Tail Talk Grooming Chronicles with Hound Therapy

From Poodles To Shepherds And All The Fur Between

• Shannon & Tanya • Episode 29

Share episode

Send us a text

Do You Approach Grooming Differently Depending On Their Coats?

Think your doodle doesn’t shed or your lab is low-maintenance? We peel back the layers of coat biology to show why looks deceive and what real grooming takes for curly, double, and short-coated pets. From prep to finish, we walk through the exact workflows that keep skin healthy and coats clean: line-brushing curly hair from wet to fully dry for an even cut, strategic de-shedding for undercoats that “blow” seasonally, and careful fold care and skincare routines for short-haired, wrinkle-faced breeds.

Shannon and Tanya share hands-on techniques that separate a quick tidy from a lasting, healthy groom. Learn why length on doodles demands frequent visits and daily home brushing, how force drying and rakes pull astonishing amounts of undercoat from German Shepherds, Huskies, Pomeranians, and Labs, and why even sleek cats can fill a bin when bathed and dried correctly. We explore common myths—like “non-shedding” coats—along with tool choices that prevent brush burn, manage stress, and protect the skin. Expect practical takeaways: realistic scheduling, at-home maintenance tips, and how to talk to your groomer about goals without compromising comfort.

You’ll also hear which breeds surprise us most, from cottony Westies to deceptively dense Wheatens, and why short coats need meticulous skincare rather than fewer appointments. Whether you’re a pet parent or a budding groomer, this is your roadmap to matching care plans to coat structure, not just appearance—so your pet looks great, feels better, and sheds less around the house. If you found this helpful, follow the show, share it with a friend, and leave a review with your biggest grooming myth—we might feature it next time.

To learn more about Hound Therapy visit:
https://www.HoundTherapy.com
Hound Therapy
3509 E Park Blvd.
Plano, TX
469-367-0009

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to Tale Talk Grooming Chronicles with House Therapy, the podcast where we talk all things pet grooming, daycare, academy, and more. Hosted by Shannon and Tanya of House Therapy, serving pet owners across North Texas. We're here to share expert tips, hilarious pet stories, and the inside scoop on keeping your furry friends happy and healthy. Our motto, humanity over vanity. And don't worry, we don't fight. Let's get started.

SPEAKER_01:

Hi, ladies. How's it going today? It's great. How are you today? I'm doing great. Now I am excited to have you both back on today. Let's go ahead and dive into this one. So, today's question From poodles to shepherds and all the fur between, what are the biggest grooming differences between curly-coated and double-coated breeds to kick things off?

SPEAKER_02:

Curly coated is your doodle. Let's start with that. The curly coated part is it's got, yeah, your poodles, your doodles. It's literally their coats are curly. Some can be more tight. Um, and and they need more professional grooming. They need to come into the salon a whole lot more often. Um, they need to be brushed on a regular daily basis. Um, versus, say, German Shepherd, which is a double-coated breed. And that is that's a dog that you can kind of brush, you know, on the fly here and there. They're gonna have seasonal needs, like in the winter and the summer. Yeah, they're gonna call blowing their coat, but that undercoat will come out. So they only have they have two types. They have their, it's not just one basic strand of hair. They have uh a really soft, downy coat, and then they have a wiry one up on the top. And then we're gonna go right down from there to like so like a bulldog or your dogs that just don't have much hair at all. Um bulldogs, vishlas, um, Boston Terriers, um, all of those kinds of dogs, they those are the dogs that you need to worry about washing and protecting in their folds. They're they're wrinkly, smushed-faced dogs. Yeah, um, they don't have a lot of protection from the elements. So you you need to to take very good care of their skin. Um, it's it's it's it's a lot. So I would say that's the the the the three basic types of of pet coats that that you have to understand. Um, how to take care of them are is a whole bigger uh is a whole bigger issue. Yep. Uh um the single-coated breeds by far are the easiest. And uh a myth there is that I have a lab. A lab is a double-coated breed, um, and they shed. And if you get this very cute little lab puppy, yeah, I love lab puppies. Um I you have more hair everywhere. Um and then I have a Vishla that has no extra hair, she has no undercoat at all. And I have, I actually bought a vehicle that's the same color as her, and my clothes match her because if I don't, that I'm red. I mean, as someone who has a lab and a Vishla, I have more Vishla hair around my house than actual lab hair. So that can be very um, you know, very, very misleading when you look at an animal and you think, oh, they have a very low coat, so it's gonna be easier to take care of. That is not necessarily true. Um, the other thing that, yeah, it's it's and the curly-coated breeds, you look at those, you think they don't shed, especially a doodle. They 100% do shed. They have an undercoat, they may not shed as much as the the breeds we just mentioned, but doodles and doodles have a coat that you need to get, that dead hair needs to be removed. Everybody sheds, even people.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, how do you adjust your grooming approach based on breed type? Which dogs are the most difficult to groom?

SPEAKER_02:

There's a there's not a dog that's more difficult or less difficult. I mean, this is kind of what we do. Um, but as far as the difficulty is going to be the longer haired, curly-coated dogs. They require um a lot of upfront and back end work. And what I mean by that is the back end is for us, we've got to do a coat prep and then we've got to wash and dry, and then we've got to prep the coat again. Uh, we don't want that coat laying downwards. We want it prepped up so that it's fluffed and ready to groom so that you get the fluffiest, good looking cut. Yeah. Uh, we want to straighten every one of those curls out so that it's an all-over even cut. So that's definitely the most involved work. Um, the the least amount of work, but every much is is needed as the double as the the curly coated is the double-coated breeds. Um it's just, I would say most of that double-coated is going to be on the back end. So that's a quick back brush nails, but we've got to work really hard at getting to the skin on those dogs. They have a lot of brushing. Yeah, they have a that is labor intensive. Um, it is literally, I mean, we are just pulling dead hair. We will get sometimes as much hair out of these dogs as they are size-wise. Yeah. Um, it's I've done it before. It's very satisfying. And that goes for your Pomeranians, your um, your your little tiny dogs, and not just your German shepherds and your Akitas and you know, your labs, and it's it is a husky. Uh, all of those things are various sizes. Um, your little breeds that have just as much double-coated breed. I I have a picture on our website of a Pomeranian that it I he's sitting in, all you can see is his hair, and everything I've pulled out of him, it you can't even see the dog. It's just hair. Uh, it's a it's it is amazing. Um, and it's time consuming, um, but more it's labor intensive there. So that is very hard on on your dog as well. People don't realize that you have a doodle that you want six to seven inches of hair on. That six or seven inches of hair has to be brushed out. Yeah. And it has to be brushed out under a low minimal heat of drying and constantly and on that table from very wet till it's very dry. Um, the double-coated breeds can take a break in between because we're not worried about prepping that coat for an in-depth finish. We're more worried about getting down to the skin and then pulling and removing the dead hair out. So both require a lot of table time. Uh, one requires more pulling and tugging, uh, where the other is just it's about fluffing it up. So it's using the right tools, making sure you don't brush burn. And it's it's just a lot of work on that dog. Uh, for anybody that's had um either, you know, like a color correction, or you have really long hair, or you have really curly thick hair, and you know, you only wash it once a week. It's that every day for these dogs.

SPEAKER_01:

So, my other question for you is are there any breeds that surprise you with how much care they actually need?

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yes. I would say the breeds that surprise me the most are the that we're gonna go with the labs. And honestly, yeah, cats. I'm gonna go with with cats always surprise me how much hair I get out of a cat. Um I agree. I we do a lot of cat baths in here, and I I expect it from the dogs because you know, we do them every day. Um, but a cat that comes in that looks like it's got no hair, and I'm thinking, oh, this is gonna be so easy. We're gonna do these nails, we're gonna give them a quick bath, and then I brush for hours and hours and hours on some of the things. You'll never get all that hair out. And it's just crazy to me. It's got, it's, it's, it is so much hair on these cats. Um, so I would say me being surprised, I would say coming from the viewpoint of when you buy a, you know, or you you get a dog from the lab, uh, you know, it that that you're not expecting any kind of those lab pit mixes, uh, that you're gonna be shocked at how much hair we pull out. Labs have that that's my number one go-to. Mine are westies. Like they're shed a ton. They shed a ton and they're cottony. And a soft coat in Wheedon. There, yeah, that's another one that's really, really it's uh you're always you're like, wow, that dog didn't look like it had as much hair. But it when once you fluff those up and get them, they up quite a bit. So yeah, there's there's a lot of um deception going on with with these dog breeds. Uh, you know, they pop in looking one way and when they leave, you know, they I feel like they look neater and cleaner, but I don't feel like the owner genuinely appreciates how much time and work and effort that we took to do that because they're not seeing that we don't bag up the hair and give it to them, although we should. But it's it's really surprising that, you know, it's the dog just looks so much better when they go home and you can feel it. You know, the huskies and the they they know there's a lot of hair there. But I it without really actually seeing it, uh the the underwhelming what breeds are, you know, they're they're the westies, they're the the labs, they're the ones that like the uh, you know, they're just here for a bath. Yeah, they they smell good, you know, they look good, but you can't really you don't see the wall in the back that's covered with their hair. I don't see how much work we've done. My brushes at home, no lie, are full of dog hair. Like my hair brushes. Mine are too. For me just brushing my hair when I go home because I have so much hair in them. Yeah. It weaves.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Hopefully we've answered some of those questions. Yeah. We've got a lot of dog bloopers today, so I apologize for any of those. Yeah, working with live animals, you never know what you're gonna get. Yeah. Some loud ones today.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, Shannon and Tanya, thanks for walking us through the fur jungle with style, smarts, and a little bloopers today, too.

SPEAKER_02:

No problem. We're we're here for the free bloopers.

SPEAKER_01:

We'll catch you next time on Tale Talk Grooming Chronicles with Hound Therapy.

SPEAKER_00:

That's a wrap for this episode of Tale Talk with Hound Therapy. Ready to book your pet's next groom daycare stay or grooming academy tour? Call us at 469-367-0009. That's 469-367-0009 to schedule an appointment or visit us online at www.houndtherapy.com, serving North Texas with expert pet care. Until next time, keep those tails whacked.