By Brittney Valle
Louie is a one–year–old Cavalier Poodle mix, commonly referred to as a “Cavapoo.” In modern salons, you will encounter every possible version of an “oodle” or “poo” mix possible, but the Cockapoos and Cavapoos often get overshadowed by their much larger and more daunting cousin (insert shriek here), THE DOODLE. Louie’s haircut highlights a lower maintenance, easy to complete style for many different versions of “oodles”.
Fig 1) After prepping Louie, his haircut begins with a snap–on comb to set the length of his coat on his body. I used a 0 or yellow comb to set a medium to short length of coat.
Fig 2) Clip down the sides of the thigh muscle and the back of the rear leg down the bend. Leave coat from the hock down, as well as a fringe on the front of the back leg.
Fig 3) Clip down the shoulder and skim off at the elbow.
Fig 4) Pick up the rear foot to trim the back of the foot.
Fig 5) Then return the foot to table to round it.
Fig 6) Scissor inside and outside of the rear legs to create parallel lines when viewed from the rear. This is a great place to hide any structural faults with hair and correct crooked legs as well.
Fig 7) Round the front feet with the foot on the table, beginning at the toenails and curving around the paw.
Fig 8) A lot of the “oodles” have soft, unforgiving coats. When dealing with a coat like Louie’s, I like to finish the body work with a chunker. I find this leaves a better finish in a shorter amount of time.
Fig 9) Begin the head by thinning out the hair from the corner of the eyes, as well as any hair that sticks up obstructing the eye. Since Louie is a Cavapoo, he has those infectious Cavalier eyes, so I like to groom him to accentuate that expression.
Fig 10) Comb the hair on top of the head forward and scissor a visor from outside of one eye corner to the outside of the other eye. Little by little you can repeat this step by combing forward and beveling the visor up and away from the eyes.
Fig 11) Set the length of the chin by scissoring to a desired length, then scissor up the side of each cheek from chin to top of the head.
Fig 12) Continue blending the face into the cheek and the top of the head into the beard with straight shears. I also like to use a bulk thinning shear in this area to blend but also create soft lines around the head.
Voila! You’re finished! But wait, what about those clients that say “Oh, he’s cute but…he just looks too poofy!” My favorite finishing trick for “oodle” clients that say this is to take a water bottle and mist the dog all over after you are finished. A heavy mist will help reestablish a wave or curl in the coat but will dry by the time the client comes to pick up! ✂️