The Poodle is the breed every other curly-coated dog is measured against, and it is the one with a real vocabulary attached. Knowing four words gets you a much better haircut, because you can ask for what you want instead of describing it.
The coat
Dense, curly, single-coated, and continuously growing. It sheds barely at all — the shed hairs get caught in the surrounding curls rather than falling. That is the famous advantage, and it is also the exact mechanism by which a Poodle mats: every hair the dog loses stays in the coat until something removes it.
Which is why brushing a Poodle properly means line brushing: part the coat down to the skin, brush the exposed line outward, move the part a half inch and repeat. It is slower than brushing the surface and it is the only method that actually reaches where mats form. A skin-to-tip comb check afterwards confirms it.
The clips, in plain terms
- The puppy clip — a uniform length over the whole body, face, feet and tail base shaved, tail left as a pompon. Despite the name it suits adult dogs and it is the most common pet clip.
- The lamb clip — short body, longer legs left as columns, rounded head. The everyday pet Poodle look, and the one most people are describing when they say "a normal Poodle haircut".
- The continental — the show clip. Shaved hindquarters with rosettes on the hips, bracelets on the back legs, full mane on the chest and shoulders, pompon tail. Hydrodynamic in origin, from retrieving in cold water; almost never a pet choice, and worth understanding as a real functional pattern rather than an affectation.
- The German trim — short body, shaped legs, no topknot, ears kept short. Practical, tidy, and increasingly what owners ask for when they want low maintenance without the shaved face.
Face, feet and tail base are traditionally shaved close on all of these. If you dislike the shaved muzzle — plenty of owners do — ask for a "teddy bear" or "doodle" face on your Poodle instead. It is your dog.
Feet and ears
Poodle feet grow hair between the pads prolifically. Left long it packs into a slick mat that reduces traction, and in Oklahoma it collects burrs and grass seed all summer. Pads get cleared at every groom.
Poodles also grow hair inside the ear canal. Whether to pluck it is genuinely contested now: the old blanket advice was to pluck at every groom, and current thinking is that plucking a healthy ear can cause the inflammation it was meant to prevent. We will do what your vet recommends for your dog — tell us which, especially if your Poodle has a history of ear infections.
Booking
A Poodle clip is The Royal Treatment — bath, blow-out, brushing, ears, nails and the full cut. Toys and Miniatures at $65, a Standard at $105 or from $120 depending on size. Four to six weeks, and closer to four if you are keeping a defined pattern with shaved areas, because a shaved face grows out fuzzy in about three.