[KalaMama]

Hi. I have a 6 month old standard. So far she was clipped professionally twice and unfortunately they touched her topknot, so for now I am doing the maintenance grooming on my own. I just wanted to see if there is anything else I should be doing to prepare her coat. This is my current routine:

1)Wash her and blow her out straight once a week. Brush her a few times in between but spray conditioning spritz before brusing.
2)Keep her face, feet and tail areas shaved but I do not touch any of the other hair. I am NOT experienced in grooming. She is the first dog I have ever tried to groom.
3) Her top knot is growing out and I plan to band a ponytail or two when it gets any longer.

Any tips?

 

[Fluffyspoos]

Yeah.. Our district manager recently got a standard pup to show (he has two adults already) and he brought her into our salon to be groomed. The girl that did her trimmed her top knot, I stared at her and said "You know you're not suppose to cut their top knot when they're going to show, right?" She replied "Yeah, but I figured she should be able to see." :doh:

I don't have any tips however =/ I've never even seen the full puppy clip in person.

 

[dbrazzil]

One important tip for a good coat is a good diet. Ask your breeder what they recommend then you can always add additional supplements. I found a site that was very helpful to me on banding hair to growing coat and grooming. http://arpeggiopoodles.tripod.com/index.html I hope this helps.

 

[jak]

To the best of my knowledge that sounds correct.
But I highly recommend getting this absolutely wonderful book:

http://www.amazon.com/Poodle-Clipping-Grooming-International-Reference/dp/0876052650/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1258851785&sr=8-3

It explains every single thing that you need to know about poodle grooming,
and has sections for puppy clip and show puppy clip, continental and all other sorts.

I would also recommend finding as many pictures of puppies winning around in your country to observe their trim.

If you want, PM me and I could scan the section on show puppy trims for you and send it to you

 

[Fur Elite]

You didn't mention the toenails, but I would grind them as short as you can once a week to keep them very short. And you may need to pluck the ears if no one else is doing that. Everything else sounds great.

 

[katsdogworld]

Kalamama, if you're really serious about this whole showing business, there's a really nice woman that I met at a recent show that's from Hawaii, I believe she's on Oahu. I can't remember her name right now, but she is a good friend of Michelle's at http://www.mtspoodles.com and I'm sure she could put you in touch with her.
There's so much to learn about care and grooming of a show poodle, it would really help to be able to work with someone...best of luck!