# Time for 1st haircut?



## LouAnn (Dec 28, 2011)

What is the best age for a Havanese pup's first haircut? Maggie is 4-1/2 months and her hair is about 4" long. I groom different areas everyday and so far no problem with any impossible matting. She's scheduled to be spayed in a month and I read somewhere that could accelerate her blowing coat. Would it be better to have her trimmed by a groomer before this happens or wait until it's out of my control?


----------



## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

What do you want to do?

Make sure you do lots of research in how you want it cut. Don't say a puppy cut because it means different grooms to many groomers. And, remember hair grows. 

If I had to do it all over again, I would keep by boys in a 1-2 inch groom. My opinion...stress brings on matting.


----------



## davetgabby (Dec 29, 2007)

Welcome LouAnn . What a cute girl.


----------



## atsilvers27 (Jul 5, 2011)

If you are going to have a groomer groom her, I suggest you find a gentle groomer and bring her in asap just to trim eyes/bangs, pads and sanitary. She needs to understand from a young age that grooming is part of her life and she just needs to accept it. This is an easier task with a young puppy vs older puppy. A good first trip is important, so pick your groomer carefully. If you wait until later down the road, esp. with blowing coat and matting, you are risking having her shaved, and shaving a nearly grown, matted, scared puppy is absolutely the worst first step to a positive grooming experience IMHO. I've seen too many first-time puppies comming in at 7-12 months matted and having to be shaved. It's just too much to put a young dog through, the best approach is early, a little bit and often, with positive-reinforcement work at home. Many salons accept puppies as young as 2 months and I recommend a trip every month to get them used to everything. Early mornings are usually the quietest and cleanest times. Don't be afraid to ask for a gentle groomer, or just observe from a distance if there's a window. Sometimes dogs don't behave for grooming or are just downright bad, so just because there's a dog flipping out for a groomer doesn't usually reflect on the groomer, but you have to observe how the groomer is handling that difficult dog.


----------



## Suzi (Oct 27, 2010)

If you don't like grooming I would just get it trimmed. Other wise if you think you have the time to keep it under control before she gets mats is the best way to go. It is a lot of work at least it is for me. Maddie has short hair and it takes me about an hour from start to finish. Zoey takes about two hr just to comb out. I don't do it every day like I should. I usually try to get to it at least twice a week. When she was blowing coat it would take me about 4 hours and then the next day another 2 I probably spent at least 10 hr a week grooming during her coat change. 
My boy friend took Maddie in to be groomed with out asking me I was so mad . I did learn to like it except for the sanitary trim I absolutely hated looking at her behind. She had such a cute back end and the buzz they did on her was way to much so be careful and ask what their sanitary trims consist of.


----------



## morriscsps (Aug 17, 2010)

atsilvers27 said:


> If you are going to have a groomer groom her, I suggest you find a gentle groomer and bring her in asap just to trim eyes/bangs, pads and sanitary. She needs to understand from a young age that grooming is part of her life and she just needs to accept it. This is an easier task with a young puppy vs older puppy. A good first trip is important, so pick your groomer carefully.


I agree. Book an 'introduction to grooming' appointment. Just bath, dry and clean-up of paws and bum. Most groomers are thrilled to ease a puppy into things. Make sure to bring the high reward treats.


----------



## atsilvers27 (Jul 5, 2011)

Suzi said:


> If you don't like grooming I would just get it trimmed. Other wise if you think you have the time to keep it under control before she gets mats is the best way to go. It is a lot of work at least it is for me. Maddie has short hair and it takes me about an hour from start to finish. Zoey takes about two hr just to comb out. I don't do it every day like I should. I usually try to get to it at least twice a week. When she was blowing coat it would take me about 4 hours and then the next day another 2 I probably spent at least 10 hr a week grooming during her coat change.
> My boy friend took Maddie in to be groomed with out asking me I was so mad . I did learn to like it except for the sanitary trim I absolutely hated looking at her behind. She had such a cute back end and the buzz they did on her was way to much so be careful and ask what their sanitary trims consist of.


It depends on if you are going to do all/almost all of the grooming yourself or if you are going to have a professional groomer groom the dog. If going to a groomer, the dog will need to learn how to accept the groom so she doesn't get "banned" from salons for being too difficult or scared. Not that it would for sure happen, but the chances of good grooming experiences are better starting early an often rather than too late and too traumatizing.

Suzi, I know what you mean about how difficult it is to brush out a blowing coat if I neglect to stay on top of it every day. Last night I was up until very late because I just didn't get around to it so I and my dog paid the price of enduring 4 hrs of brushing, AND I STILL don't have her combed all the way out completely! I've learned my lesson and will not let it get to that point again. I really have to be good about brushing her out EVERY DAY so it doesn't snowball. To comb her out if I am staying on top of it (which is a majority of the time, there've been a few slip-ups) takes me about 15 minutes. That is where we run into problems if I only brushed her every couple of days, like I just did at this most recent stretch, I would be spending HOURS at it every time. So daily brushouts if we can muster the time and engergy is so much easier than letting it go and then having to deal with a monster problem.


----------



## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

atsilvers27 said:


> Suzi, I know what you mean about how difficult it is to brush out a blowing coat if I neglect to stay on top of it every day. Last night I was up until very late because I just didn't get around to it so I and my dog paid the price of enduring 4 hrs of brushing, AND I STILL don't have her combed all the way out completely! I've learned my lesson and will not let it get to that point again. I really have to be good about brushing her out EVERY DAY so it doesn't snowball. To comb her out if I am staying on top of it (which is a majority of the time, there've been a few slip-ups) takes me about 15 minutes. That is where we run into problems if I only brushed her every couple of days, like I just did at this most recent stretch, I would be spending HOURS at it every time. So daily brushouts if we can muster the time and engergy is so much easier than letting it go and then having to deal with a monster problem.


I couldn't agree more. In fact, when Kodi was blowing coat, I found that I spent the LEAST time grooming if I 1. kept him REALLY clean, meaning baths every 5 days or so, and 2, on top of our morning, thorough grooming, I MADE sure to go over him every night before bed to make sure he didn't have any mats. I found that if he slept on a small mat, he woke up with a MONSTER mat that would take MUCH longer to remove than if I had taken 10 minutes to go over him in the evening.

It DOES get better (as long as you don't have a curly/cottony coated dog)... Now that Kodi's coat is mature, it only takes about 10 minutes to groom him completely... another couple of minutes if I put his bangs up. I can even skip a day or two here or there without it being much of a problem. And bathing every week to 10 days is plenty.


----------



## LouAnn (Dec 28, 2011)

Thanks for the replies to my question. I've learned a lot about grooming on this forum, but just wasn't sure about getting Maggie's hair cut while she was still a puppy. We took her to Petsmart for a bath and trim about a month ago.....they did a very good job, but since she gets carsick, we've been trying to do it at home. (more about the carsickness in another post). The trainer at puppy kindergarten told us to only bathe her once a month......well, that wasn't a good idea. Even with daily grooming and wipedowns, 3 weeks was too long a wait and her coat was starting to look dull and grungy. So.....I'm worrying about her upcoming spay and recovery time......might be easier to have her 4" hair cut down to about 2"?


----------



## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

LouAnn said:


> Thanks for the replies to my question. I've learned a lot about grooming on this forum, but just wasn't sure about getting Maggie's hair cut while she was still a puppy. We took her to Petsmart for a bath and trim about a month ago.....they did a very good job, but since she gets carsick, we've been trying to do it at home. (more about the carsickness in another post). The trainer at puppy kindergarten told us to only bathe her once a month......well, that wasn't a good idea. Even with daily grooming and wipedowns, 3 weeks was too long a wait and her coat was starting to look dull and grungy. So.....I'm worrying about her upcoming spay and recovery time......might be easier to have her 4" hair cut down to about 2"?


The trainer clear didn't know anything about Havanese coats.<g>

As far as the length of her coat when you spay her, plenty of people leave their girls in long coast when they are spayed. So the length of her coat is COMPLETELY a matter of personal preference! Do what feels right to you. Whatever you do, hair grows back!


----------

