November 7, 2025 • 11 mins
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
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:03):
Welcome to Tale Talk Grooming Chronicles with House
Therapy, the podcast where wetalk all things pet grooming,
daycare, academy, and more.
Hosted by Shannon and Tanya ofHouse Therapy, serving pet
owners across North Texas.
We're here to share expert tips,hilarious pet stories, and the
inside scoop on keeping yourfurry friends happy and healthy.
(00:27):
Our motto, humanity over vanity.
And don't worry, we don't fight.
Let's get started.
SPEAKER_01 (01:00):
Hi, ladies.
How's it going today?
It's great.
How are you today?
I'm doing great.
Now I am excited to have youboth back on today.
Let's go ahead and dive intothis one.
So, today's question Frompoodles to shepherds and all the
fur between, what are thebiggest grooming differences
between curly-coated anddouble-coated breeds to kick
(01:24):
things off?
SPEAKER_02 (01:25):
Curly coated is your doodle.
Let's start with that.
The curly coated part is it'sgot, yeah, your poodles, your
doodles.
It's literally their coats arecurly.
Some can be more tight.
Um, and and they need moreprofessional grooming.
They need to come into the salona whole lot more often.
Um, they need to be brushed on aregular daily basis.
Um, versus, say, GermanShepherd, which is a
(01:48):
double-coated breed.
And that is that's a dog thatyou can kind of brush, you know,
on the fly here and there.
They're gonna have seasonalneeds, like in the winter and
the summer.
Yeah, they're gonna call blowingtheir coat, but that undercoat
will come out.
So they only have they have twotypes.
They have their, it's not justone basic strand of hair.
(02:08):
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 rightdown from there to like so like
a bulldog or your dogs that justdon't have much hair at all.
Um bulldogs, vishlas, um, BostonTerriers, um, all of those kinds
of dogs, they those are the dogsthat you need to worry about
washing and protecting in theirfolds.
(02:30):
They're they're wrinkly,smushed-faced dogs.
Yeah, um, they don't have a lotof protection from the elements.
So you you need to to take verygood care of their skin.
Um, it's it's it's it's a lot.
So I would say that's the thethe the three basic types of of
pet coats that that you have tounderstand.
(02:52):
Um, how to take care of them areis a whole bigger uh is a whole
bigger issue.
Yep.
Uh um the single-coated breedsby far are the easiest.
And uh a myth there is that Ihave a lab.
A lab is a double-coated breed,um, and they shed.
And if you get this very cutelittle lab puppy, yeah, I love
(03:14):
lab puppies.
Um I you have more haireverywhere.
Um and then I have a Vishla thathas no extra hair, she has no
undercoat at all.
And I have, I actually bought avehicle that's the same color as
her, and my clothes match herbecause if I don't, that I'm
red.
I mean, as someone who has a laband a Vishla, I have more Vishla
(03:36):
hair around my house than actuallab hair.
So that can be very um, youknow, very, very misleading when
you look at an animal and youthink, oh, they have a very low
coat, so it's gonna be easier totake 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, youthink they don't shed,
(03:58):
especially a doodle.
They 100% do shed.
They have an undercoat, they maynot shed as much as the the
breeds we just mentioned, butdoodles and doodles have a coat
that you need to get, that deadhair needs to be removed.
Everybody sheds, even people.
SPEAKER_01 (04:14):
Now, how do you adjust your grooming approach
based on breed type?
Which dogs are the mostdifficult to groom?
SPEAKER_02 (04:25):
There's a there's not a dog that's more difficult
or less difficult.
I mean, this is kind of what wedo.
Um, but as far as the difficultyis going to be the longer
haired, curly-coated dogs.
They require um a lot of upfrontand back end work.
And what I mean by that is theback end is for us, we've got to
(04:47):
do a coat prep and then we'vegot to wash and dry, and then
we've got to prep the coatagain.
Uh, we don't want that coatlaying downwards.
We want it prepped up so thatit's fluffed and ready to groom
so that you get the fluffiest,good looking cut.
Yeah.
Uh, we want to straighten everyone of those curls out so that
it's an all-over even cut.
So that's definitely the mostinvolved work.
(05:09):
Um, the the least amount ofwork, but every much is is
needed as the double as the thecurly coated is the
double-coated breeds.
Um it's just, I would say mostof that double-coated is going
to be on the back end.
So that's a quick back brushnails, but we've got to work
really hard at getting to theskin on those dogs.
They have a lot of brushing.
(05:30):
Yeah, they have a that is laborintensive.
Um, it is literally, I mean, weare just pulling dead hair.
We will get sometimes as muchhair 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 yourPomeranians, your um, your your
(05:50):
little tiny dogs, and not justyour German shepherds and your
Akitas and you know, your labs,and it's it is a husky.
Uh, all of those things arevarious sizes.
Um, your little breeds that havejust as much double-coated
breed.
I I have a picture on ourwebsite of a Pomeranian that it
I he's sitting in, all you cansee is his hair, and everything
(06:13):
I've pulled out of him, it youcan'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 yourdog as well.
People don't realize that youhave a doodle that you want six
(06:34):
to seven inches of hair on.
That six or seven inches of hairhas to be brushed out.
Yeah.
And it has to be brushed outunder a low minimal heat of
drying and constantly and onthat table from very wet till
it's very dry.
Um, the double-coated breeds cantake a break in between because
we're not worried about preppingthat coat for an in-depth
(06:55):
finish.
We're more worried about gettingdown to the skin and then
pulling and removing the deadhair out.
So both require a lot of tabletime.
Uh, one requires more pullingand tugging, uh, where the other
is just it's about fluffing itup.
So it's using the right tools,making sure you don't brush
burn.
And it's it's just a lot of workon that dog.
(07:18):
Uh, for anybody that's had umeither, you know, like a color
correction, or you have reallylong hair, or you have really
curly thick hair, and you know,you only wash it once a week.
It's that every day for thesedogs.
SPEAKER_01 (07:30):
So, my other question for you is are there
any breeds that surprise youwith how much care they actually
need?
SPEAKER_02 (07:39):
Oh, yes.
I would say the breeds thatsurprise me the most are the
that we're gonna go with thelabs.
And honestly, yeah, cats.
I'm gonna go with with catsalways surprise me how much hair
I get out of a cat.
Um I agree.
I we do a lot of cat baths inhere, and I I expect it from the
(08:03):
dogs because you know, we dothem every day.
Um, but a cat that comes in thatlooks like it's got no hair, and
I'm thinking, oh, this is gonnabe so easy.
We're gonna do these nails,we're gonna give them a quick
bath, and then I brush for hoursand hours and hours on some of
the things.
You'll never get all that hairout.
And it's just crazy to me.
It's got, it's, it's, it is somuch hair on these cats.
(08:26):
Um, so I would say me beingsurprised, I would say coming
from the viewpoint of when youbuy a, you know, or you you get
a dog from the lab, uh, youknow, it that that you're not
expecting any kind of those labpit mixes, uh, that you're gonna
be shocked at how much hair wepull out.
Labs have that that's my numberone go-to.
(08:49):
Mine are westies.
Like they're shed a ton.
They shed a ton and they'recottony.
And a soft coat in Wheedon.
There, yeah, that's another onethat'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 thoseup and get them, they up quite a
bit.
(09:10):
So yeah, there's there's a lotof um deception going on with
with these dog breeds.
Uh, you know, they pop inlooking one way and when they
leave, you know, they I feellike they look neater and
cleaner, but I don't feel likethe owner genuinely appreciates
how much time and work andeffort that we took to do that
(09:31):
because they're not seeing thatwe don't bag up the hair and
give it to them, although weshould.
But it's it's really surprisingthat, you know, it's the dog
just looks so much better whenthey go home and you can feel
it.
You know, the huskies and thethey they know there's a lot of
hair there.
But I it without really actuallyseeing it, uh the the
(09:53):
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 herefor a bath.
Yeah, they they smell good, youknow, they look good, but you
can't really you don't see thewall in the back that's covered
with their hair.
I don't see how much work we'vedone.
My brushes at home, no lie, arefull of dog hair.
(10:16):
Like my hair brushes.
Mine are too.
For me just brushing my hairwhen I go home because I have so
much hair in them.
Yeah.
It weaves.
unknown (10:26):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (10:28):
Hopefully we've answered some of those
questions.
Yeah.
We've got a lot of dog blooperstoday, 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 (10:43):
Well, Shannon and Tanya, thanks for walking us
through the fur jungle withstyle, smarts, and a little
bloopers today, too.
SPEAKER_02 (10:53):
No problem.
We're we're here for the freebloopers.
SPEAKER_01 (10:58):
We'll catch you next time on Tale Talk Grooming
Chronicles with Hound Therapy.
SPEAKER_00 (11:07):
That's a wrap for this episode of Tale Talk with
Hound Therapy.
Ready to book your pet's nextgroom daycare stay or grooming
academy tour?
Call us at 469-367-0009.
That's 469-367-0009 to schedulean appointment or visit us
online at www.houndtherapy.com,serving North Texas with expert
(11:33):
pet care.
Until next time, keep thosetails whacked.
Welcome to Tale Talk Grooming Chronicles with House
Therapy, the podcast where wetalk all things pet grooming,
daycare, academy, and more.
Hosted by Shannon and Tanya ofHouse Therapy, serving pet
owners across North Texas.
We're here to share expert tips,hilarious pet stories, and the
inside scoop on keeping yourfurry friends happy and healthy.
(00:27):
Our motto, humanity over vanity.
And don't worry, we don't fight.
Let's get started.
SPEAKER_01 (01:00):
Hi, ladies.
How's it going today?
It's great.
How are you today?
I'm doing great.
Now I am excited to have youboth back on today.
Let's go ahead and dive intothis one.
So, today's question Frompoodles to shepherds and all the
fur between, what are thebiggest grooming differences
between curly-coated anddouble-coated breeds to kick
(01:24):
things off?
SPEAKER_02 (01:25):
Curly coated is your doodle.
Let's start with that.
The curly coated part is it'sgot, yeah, your poodles, your
doodles.
It's literally their coats arecurly.
Some can be more tight.
Um, and and they need moreprofessional grooming.
They need to come into the salona whole lot more often.
Um, they need to be brushed on aregular daily basis.
Um, versus, say, GermanShepherd, which is a
(01:48):
double-coated breed.
And that is that's a dog thatyou can kind of brush, you know,
on the fly here and there.
They're gonna have seasonalneeds, like in the winter and
the summer.
Yeah, they're gonna call blowingtheir coat, but that undercoat
will come out.
So they only have they have twotypes.
They have their, it's not justone basic strand of hair.
(02:08):
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 rightdown from there to like so like
a bulldog or your dogs that justdon't have much hair at all.
Um bulldogs, vishlas, um, BostonTerriers, um, all of those kinds
of dogs, they those are the dogsthat you need to worry about
washing and protecting in theirfolds.
(02:30):
They're they're wrinkly,smushed-faced dogs.
Yeah, um, they don't have a lotof protection from the elements.
So you you need to to take verygood care of their skin.
Um, it's it's it's it's a lot.
So I would say that's the thethe the three basic types of of
pet coats that that you have tounderstand.
(02:52):
Um, how to take care of them areis a whole bigger uh is a whole
bigger issue.
Yep.
Uh um the single-coated breedsby far are the easiest.
And uh a myth there is that Ihave a lab.
A lab is a double-coated breed,um, and they shed.
And if you get this very cutelittle lab puppy, yeah, I love
(03:14):
lab puppies.
Um I you have more haireverywhere.
Um and then I have a Vishla thathas no extra hair, she has no
undercoat at all.
And I have, I actually bought avehicle that's the same color as
her, and my clothes match herbecause if I don't, that I'm
red.
I mean, as someone who has a laband a Vishla, I have more Vishla
(03:36):
hair around my house than actuallab hair.
So that can be very um, youknow, very, very misleading when
you look at an animal and youthink, oh, they have a very low
coat, so it's gonna be easier totake 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, youthink they don't shed,
(03:58):
especially a doodle.
They 100% do shed.
They have an undercoat, they maynot shed as much as the the
breeds we just mentioned, butdoodles and doodles have a coat
that you need to get, that deadhair needs to be removed.
Everybody sheds, even people.
SPEAKER_01 (04:14):
Now, how do you adjust your grooming approach
based on breed type?
Which dogs are the mostdifficult to groom?
SPEAKER_02 (04:25):
There's a there's not a dog that's more difficult
or less difficult.
I mean, this is kind of what wedo.
Um, but as far as the difficultyis going to be the longer
haired, curly-coated dogs.
They require um a lot of upfrontand back end work.
And what I mean by that is theback end is for us, we've got to
(04:47):
do a coat prep and then we'vegot to wash and dry, and then
we've got to prep the coatagain.
Uh, we don't want that coatlaying downwards.
We want it prepped up so thatit's fluffed and ready to groom
so that you get the fluffiest,good looking cut.
Yeah.
Uh, we want to straighten everyone of those curls out so that
it's an all-over even cut.
So that's definitely the mostinvolved work.
(05:09):
Um, the the least amount ofwork, but every much is is
needed as the double as the thecurly coated is the
double-coated breeds.
Um it's just, I would say mostof that double-coated is going
to be on the back end.
So that's a quick back brushnails, but we've got to work
really hard at getting to theskin on those dogs.
They have a lot of brushing.
(05:30):
Yeah, they have a that is laborintensive.
Um, it is literally, I mean, weare just pulling dead hair.
We will get sometimes as muchhair 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 yourPomeranians, your um, your your
(05:50):
little tiny dogs, and not justyour German shepherds and your
Akitas and you know, your labs,and it's it is a husky.
Uh, all of those things arevarious sizes.
Um, your little breeds that havejust as much double-coated
breed.
I I have a picture on ourwebsite of a Pomeranian that it
I he's sitting in, all you cansee is his hair, and everything
(06:13):
I've pulled out of him, it youcan'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 yourdog as well.
People don't realize that youhave a doodle that you want six
(06:34):
to seven inches of hair on.
That six or seven inches of hairhas to be brushed out.
Yeah.
And it has to be brushed outunder a low minimal heat of
drying and constantly and onthat table from very wet till
it's very dry.
Um, the double-coated breeds cantake a break in between because
we're not worried about preppingthat coat for an in-depth
(06:55):
finish.
We're more worried about gettingdown to the skin and then
pulling and removing the deadhair out.
So both require a lot of tabletime.
Uh, one requires more pullingand tugging, uh, where the other
is just it's about fluffing itup.
So it's using the right tools,making sure you don't brush
burn.
And it's it's just a lot of workon that dog.
(07:18):
Uh, for anybody that's had umeither, you know, like a color
correction, or you have reallylong hair, or you have really
curly thick hair, and you know,you only wash it once a week.
It's that every day for thesedogs.
SPEAKER_01 (07:30):
So, my other question for you is are there
any breeds that surprise youwith how much care they actually
need?
SPEAKER_02 (07:39):
Oh, yes.
I would say the breeds thatsurprise me the most are the
that we're gonna go with thelabs.
And honestly, yeah, cats.
I'm gonna go with with catsalways surprise me how much hair
I get out of a cat.
Um I agree.
I we do a lot of cat baths inhere, and I I expect it from the
(08:03):
dogs because you know, we dothem every day.
Um, but a cat that comes in thatlooks like it's got no hair, and
I'm thinking, oh, this is gonnabe so easy.
We're gonna do these nails,we're gonna give them a quick
bath, and then I brush for hoursand hours and hours on some of
the things.
You'll never get all that hairout.
And it's just crazy to me.
It's got, it's, it's, it is somuch hair on these cats.
(08:26):
Um, so I would say me beingsurprised, I would say coming
from the viewpoint of when youbuy a, you know, or you you get
a dog from the lab, uh, youknow, it that that you're not
expecting any kind of those labpit mixes, uh, that you're gonna
be shocked at how much hair wepull out.
Labs have that that's my numberone go-to.
(08:49):
Mine are westies.
Like they're shed a ton.
They shed a ton and they'recottony.
And a soft coat in Wheedon.
There, yeah, that's another onethat'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 thoseup and get them, they up quite a
bit.
(09:10):
So yeah, there's there's a lotof um deception going on with
with these dog breeds.
Uh, you know, they pop inlooking one way and when they
leave, you know, they I feellike they look neater and
cleaner, but I don't feel likethe owner genuinely appreciates
how much time and work andeffort that we took to do that
(09:31):
because they're not seeing thatwe don't bag up the hair and
give it to them, although weshould.
But it's it's really surprisingthat, you know, it's the dog
just looks so much better whenthey go home and you can feel
it.
You know, the huskies and thethey they know there's a lot of
hair there.
But I it without really actuallyseeing it, uh the the
(09:53):
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 herefor a bath.
Yeah, they they smell good, youknow, they look good, but you
can't really you don't see thewall in the back that's covered
with their hair.
I don't see how much work we'vedone.
My brushes at home, no lie, arefull of dog hair.
(10:16):
Like my hair brushes.
Mine are too.
For me just brushing my hairwhen I go home because I have so
much hair in them.
Yeah.
It weaves.
unknown (10:26):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02 (10:28):
Hopefully we've answered some of those
questions.
Yeah.
We've got a lot of dog blooperstoday, 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 (10:43):
Well, Shannon and Tanya, thanks for walking us
through the fur jungle withstyle, smarts, and a little
bloopers today, too.
SPEAKER_02 (10:53):
No problem.
We're we're here for the freebloopers.
SPEAKER_01 (10:58):
We'll catch you next time on Tale Talk Grooming
Chronicles with Hound Therapy.
SPEAKER_00 (11:07):
That's a wrap for this episode of Tale Talk with
Hound Therapy.
Ready to book your pet's nextgroom daycare stay or grooming
academy tour?
Call us at 469-367-0009.
That's 469-367-0009 to schedulean appointment or visit us
online at www.houndtherapy.com,serving North Texas with expert
(11:33):
pet care.
Until next time, keep thosetails whacked.
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