Labradoodle Grooming: Coat Types & Grooming Schedule

The Labradoodle is one of the few dogs Australia can fairly call its own – Wally Conron crossed a Standard Poodle with a Labrador at Guide Dogs Victoria back in 1989, chasing a low-shedding guide dog for an owner whose husband was allergic. What nobody mentioned in the decades since is how much brushing that low-shedding coat actually needs. We’ve groomed plenty of them, and the dogs that turn up matted to the skin almost always belong to owners who were told ‘they barely shed’ and took it to mean ‘they barely need grooming’. This guide sorts the coat out by type, sets a realistic schedule, and runs through the haircuts and 2026 costs. The full breed picture lives in our Labradoodle breed guide.

Brush a fleece-coated Labradoodle 2 to 3 times a week and a wool coat daily, working to the skin. Bathe every 4 to 6 weeks and book a clip every 6 to 8 weeks. The puppy-to-adult coat change around 6 to 12 months is the worst stretch for matting, so brush more, not less, through it.

Fleece, wool or hair – which coat have you got?

Labradoodles fall into three coat types, and the one your dog landed with decides almost everything about the workload. The Australian Labradoodle Association sets out the recognised coat types: a fleece coat, soft and either wavy or loosely spiralled, which is the most common and the easiest to manage; a wool coat, denser and curlier like lamb’s wool, lowest shedding but highest matting risk; and a hair coat, straighter and more Lab-like, which sheds a bit more but tangles least. If you’re weighing a Labradoodle against a groodle grooming routine, the coat science is much the same – the hair grows continuously instead of shedding out, so it needs regular cutting.

The brush-out that prevents mats

Skimming the top of the coat achieves almost nothing, because the mats form down at the skin where you can’t see them. Work in sections with a slicker brush, lifting the coat with one hand and brushing the layer beneath, then pass a metal comb right through to the skin. If the comb catches, the brush missed a mat. Behind the ears is the number-one trouble spot on every Labradoodle, followed by the beard, the armpits, the collar line and the feathering behind the back legs.

There’s one stretch that catches every new owner: the puppy coat starts giving way to the adult coat somewhere around 6 to 12 months, and for a few months the two coats tangle together and mat at the slightest excuse. Brush daily through it. While you’re at it, check the ears weekly and keep up with nail trimming every 2 to 3 weeks. A schedule worth pinning up:

Task	How often	Tools
Brushing	2 to 3 times a week (fleece), daily (wool)	Slicker brush, metal comb
Bath	Every 4 to 6 weeks	Dog shampoo, warm water
Ear check	Weekly	Dog ear cleaner, cotton pad
Nails	Every 2 to 3 weeks	Clippers or a grinder
Professional clip	Every 6 to 8 weeks	Groomer

Bathing and drying

Brush the coat out fully before any water goes near it, because a wet mat shrinks tighter and turns a 30-second tangle into a clip-off job. Use warm water, around body temperature and never hot, with a plain dog shampoo rather than your own – human products are the wrong pH and dry out skin that, on this cross, is often itchy already. Every 4 to 6 weeks suits most; overdoing it strips the coat’s natural oils. Our coat care notes go further on shampoo for sensitive skin.

Then dry properly. Towel off, then dry on a low or warm setting while brushing the coat out at the same time, since a fleece or wool coat left to dry in a heap knots as it shrinks. Dry the ears and armpits last and longest – they trap water, and damp skin under a thick coat is where hot spots begin.

Haircut styles groomers actually do

A Labradoodle’s Poodle-type coat clips back cleanly with no risk to regrowth, so length is a free choice rather than a coat-health decision. The usual options:

• The ‘teddy bear’ cut – body taken shorter, the face left rounder and a little longer. It’s the signature doodle look and what most owners mean by ‘the usual’.
• The puppy or kennel cut – an even, shorter length all over, lower fuss and easier to keep mat-free between grooms.
• A short summer clip – down to a few millimetres for owners who’d rather not brush daily through the heat. It grows back fine.
• The longer, shaggy look – lovely in photos, brutal in practice. Only choose it if daily brushing is a habit you’ll actually keep.

Whatever length you pick, ask the groomer to keep the feet, the sanitary area and the hair around the eyes neat. There are more options in our haircut styles section.

Grooming through an Australian summer

Heat, water and humidity are the doodle coat’s three enemies, and an Australian summer serves all three. A shorter clip from about November is a sensible move – it keeps the dog cooler and cuts your brushing time, with none of the regrowth risk a double-coated breed would face. Rinse and dry the coat after every swim, because salt and sand felt a curly coat within a day. The same trapped moisture is what makes ear infections so common in this breed – those floppy, sometimes hairy ears stay damp after a bath or a dip in the dam, so dry them out each time.

Teeth matter too, and they’re easy to forget under all that coat. Small to medium doodles are prone to dental disease, so a regular brush helps. For gear you’ll find slicker brushes and Wahl or Andis clippers, plus shampoos from Aristopet, Rufus & Coco and PAW by Blackmores, at Petbarn, PETstock and Pet Circle.

Common grooming mistakes

• Believing ‘low-shedding’ means low-maintenance, then brushing once a fortnight and wondering why the dog felts.
• Brushing only the top coat, so the layer against the skin mats unseen until it’s solid.
• Easing off the brushing during the puppy-coat change, which is exactly when the coat mats fastest.
• Bathing a tangled coat. Water tightens every knot, every time.
• Leaving water in the ears after a swim, then chasing the head-shaking and the smell a week later.
• Reaching for your own shampoo because it smells nice. Wrong pH, dry skin, more scratching.
• Stretching grooms out to save money, then paying a de-matting fee on top of the clip – a false economy plenty of us have watched play out.

Salon, mobile or DIY – and what it costs in 2026

Labradoodles sit at the dearer end of grooming, because they’re a decent size and the coat is slow, careful work. A salon clip generally runs $90 to $180 for a medium dog and more for a standard, with inner Sydney and Melbourne charging above regional rates, and a large matted coat costing more again. A mobile groomer who comes to you usually runs $120 to $200. A home kit – slicker, comb, clippers, a grinder – is $150 to $350 up front and pays off if you’ll learn to use it. The sensible middle path for most owners is to brush and bath at home and pay a groomer for the clip; if you’re picking one, an accredited groomer through the Pet Industry Association of Australia is a fair signal they know doodle coats.

A few jobs belong with a professional or a vet. Book in, or ring the clinic, if you find mats tight against the skin, red or broken skin underneath, a strong smell or discharge from the ears, or constant scratching and paw licking. Matted skin and infected ears aren’t home jobs, and clipping over sore skin needs proper hands.

FAQ

Brush to the skin, little and often, and run a comb through to catch what the brush missed – ten minutes every couple of days beats an hour of de-matting and a miserable dog at the salon. Australia gave the world this coat. The least we can do is keep a comb in the drawer and use it.