Coat: Naturally harsh texture and dense throughout.

Breed Note: The poodle is the only breed whose coat is traditionally styles in a number of ways.  The Poodle will be our model for demonstrating a wide range of grooming techniques. We will follow the following stages of grooming a Poodle;

Bathing and Drying

• Brushing and Combing
• Nail Trimming and Ear Cleaning
• Basic Clip (Clipping the face, feet and tail)
• Clipping the Pattern
• Shaping and Blending

• Brush
• Comb
• Oster A5 Clipper or Power Max with #40, #10, #15 and #3 blades
• Oster Universal Combs
• Oster Scissors

• Oster Nail Grinder or nail trimmer
• Blood Stop
• Ear hair removers (Stats)
• Gentle ear cleaner
• Possible bathing system used with HyrdoSurge or AKC Shampoo

Brushing and Combing Techniques:  Essential grooming for the Poodle includes proper bathing and drying techniques. 

Head and Face:  Use a #10, #15, #30 or #40 blade when clipping the face (feet and tail) depending on your dogs skin sensitivity.  Use a #10 blade for light skinned Poodles because they tend to be more sensitive skin.  Keep the clipper flat against the skin surface.  Start at the top inside edge of the ear.  Clip against the lay of the coat to the inside corner of the eye on both sides of the head following a horizontal line.  Clip the muzzle from under the eyes to the end of the nose.  With gentle, smooth strokes, pull skin tight working against the lay of the coat.  Clip the muzzle clean.  Stretch the lips taunt in order to avoid nicking the lips with the clipper.  Make sure you clean the flew of the lip.  Raise the dogs head and clip from a place on the neck above where it dips in and below the adams apple to the lower jaw, clipping it clean.

Feet:  The feet of the Poodle must be shaved.  A #10, #15, #30 or #40 blade can be used to shave the feet. 

Clip the front and sides of the foot from the toenail, between the toes to the large bone above the foot.  The most difficult part of clipping the paw is getting between the toes.  Move the blade edge in a smooth clipping technique using a small edge or corner of the blade to clip between the toes and pads being careful to not clip any skin webbing.  Clipping the hair out of the pads requires a ‘scooping’ action.  Clip the paws as clean as possible.  The better and flatter you spread the pads the cleaner and easier the foot is to clip clean.

Topknot and Ears:  The topknot is scissored to achieve a domed effect.  Scissor both of these areas.  On the topknot, scissor a straight line following the clipper line made earlier just laying the scissors over the ear and around to the clipper line of the neck line.  Comb the remaining top knot to one side and clip to your line just set.  Repeat the same steps on the other side.  Next, blend in to the top of the head.  Scissor a rounded topknot, being careful not to cut too flat or short.   Scissor the topknot in proportion to the size of the head and remaining coat.  The top should be proportionate to the sides.  Comb out the hair on the ears and round the ears by trimming off excess and uneven hairs.

Tail:  To achieve the pom-pom, clip the hair off the bottom 1/3 of the tail.  Grab the hair of the tail and lift the tail into a vertical position.  Use scissors on the remaining portion of the tail in order to achieve the pom-pom.  The length, 0thickness and curve of the tail must all be considered in determining how it will be clipped.  Do not clip directly over the anal area.  All hair around the anal opening is trimmed as short as possible.

Abdomen:  Hold the Poodle up on its hind legs.  Clip the belly region from the navel to a point just in front of the genital area using a #10 blade.  Remove all coat growing the opposite direction as the body coat.  Be careful to avoid cutting the folds of skin located in the dogs flanks.

<continue>