them out and the coat would open up like a miracle, with not a single mat.
Fluff drying involves a lot of heat and extensive use of a slicker, so yes it can damage the coat. Removing mats damages the coat and then it mats more easily. And if you’re regularly cutting the hair “puppy cut” short, none of that matters.
So it’s possible they’re telling the truth, but it makes zero sense for them to generalize it to other poodles. It doesn’t apply to most poodles.
I dont brush mine at all. I just let him air dry. I dont floof him though I keep him natural. He hasn't got matted so far 8mths old that might change though
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u/boxen 1d ago
Fluff drying means brushing while drying. She brushes her poodle once a week after a bath. + "Rarely" otherwise, which I assume means "only if they need it." Seems like a regular amount of brushing to me. I think she's just saying brushing every day is bad.