When And How To Start Grooming a Goldendoodle Puppy
New doodle families often ask when they should start grooming their goldendoodle puppy. While we’re not grooming experts, we can share what we do with our goldendoodle pups, along with feedback we’ve gotten from our doodle families. If you have any tips that we could share with our Rainfield Goldendoodle family, please contacct us through Rainfield Facebook page or at my email at laurie@rainfieldgoldendoodles.com.
Goldendoodle Puppies at 8-10 weeks old. Their coats are fluffy and getting thicker. The pup in the middle will be the first to need the hair around his eyes trimmed.
*Note: We are including some links and recommendations for products we use. We are not being paid or compensated to advertise these. These are just items we have research and added to our grooming set up.
What Type of Goldendoodle Do You Have and What Is Their Coat Type?
Here at Rainfield, we have puppies whose coats range from quite curly (our F1bb or some F1b puppies) to shaggy wavy coats (our F1s and some F1bs). Goldendoodles take a couple years to get their full and final coats, so their coats will change and transition during those first two years. They usually start off pretty fluffy with baby fuzz underneath. Gradually the curlier doodles get more of a curly, poodle-like coat, although usually with looser curls that a poodle. The shaggy wavy coated doodles, get a longer, fuller, straighter coat, often with a little curl in it. In our experience, curlier goldendoodles need their first actual grooming experience a little earlier (3-4 monhs old) than the shaggy wavy doodles (5-6 months).
Two different coat types. Marcus (the Great) is an F1 doodle and has a shaggy, wavy coat. Princess Neely is an F1b Mini Goldendoodle puppy. She has a beautiful curly coat.
Get Your Puppy Started with Weekly Grooming Maintenance
Regardless of the coat type, before you start full-on grooming a goldendoodle puppy,they need to get used to regular brushings and the sounds of the grooming table (blowers, clippers, etc.). Go ahead and blow dry them a little bit after each bath. If you have clippers or beard trimmers, turn on the clippers and let your goldendoodle get used to the sound. Bring the clippers close to their fur in different places, their head, legs, feet. Don’t overdo it and if they’re nervous, slow down. Give your doodles dog treats while the blower or clippers are going so your doodle develops a positive association with those sounds.
Brushing your goldendoodle puppy at least once a week is very important. Those fuzzy, soft doodle puppy coats tend to get little mats that aren’t always visible, but left alone will grow and get worse and eventually lead to a groomer having to “poodle your doodle” by giving them a short buzz cut or shave. By brushing out those early mats, you can hopefully keep your doodles coat a little longer — if that’s that look you love. We use a steel comb and/or mat raker as needed.
Starting With an Eye, Ear and Sanitary Trim
Goldendoodle puppies are so adorable and funny. Their long hair becomes part of their doodle personality and you don’t want to lose that by grooming them too early. The earliest grooming a goldendoodle puppy needs is often an eye, ear and sanitary trim. When their hair starts getting in their eyes, or fuzzing out their ears, and when poop residue starts clinging to their fur near their butt, your doodle is ready for their first light grooming.
Amber is a 5 month old F1 Goldendoodle Puppy. She’s got a beautiful coat, but it has started to look messy, especially around the face.
With our puppies that often happens at about 12-16 weeks of age. You can either take them to the groomer to get this done, or, if you are more of a DIYer like we are, you can do this at home. A little trim around the eyes, a light buzz on the inside of the ears with a small trimmer like this one and some scissor clipping around their potty areas might be enough to tide you over until their coat is thick enough for their first official grooming . Just be careful because doodles can be bouncy. You don’t want to injure their eyes. We use safety tip grooming scissors that have rounded ends for the areas around their face.
Time to Schedule Your Doodle’s First Major Grooming
At 5 months old, Amber’s thick coat is growing in beautifully. A scissor clip will even her coat out a bit. With that nice coat, we want her to be used to regular grooming and the grooming table as well.
And finally, when your doodle starts looking too messy, it’s time for your doodle’s first grooming experience at the groomers or at your home grooming station. Our doodles seem to need their first grooming at about 5 months old, but puppies with an especially thick, full coat, may need it sooner. Puppies with thinner coats, may be able to go longer than that. It’s your call.
We do most of our own grooming, when possible. We prefer the longer, shaggier look on our goldendoodles, so we prefer to start with scissor clipping when grooming a goldendoodle puppy. If the puppy’s coat has too many mats that can’t be raked out using a mat raker, you may need to be give them a closer cut or shave. If your puppy is very matted, it’s best to get professional help as you can cut or injure your dog if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Scissor clipping is all Amber needs for now. A grooming table makes all the difference. We use the large Flying Pig Brand. Grooming a goldendoodle puppy takes skill, but Violet (16) has learned her grooming techniques by watching Youtube videos. Amber feels good and looks so much cleaner and neater after getting all that puppy fuzz off.
Caring for Your Goldendoodle Puppy’s Ears
Goldendoodles have long, beautiful, floppy ears. Dogs with long ears can have more ear trouble as the hair grows and gets trapped in their ears. Once this happens, moisture is retained and yeast and other bacteria can become a problem. Excessive yeast in a dog’s ear can lead to ear infections if clean ears are not maintained.
Part of your weekly grooming maintenance should be checking their ears and using an ear wash. We use Zymox Otic and use that for 3 or 4 days. However, if your dogs seems in pain or it doesn’t clear up within a few daus, schedule an appointment with your vet as they may have an ear infection and need some antibiotics.
Brownie has those long, floppy doodle ears that need regular cleanings to keep yeast growth at bay.
Hats Off to Our Wonderful Goldendoodle Service Dogs
While we are so proud of all of our sweet goldendoodle puppies, our doodles that go on to get more specialized training and become Goldendoodle service dogs have a special place in our hearts. We love hearing about our pooches who go on to become therapy dogs, school dogs, companion dogs for special needs children and adolescents, medical alert dogs and more advanced service dogs. These wonderful dogs, together with their new families, go above and beyond spending hours, days, weeks and months in special training and courses to become service dogs. Hats off to families who work so hard to unleash every last bit of potential these wonderful dogs have.
Service Dog Spotlight 2022
These are just a few of the latest Rainfield Goldendoodle Service Dogs. We know there are many more. Goldendoodle make such wonderful companions, but one of their best qualities is their empathy and ability to sense when their mommies, daddies, brother and sisters need a friend or have a special need. Keep up the good work! If you are thinking about training your doodle for special jobs, we encourage you to go for it. Goldendoodle are so smart and they do love learning and reaching their full potential.
Rudder is a Rainfield pup in Service Dog training. He’s coming right along. They really do learn fast and love having a job. Doodles have such big heartsDoodles are just wonderful family members and so good with kids. Robert, a Veteran, recently was gifted one of our Doodles for his new service dog. She looks like she’s coming right along. Thanks Maya for sharing such a beautiful puppy.Service Dog in Training – Thank you, Home Depot, for your dog friendly policiesFreddy just earned his Canine Good Citizen Certificate at the Petsmart Training Center. He’s got everything he needs to start therapy dog training.The little blue ribbon represents a lot of hard work by both Mama and Freddie. Thank you, Helen and Freddie, for going above and beyond to give a little of that doodle love to those in need.
Are You Planning to Train Your Goldendoodle as a Service Dog?
If you are planning to enroll your goldendoodle puppy in specialized training to become a service dog, therapy dog, companion animal for special needs individuals, a medical alert dog, PTSD dog, etc., let us know when it comes time to pick out your puppy. We can keep that in mind when we evaluate their temperments and let you know which pups may have the best temperment for that type of work.
Little Frankie is an F1b Goldendoodle who lives in the Dallas area. He just turned a year old, but we and his mommy, Helen, are very proud of him. He just earned his Canine Good Citizen Certificate after finishing his last course at the Petsmart Training Center. Getting a CGC is the first major milestone towards becoming a therapy dog. That wasn’t easy and Frankie’s a little pooped at the moment, but the next step, Therapy Dog Training.
Good job, Helen and Frankie! Helen has big plans for this sweetheart and plans to include him in her therapy work in the near future. Keep us posted on the progress.
High Paw, little guy! Keep up the good work!
Goldendoodles Love and Need Dog Training
Even if you don’t plan to go as far as Frankie with his therapy dog training, we definitely recommend getting your goldendoodle puppy into some form of training as soon as they are old enough. If you prefer remote classes, there are affordable online courses, like Baxter and Bella or Zach George’s one month course, or in-person classes.
If you’d like recommendations from our Rainfield alumni, give us a shout and we’ll put out the word. Whatever you do though, please do make the most of these very smart puppies. Goldendoodles are highly intelligent, intuitive dogs who love to learn and enjoy life with their families. A little training makes a world of difference! Enjoy!
Frankie’s Got Siblings Coming Soon!
We are expecting new puppies in mid-June, including some Frankie siblings. If you are looking for a late-summer goldendoodle puppy in the Houston area, get in touch today get in touch with us today either on our Facebook page, by email at laurie@rainfieldgoldendoodles.com or by phone at 832-971-4649.
Are you Looking for Crate Trained Goldendoodle Puppies?
We often get asked if we have crate trained goldendoodles puppies and what new doodle owners can expect. The short answer is, yes, crate and potty training is going well and your new doodle already has some other training as well! As small breeders who home raise our goldendoodle puppies, we are always finding new ways to give our/your new goldendoodle puppy the best possible start by crate training, potty training, teaching basic manners and more. Getting a new puppy is a big step, but there are a few things that we feel make it easier to introdue a new puppy into your home. We’ll go over a few of those steps here.
This little boy has learned the place command using a dog cot
Puppies have started potty training, but need reinforcement and constant oversight
Your new goldendoodle puppy is making good progress towards potty training, however, it’s important that you reinforce it by continuing to crate train your pup and following a good schedule. Puppies under a year old should kept in a crate or a playyard when unsupervised to prevent potty accidents, but also to keep them safe and keep your home undamaged. A puppy under a year old is not reliable, no matter how sweet, well-behaved and potty trained they are. Puppies under a year of age may look full grown, but they tend to get those funny ideas to chew your favorite shoes, baseboards, chair legs and so on when bored and left to their own devices.
Playyards are a great way to give your puppy more room to play while keeping them contained. Food, water and a potty area are provided.
Your goldendoodle puppy sleeps through the night in a dog crate.
By the time our puppies go to their new homes at between 8 and 12 weeks of age, your new goldendoodle puppy is generally sleeping through the night in a dog crate. Dogs naturally try to keep their sleeping areas clean, so that night time crate training goldendoodle puppies is an important first step to potty training. If the pups are just 8 weeks old, they have been sleeping with their litter mates, so they may have an adjustment period the first night or two. It’s important to not take them out during the night and to let them learn to settle or else they will quickly learn that whining and barking in the middle of the night is much more fun than settling down to sleep.
Little Rudy just woke up from a nap and is ready to go out to potty
Puppies are eating dry kibble
We start our puppies on dry dog kibble at around 6 weeks old, so by 8 weeks of age, they are generally eating their dry food pretty well. We do suggest that you talk to your vet and determine which dog food they recommend. It should be a high quality dog food that is specifically made for puppies. Once you choose your new dog food, you can start trasitioning your puppy to the new food.
Your doodle pup has their first shots and parasite treatment
Your new puppy has their first of three puppy vaccines. Puppies need a series of three to be fully vaccinated against parvo and other canine illnesses, so you will need to keep them at home or away from places where sick or unvaccinated dogs may have been, such as parks, sidewalks, grassy dog areas, etc. If you take them shopping at pet-friendly stores, keep them in the shopping cart until they’re fully vaccinated.
Doodle puppies all seem to love their first vet visits — or they love all the attention they get from vet and staff
We Have Started Teaching Some Basic Commends and Early Training
Kenny was the smartest little guy. He caught on to everything so quickly.
Your young goldendoodle is smart and learns very quickly. The earlier they are introduced to training concepts, the quicker they catch on to what you are trying to teach them. So before your puppy leaves our home we like to teach them to “Watch Me,” (pay attention), mand (to sit using a hand motion) and to sit before being petted. Any puppies that we have that are older than 8 weeks may also have started learning “Place” on a dog cot, “Settle” and “Go Potty” to teach them to do their business quickly when put outside.
When you pick up your new goldendoodle puppy, we will spend a little time to show you what your puppy is learning and how to keep it up. We will also give you a copy of our schedule that we have the puppies on. You are free to adjust it to your own, but it’s important that when potty and crate training goldendoodle puppies that you do have a good schedule in place.
8 week old doodle puppies know that “Settle” and ‘Place” means treats.
We hope that gives you a little more confidence in adding a new puppy to your home. We know it’s a big decision, but we feel it is so worth it. Goldendoodles are such wonderful dogs, inside and out. Our goldendoodles have added so much to our family, we want to share the love.
Goldendoodle Puppies Available Now?
Little Honey with her new mama
If you would like to add one of these beautiful goldendoodle puppies to your home, call or text Laurie at 281-235-3272, or email laurie@rainfieldgoldendoodles.com. At the moment, we have a beautiful, smart and very sweet litter of cream and apricot F1 Goldendoodle puppies. To find out more specifics about our current pups, click here. We also are expecting another litter later this summer. To see more examples of our grown doodles and puppies with their families, you can visit our Rainfield Goldendoodles Facebook or Instagram.
F1 Cream and Apricot Goldendoodle Puppies Available Now
So the big day is right around the corner. Any day now you’ll be bringing your new goldendoodle puppy home for the first time. Are you ready? We often get questions from new families on how to prepare for the big day and what our recommendations are to make those first days, weeks or months just a little bit easier. Here are our Top 10 Tips To Prep for a New Goldendoodle Puppy.
Bringing a new puppy home is exciting, but a little preparation can mean a lot less stress and easier transition for you, puppy and everyone involved. During the 8 to 10 weeks of your doodle pup’s life we get them started on basic manners and early traninig. Puppies learn and pick things up very quickly, so a little bit of training can go a long way to getting them off to a good start. By the time they go to your home they have started crate training, potty training, have been expected to sit to be petted or picked up and more. In this post we’ll go over our recommended set up. This is based on what we use in our home for the puppies, but also for new puppies that join our families.
Tip #1 – Crating Your New Goldendoodle Puppy
Crating your new puppy is very important both to potty training, but also for your new puppy’s safety. When you get an 8 week old puppy, it’s like getting a toddler in your home. They need to be watched or kept in a safe place unless they are being overseen. An unsupervisored puppy can chew or eat things that are dangerous or expenisve. Potty training is much harder if they are not contained while they are learning.
We crate our puppies at night, but also for brief periods of an hour or two throughout the day. If they are in the playyard, day time crating is not as essential, but you do want them to look at their crate as their bed and THEIR safe place. You need to close the crate door at night, but during the day if the crate is in a playyard, you can leave it open for them to come and go.
If you are not using a play yard, you can crate your puppy for a few hours at a time. They will need to be taken out to do their business and to run around. This set up works well if you work from home or are home pretty much full time.
Tip #2 – Using a Puppy Play Yard
Our recommended set up for the first couple months with your new goldendoodle puppy.
If you need to leave your puppy at home for stretches longer than a couple hours, or your work outside the home and plan to come home at lunch to let the puppy out, a play yard will give you more flexibility to leave your pup alone for a little longer while still contained. You can put a smaller crate inside the playyard, or just put a good bed in one corner. Their food and water can be out, and you can have some sort of pee pad in the corner or a litter box. We start training our puppies to use a litter box at about 3 weeks old, so they are generally pretty good by the time they go to their new homes. A pet gate where you puppy is contained in a safe area of your home can work too, but be sure there is nothing your puppy can chew on or damage if they get bored while you’re gone.
You also want to be aware of how your goldendoodle puppy is growing and changing as some learn to jump out of the crate at an earlier age than others which means you either need to try to train them not to jump out, or move on to new methods.
Tip #3 – Chew Toys and More
Your puppy will sleep a lot, so they don’t need to be constantly entertained while in their crate or play yard, but having some good chew toys or meaty bones can give them something to do to keep them busy. We do not recommend cow raw hides as they are not digestible and can cause intestinal blockages, but pig raw hides are fine. Filled cow hooves are a favorite — anything that will take a little time to work through. Just be sure to mix it up every so often..
Tip #4 – Should You Use Puppy Pee Pads, a Litter Box or Astro Turf?
If you plan to contain your puppy using either a pet gate or a puppy play yard, having a potty area can help keep things clean in between outdoor potty times. Puppy pads are great –as long as the puppies don’t chew them. The plastic isn’t good for their tummies. We use a litter pan or box with pine pellet type litter or pelletized horse bedding. There are different types of litter boxes, but your want something with a little depth and that is durable and not too expensive as puppies sometimes will chew it up a little if they’re bored. For older puppies, we like the smaller/medium mortar mixing tubs from Home Depot. Of course this should not take the place of taking your dog outside regularly so they get to doing their business in their outside potty area, but if you have to leave them for 3-5 hours or if it’s a rainy, cold day when it’s hard to take them out, having a potty area will keep their area cleaner.
Astro Turf or artificial grass is another option. We’ve had some families use astro turf on their patio, especially those who live in apartments. You probably don’t want to use this for a large, full grown dog, but with a puppy, you often need to get them out quick in the mornings, so having a potty area close by is helpful. Just be sure to either get the cheaper variety from Home Depot that that you can cut into smaller pieces and throw out when it’s soiled, or have a way to keep it clean so it doesn’t breed bacteria or get too smelly.
Tip #5 — Introducing your Puppy to Young Children or Older Pets
Using a chew toy to teach puppies not to bite our mouth us
The playyard option, a gated area or just plain old crating is really important if you are bringing your new goldendoodle puppy into a home with smaller children or older pets. Puppies are very playful, but they have sharp little teeth and need to learn to respect your child or older pet’s space. So do go slow and do introduce them, but don’t give your new puppy run of the house too soon. Take it slow and keep an eye on how interactions are going and be aware if a break is needed either for the puppy or the child or older pet.
Tip #6 — Constant supervision
Puppies, even those that don’t LOOK like puppies anymore, which to us means a puppy that is under one year of age, can’t be trusted on their own. They are teething, exploring and curious about the world around them. We recommend you keep your goldendoodle puppy contantly supervised until they are a year old. With our dogs, we keep them crated at night or when we are not at home until they are a year old and then we see how they do and ease up gradually.
Tip #7 – Start an Online Training Course
We like to start our puppies on early training exercises and get them used to simple commands like, “Watch me” or “Look”, “Leave it” etc., but, as you will soon discover, puppies learn in stages and it’s a process. One day they’ll be doing so good on the training your giving them. and the next they go through a new stage and seem to have forgotten everything they learn. Be patient. Your efforts to train your puppy will pay off if you stay consistent and keep at it. We recommend starting your new goldendoodle puppy on their training right away. If they have not had all three of their puppy shots yet, they are not ready to attend classes with other dogs, but you can still start their training by using an online training course such as the one month Pupford Course by Zak George, or The Baxter and Bella Training Course. The Pupford Course is free, Baxter and Bella offer a lifetime membership for a reasonable price. You can use our Rainfield Coupon of RAINFIELD25 to get 25% off the Baxter and Bella dog training course. What we like about the Baxter and Bella option is that if you run into a particular problem, say, your puppy is excitement peeing, or resource guarding, etc, you can do a Zoom call with the B&B team and they can see what your puppy is doing, how you are handling it and give you specific instruction on how to deal with that issue.
One your puppy is old enough, you also have the option of taking them out to an outside training course with other dogs, but just make sure you have the go-ahead from your vet.
Tip # 8 Use a Dog Crate Cover
Wire dog crates are our personal favorite. They are light weight, yet sturdy and look pretty good alongside other furniture. If you notice that your puppy is doing a lot of barking though when they see you or other pets or children going about your daily activities and you’re not in a position to let them out right then, go ahead an cover up the crate and it should help them to calm and quiet down.
The same goes for night time. We recommend having your goldendoodle puppy’s crate somewhere quiet and dark, maybe the laundry room or your bedroom, but if they have trouble settling down for the night, go ahead an cover up their crate and make sure it’s dark. We like to put on some night sounds or white noise on our Alexa or Google Home at night.
Tip #9 – Using a Dog Cot
Dog cots are a lightweight, mesh type raised platform that keeps your goldendoodle puppy off the ground. Our dogs love theirs and we go through several of them a year once they wear out. Dog cots are low cost, but pretty durable for the amount of use they get. We love our dog cot for teaching our goldendoodle puppies the “place” and “stay” commands.
Tip #10 Hands Free Leashes for Tethering
One way we have found to intergrate our older puppies into our home life while still keeping them supervised is to use a hands free dog leash or a tethering leash. A hands free tethering dog leash fastens around your waist and limits how far the puppy can go allowing you to keep a close eye on them, but frees up your hands so you can cook, do laundry, etc. If they are tethered to you, you are more likely to notice when they do something they shouldn’t, such as chew on the furniture, and can correct and train them on the spot.
Want to know if we have a goldendoodle puppy available?
If you’d like to know if we have a Rainfield goldendoodle puppy available, contacts us at laurie@rainfieldgoldendoodles.com or by phone or text at 281-235-3272. You can also click here to find out How to Get a Goldendoodle Puppy, including current pricing, .
Are you looking to adopt an F1b goldendoodle puppy this holiday season? These cuties are standard size and are going to be curly and cute! We’ve got apricot, reddish apricots, parti-colored and black available.
Coco has been so very good this year!
Although you’d never know it at 3 weeks old, once their fuller coats come in, they should have beautiful, curlier coats. The curlier coated doodles tend to be more hypo-allergenic because they tend to shed less. If anyone in your family suffers from allergies, an F1b is probably the better bet. These F1b goldendoodle puppies will range in weight from 45-65 lbs, so they will be fairly standard size goldendoodles.
When I can pick out my puppy?
Aren’t they perfect little doodle angels?
We allow families who have deposits down on one of our puppies to choose their puppy at about 5 or 6 weeks old. These pups will be ready to be chosen right before Christmas. We do our puppy picks either in-person or by photos and video clips, depending on availability and scheduling.
When are the puppies ready to go home?
Poppy and Buddy get their love of comfort and coziness from their poodle ancestors
Our puppies are ready to go home starting at around 8 weeks. For these pups, their go-home date should be around or shortly after New Years. We send you a letter ahead of the pick up date explaining their schedules, what we’re doing with their potty training and giving you a list of recommended items to have ready before pick up, including what sized crate, etc.
How do I get on the list?
Batman is just chilling. He loves these beautiful autumn days.
To get on our list to adopt an F1b goldendoodle puppy from this litter, you will need to put down a deposit of $250. We confirm what pick you have once we receive your deposit. Please let us know if you want a male or a female at the time of making your deposit. We accept Zelle, Paypal, check or cash. To get the process started please call us at 281-235-3272 or email laurie@rainfieldgoldendoodles.com. We also have a Rainfield Goldendoodles Facebook page. We like to share updates and pictures of our Rainfield doodles, so you can see examples of our full-grown dogs. You can also message us through Facebook.
How much are these puppies?
Our standard F1b goldendoodle puppies are $1850. The $250 deposit gets applied to the total price. The balance is due when you pick up your puppy. For more information on how to adopt an F1b Goldendoodle puppy, please check our 10-Steps to Buying a Puppy.
What You can Expect When Getting One of our Puppies
Elfie won’t always be this little
We often get asked if there anything special to know about our doodle puppies when they go to their new homes, and the answer is, “Yes!”
First of all, we will have started crate training your puppy. We recommend all of our puppies be crated or kept in a playyard like this one when unsupervised for the first year to keep them out of trouble and to make potty training easier.
Speaking of potty-training, we have started our F1b goldendoodle puppies on early potty training and will give you tips on how to continue it once they go to their new homes.
Our puppies love their vet check ups
All our puppies have had their parasite and worm treatments every two weeks and their first set of shots before going home. All puppies are susceptible to parvo though at this early age, so we do ask that you keep your puppy away from areas with high pet traffic or where sick dogs may have been, including dog parks, side walks, pet stores, etc. They need a series of three shots at three week intervals, so although they’ve had their first shot, you will need to be careful with them until about 14-16 weeks of age when they are fully vaccinated.
Your puppy will have been seen by our vet to ensure that they are in good overall health, but please take your puppy to your new vet within the first 72 hours of picking them up.
