I'm Living In Doodle HELL.

Are you sick of hearing Doodle stories yet?? Sorry, it seems like that is all I groom lately! 

I groomed a black Goldendoodle for the first time the other day.  They gave me the "don'tmakeitlooklikeapoodle" comment, then the "Ilikeitscruffy" as well.  So helpful. It had never been groomed before, and it was around 8 months old.  Lucky for me it was perfectly behaved (A minor miracle) and the owner had actually been brushing her (???)!  I told her that I was fairly certain the cut I would give her would seem quite short to her, as the dog had 6 inch long hair right now.  Short of doing a full scissored trim (which I don't ever enjoy doing, especially on a puppy) which would cost many, many dollars to the client, my choice is our longest blade, which leaves it about 1 1/2 inches, still plenty of fluff.  I explained as best I could what I would be doing.  I would scissor the head so it would look "just like it is, but shorter".. still hair on the face, which seems to be important when you own a doodle.  The coat came off looking like plush black velvet underneath!  The dog was adorable, and everyone at work thought so.  I missed the go home, but the front desk told me they "laughed" (probably due to the hot pink bows in her ears) but seemed pleased that they wouldn't have all the hair to deal with. 

Late in the week, their neighbor came in. The neighbor has a Goldendoodle as well, and it's why these people got this puppy.  The receptionist asked what they thought of the pup's groom.   He said "Well, I think it looks great, but they think the head is too long".  She encouraged him to tell the pup's owner to bring her back in so I could shorten it.  They brought it in today.  I was thinking.. maybe due to my valiant effort to "leave it scruffy", I just left the head too long.

The dog arrived, and I was shocked that they thought there was a problem.. it still looked adorable and very in proportion to the rest of the haircut.

Me:  What seems to be the trouble, is it too long?

Doodleowner:  Well... I just LOVE the body length (remember, I was worried it would be too short), it looks JUST like a Golden Retriever .  What the heck??? The dog is black and CURLY!!!!!)  But, could you shorten up the head, so it doesn't look so much like a poodle?

Me:  (ignoring the poodle remark)  Ok, so would you want the top of the head to match the body length?

D.O.:  Well... I don't know, what do you think?  At this point, I wanted to say... IT LOOKS CUTE RIGHT NOW!! 

Me:  Hmm.. well many people like more of a Schnauzer look to these dogs, we could leave short eyebrows, and trim up the beard.

D.O.: Weeell... What does a Golden Retriever's face look like??  REALLLY?????? You wanted a Goldendoodle, which you want to look like a Golden, but you don't even know what a Golden looks like?  ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!  Who doesn't know what a Golden looks like??   The sad thing is, their last dog was a Golden mix (just a mix.. not a doodle or anything cool) that looked like a small Golden Retriever.  Apparently they forgot what she looked like.

I talked her out (actually flat out refused) of trying to make it look like a Golden.. mostly because the dog looks NOTHING like a Golden.  Crazy.. I know. I should just try harder.  Plus, if I were to make it look like a Golden's face, that would mean clipping the hair off the face.  Here's a news flash:  Poodles have shaved faces!!!!!!!!  I have no idea if she really liked what I did. I hope so.. but it's extremely hard to figure out what kind of look she wants, when she doesn't know herself. 

"Give it a Labra/Goldendoodle haircut" is not an viable instruction for me.  Sadly, when I try to explain that MIXed breeds can have any haircut you want, they look at me like I'm an idiot, and I obviously don't know how to groom their "breed" of dog.  I may need to go back to school.. Remedial Doodle Grooming 101.  Anyone know where I can take it online??