[carp]

I have standard poodles which spend quite a lot of time at the barn. You can just imagine how disgusting poodle fur gets during mud season. This week, apart from the usual mud up to their armpits, the boys came home from the barn stinking like dog urine. They had evidently stuck their heads under another dog's leg to sniff whatever he was peeing on while he was still peeing on it. Totally awesome. I now have shaggy, muddy, piss covered dogs who will want to snuggle with my Christmas house guests.

My dog groomer is kinda sorta thinking about firing me as a client. I can tell by the 2-3 week delay between when I call for an appointment and when she actually returns my call to book the appointment. (And no, she won't book my next appointment when I pick the dogs up.) I think the only reasons she does still return my calls are that I usually tip 100% of the actually grooming charge, and I'm totally ok with her shaving the dogs bald. Still, I expect her inner artist gets deeply offended at doing shave downs instead of proper fluffy poodle trims. (Although she might not need to do a shave down if we could maintain an actual grooming schedule.)

Last Christmas I treated myself to a high velocity dryer. Then I never got around to actually using it. Today, knowing there was no way I was going to get an appointment before Christmas with the offended artist dog groomer, I decided I was just going to have to bathe them myself. I figured the worst that could happen is I'd have clean matted dogs instead of dirty matted dogs.

I gave the stinkiest of the dogs a thorough scrub down and conditioning treatment in the shower. Then I hoisted his 60 pound carcass up onto one of our work benches and went at it. I had NO IDEA a high velocity dryer could make such a difference. Being a curly haired dog, his pelt tends to shrink up into tight little corkscrew mats whenever he gets wet. Naturally, he hates being brushed when he's matted. So the mats just hang around getting bigger with each rainstorm and mud bath. Today I discovered the high velocity airstream itself does 3/4 of the detangling. Unlike a human hair dryer, it basically blows the mats straight out of the fur. Why didn't someone tell me this years ago? All that time wasted towelling off soggy dogs, trying to get them dry with a hair dryer, and forcing brushes through mats - argggh

[Casey09]

Why didn't someone tell me this years ago? All that time wasted towelling off soggy dogs, trying to get them dry with a hair dryer, and forcing brushes through mats - argggh

Really? I wonder if this is only on poodle hair. I have dogs that matt, and I have always done okay at keeping them dematted until I got this youngest one. It just seems like I can't brush and comb enough to keep the matts at bay.

[SquishTheBunny]

I would LOVE a forced air dryer. I think it would work especially well for blowing snowballs off poodles!!

(however, for now, the minpoo seems to think rubbing her snowcovered self all over the couch is good enough)

[BuddyRoo]

SP owner here...I figured the HV dryers were way out of my range. Are they reasonable?

[LexInVA]

A few hundred bucks on average.

[carp]

SP owner here...I figured the HV dryers were way out of my range. Are they reasonable?

Depends on your definition of reasonable. Mine is a Chris Christensen Kool Pup; current catalog price is 275. That's a bit steeper than I'd normally pay for such an item. I was only able to justify it to myself by rationalizing that 4 trips to the offended artist dog groomer would cost the same. (And by conveniently ignoring the fact that grooming dogs takes time, hence the reason the dogs have been drip drying while the blower sits on its shelf.)

[ElisLove]

The reason it seems to work so well on poodles (and curly coated breeds) is bc a lot of the 'matts' you ate getting out probably aren't matts. Most likely they are just really tight bunched curls. The HV is strong enough to blast them straight. It's also helps to blow undercoat out of a double coated breed. They are of less use for straighter coated single coated dogs though can help it moving the matts a bit more away from the skin but if the dog has quite long hair you do have to be careful not to cause matts from the wind twirling the hair around.

[TheBandit]

I would LOVE a forced air dryer. I think it would work especially well for blowing snowballs off poodles!!

(however, for now, the minpoo seems to think rubbing her snowcovered self all over the couch is good enough)

Yes! My couch has been soaked for days! Time for a last minute addition to my Christmas list!

[candysgirl]

Really? I wonder if this is only on poodle hair. I have dogs that matt, and I have always done okay at keeping them dematted until I got this youngest one. It just seems like I can't brush and comb enough to keep the matts at bay.

As a groomer, I can tell you it works quite well on pretty much all hair types. If you have a particularly long drop coat like a yorkie, you can create new tangles, but it does work well on anything else.

[candysgirl]

SP owner here...I figured the HV dryers were way out of my range. Are they reasonable?

My favorite one is the black two motor one from Metro. They're about $275 on Pet Edge. I have two miniatures and a standard poodle in addition to grooming professionally.

I also use it on my horse in lieu of bathing him for much of the year. It's awesome for shedding seasons (horse and dog...gets rid of that undercoat). It also blasts all the dirt out of my geldings coat and leaves him looking shiny and just bathed even if he was filthy mud caked 30 minutes before. It's faster than a bath, and living in Indiana with a gets cold easily Arab, I don't like getting him wet unless I have to. It also works well to dry him off after a sweaty ride.

The noise freaked him out at first, but he tolerates pretty much anything given enough cookies. Now he doesn't really care at all.

[candysgirl]

I have standard poodles which spend quite a lot of time at the barn. You can just imagine how disgusting poodle fur gets during mud season. This week, apart from the usual mud up to their armpits, the boys came home from the barn stinking like dog urine. They had evidently stuck their heads under another dog's leg to sniff whatever he was peeing on while he was still peeing on it. Totally awesome. I now have shaggy, muddy, piss covered dogs who will want to snuggle with my Christmas house guests.

My dog groomer is kinda sorta thinking about firing me as a client. I can tell by the 2-3 week delay between when I call for an appointment and when she actually returns my call to book the appointment. (And no, she won't book my next appointment when I pick the dogs up.) I think the only reasons she does still return my calls are that I usually tip 100% of the actually grooming charge, and I'm totally ok with her shaving the dogs bald. Still, I expect her inner artist gets deeply offended at doing shave downs instead of proper fluffy poodle trims. (Although she might not need to do a shave down if we could maintain an actual grooming schedule.)

Last Christmas I treated myself to a high velocity dryer. Then I never got around to actually using it. Today, knowing there was no way I was going to get an appointment before Christmas with the offended artist dog groomer, I decided I was just going to have to h

See, I'd find a new groomer. I'd love a client like that. Lets me do what I need to do without complaint and tips!? Clients like that I tend to give preferential treatment to! I'll squeeze those dogs in just about anytime! Shaving down a SP is really not that time consuming!

[threedogpack]

I got a single motor Metro HVD probably 5 or 8 years ago. It is a God-Send for the Corgis. When I dry the dogs, I do it against the growth and you can see where the loose hair needs to come out as I can see down to their skin. I can't imagine having these dogs and not having the ability to do this!

[csaper58]

I also bathe and dry my dog at home. I use Ridgid 4 1/2 gallon wet/dry vac set on blower,with a crevice tool on the hose, to do the drying. It was less than $100.
www.ridgid.com

[carp]

See, I'd find a new groomer. I'd love a client like that. Lets me do what I need to do without complaint and tips!? Clients like that I tend to give preferential treatment to! I'll squeeze those dogs in just about anytime! Shaving down a SP is really not that time consuming!

The thought had crossed my mind. Unfortunately, my options are surprisingly limited considering the population density in my area. There's the offended artist's competitor across town -- she had a dog die under mysterious circumstances and then got hostile with the owner. There's the new age groomer one town over -- her helper informed me that my pure bred poodles were doodles and that I would ruin their retriever coats if I did a shave down. There's Petco & Petsmart-- no way; I'll go after the boys with clippers myself. There's a very good groomer near my barn. However, the shop is only open 8-5 on weekdays and 8-2 on Saturdays. It's also 40 minutes from my house and 60 minutes from my office, so it's not like I could drop them off on the way into work and pick them up on my lunch hour. I could perhaps drop them off after we go to the barn on Saturday mornings and go shopping for a couple hours while waiting.

[carp]

Really? I wonder if this is only on poodle hair. I have dogs that matt, and I have always done okay at keeping them dematted until I got this youngest one. It just seems like I can't brush and comb enough to keep the matts at bay.

I've got no experience with really long haired breeds like afghan hounds.

With my own pets, I find I don't get mats unless something acts as a seed. The usual seeds in my pets are:
1) Shedded undercoat gets stuck and can't work its way loose.
2) Grease and/or dirt causes the hairs to stick together.
3) The hair gets wet and goes curly, causing it to wrap around its neighbors.

I'd think the dryer would be pretty helpful getting rid of shedding hair. It would blow the loose hair right out of the coat.
My current boys are prone to a combination of 2 and 3. Without the dryer, I pretty much had to choose which problem I preferred. If I got the dogs wet, their coats would dry in tight little corkscrew curls which were impossible to get unmatted. If I left the dogs dirty, they were somewhat brushable but disgustingly stinky. With the dryer I can get the dogs wet and then blow the corkscrew mats open so they dry straight.

[Sithly]

I got a cheap HV dryer on Amazon. It was about $80, IIRC. Man, that thing makes a world of difference. It's not the most powerful dryer out there, but it dries my spoo in like 15 minutes, which is a huge improvement.

It also does a pretty adequate job of straightening while it dries, which works well enough for me since I don't do anything fancy with my grooming. Just a quick clip, shave face, feet, and sanitary, and scissor a pom pom in the tail if I'm feeling really ambitious.

Yeah, HV dryer: totally worth it. It pays for itself if you can skip a few pro grooms.

[crosscreeksh]

This thread makes me thankful for my Boxer and Boerboel, half "naked" dogs!! Even my Great Pyrennes doesn't snarl and knot like those dogs of the OP!! I think I'd shave them down!!

[carp]

This thread makes me thankful for my Boxer and Boerboel, half "naked" dogs!! Even my Great Pyrennes doesn't snarl and knot like those dogs of the OP!! I think I'd shave them down!!

I love the texture poodle coats have when they get their first buzz cut of summer. It looks and feels like crushed velvet. And the hair stays attached to the dog! It always amazes me how much hair the short haired breeds can shed. A few years ago I took a friend's Jack Russell x Beagle on an outing to the hardware store. Where does a half naked dog hid all that hair, and why aren't they fully naked at the rate they lose their hair? I'm STILL picking short white hairs out of my truck's upholstery.

[Sithly]

This thread makes me thankful for my Boxer and Boerboel, half "naked" dogs!! Even my Great Pyrennes doesn't snarl and knot like those dogs of the OP!! I think I'd shave them down!!

Totally worth it! Especially if they spend any time on your furniture. Or if you like to wear black ... ever.