Pomeranian Grooming & Haircut Guide for Owners

There are two kinds of Pomeranian owners – the ones who run a comb through the coat twice a week, and the ones who turn up at the salon in February with a pelted little dog and ask why the groomer wants to clip it right back. We’ve groomed hundreds of Poms, and almost every serious matting job we see started as a 15-minute weekly job that got skipped. This guide walks through the lot – brushing, bathing, the haircuts that actually suit the breed, and the one mistake that can wreck a Pom’s coat for good. If you want the wider picture on temperament, health and cost, start with our Pomeranian breed guide, then come back here for the coat.

Brush a Pomeranian 3 to —4 times a week with a pin brush and slicker, bathe every 3 to 4 weeks, and book a tidy-up groom every 6 to 8 weeks. Never shave the double coat – trim and shape only. Most matting starts behind the ears and between the back legs, and it builds fast through a humid Australian summer.

What you’re actually brushing

A Pomeranian carries a double coat: a dense, woolly undercoat sitting under a longer, harsher outer coat of guard hairs. The undercoat is the part that mats and the part that ‘blows’ when the seasons turn, usually once or twice a year. That stand-off, fox-like fluff most people picture takes a while to arrive too – a Pom puppy looks comparatively scrappy until the adult coat fills in. Knowing the coat has two layers is the whole game, because if you only brush the top you leave the undercoat to felt quietly against the skin.

Your weekly home routine

Aim to brush 3 to 4 times a week, and daily when the coat is blowing. Work in sections from the skin outwards – this is ‘line brushing’, where you part the coat with one hand and brush the layer underneath with a pin brush, then go back over it with a slicker and finish with a metal comb to catch anything left. Pay real attention behind the ears, under the front legs and between the back legs; the Dogs Australia breed standard calls out exactly these friction points, and they’re where most owners’ brushes never quite reach.

While you’re there, wipe the eyes with a damp cloth if there’s tear staining, check both ears for a yeasty smell, and keep on top of nail trimming every 2 to 3 weeks – Poms are busy little dogs and the nails grow faster than people expect. A quick schedule to keep on the fridge:

Task	How often	Tools
Brushing	3 to 4 times a week	Pin brush, slicker, metal comb
Bath	Every 3 to 4 weeks	Dog shampoo, warm water
Nails	Every 2 to 3 weeks	Small clippers or a grinder
Teeth	Daily if you can	Dog toothpaste, finger brush
Salon tidy-up	Every 6 to 8 weeks	Groomer

Bathing and drying without flattening the coat

Brush the coat out fully before the dog goes anywhere near water – a bath turns loose tangles into tight, set mats, and you’ll spend twice as long getting them out afterwards. Use warm water, around body temperature, never hot, and a dog shampoo rather than anything off your own shelf; human products sit at the wrong pH for a dog’s skin. Most Poms only need a bath every 3 to 4 weeks unless they’ve found something memorable at the park. Our broader coat care notes go further on shampoo choice and skin issues.

Drying is where the volume comes from. Towel off the worst, then dry on a low or no-heat setting while brushing the coat up and out with a slicker – letting a Pom air-dry in a heap is how you end up with a flat, slightly curly coat and fresh mats underneath. Take your time; a thick undercoat holds water longer than it looks.

Pomeranian haircuts groomers actually do

Most Poms don’t need a ‘haircut’ in the poodle sense at all – they need shaping. The work is tidying feet, hocks, the sanitary area and the ears so the natural outline reads clean. A few cuts come up again and again at the salon:

• The ‘teddy bear’ cut – coat shortened and rounded all over to a few centimetres so the face looks soft and round. Lower maintenance, but it’s shaping, not shaving.
• The ‘lamb’ cut – body trimmed shorter with the legs left a little fuller. Owners chasing fewer mats through summer often ask for this.
• The ‘fox’ or show trim – barely any length removed, just a neaten-up of feet, ears and the bum, keeping the full stand-off coat.
• A plain sanitary tidy – feet, pads and the area under the tail only. The cheapest option and plenty for many pet Poms.

Keep in mind the adult coat can take up to two years to come in fully, so go conservative on length while a young Pom is still maturing. You can see more styles in our haircut styles section.

Why you never shave a Pomeranian

This is the rule worth tattooing on the lead. Shaving a double coat back to the skin can trigger post-clipping alopecia, where the coat grows back slowly, patchily, or with a woolly, off-colour texture – and in some dogs it never fully recovers. The double coat also isn’t making your Pom hotter; it insulates both ways and shades the skin from sunburn. Owners shave to ‘cool the dog down’ in summer and get the opposite result. Trim for neatness, brush out the dead undercoat to let air move through, but leave the length.

Grooming through an Australian summer

Poms overheat easily, so the heat plan is about management, not clippers. Brush the undercoat out properly so air can reach the skin, walk early morning or after sunset, and check the footpath with the back of your hand before a midday walk – if it’s too hot for your palm at 36°C, it’s too hot for paws. In humid stretches up north, around Brisbane and through the QLD and NT wet, damp coat trapped against skin can flare hot spots, so dry thoroughly after any bath or swim.

Don’t skip the teeth, either. Small breeds with crowded mouths are prone to dental disease, and a Pom’s jaw is about as crowded as they come. For tools and products you’ll find Wahl and Andis clippers, plus shampoos from Aristopet, Rufus & Coco and PAW by Blackmores, stocked at Petbarn, PETstock and Pet Circle. If you book a professional, a groomer accredited through the Pet Industry Association of Australia (PIAA) is a reasonable signal they know double coats.

Common grooming mistakes

• Shaving the coat to ‘cool the dog down’ in summer. It’s the single most damaging thing you can do to a Pom.
• Brushing only the top coat, so the undercoat felts unseen against the skin and you don’t notice until it’s a solid pad.
• Bathing a matted coat – water shrinks and tightens mats, turning a fixable tangle into a clip-off job.
• Forgetting the armpits and the area between the back legs, where friction quietly builds the worst mats.
• Reaching for the human shampoo because it smells nice. Wrong pH, dry skin, more scratching.
• Leaving the nails until they click on the floorboards, by which point the quick has grown out with them.
• Over-thinning the coat early on – a mistake plenty of us made as apprentices, chasing a tidier line and taking out bulk that took a year to grow back.

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

You can do almost everything at home with a starter kit – a pin brush, a slicker, a metal comb and a small grinder run roughly $80 to $200 all up, and they last years. A salon full groom for a Pom sits around $60 to $110 in most metro areas, a bit more in inner Sydney and Melbourne. A mobile groomer who comes to you usually runs $90 to $140, and the lack of a car trip suits anxious dogs. If you’re happy to brush and bath at home, paying a groomer just for the periodic tidy – feet, sanitary trim, nails – is the sensible middle path for most owners.

Some things belong with a professional, though. Book a groomer or see your vet if you find mats tight against the skin, broken or red skin under the coat, a strong smell from the ears, constant scratching or any sign of lameness. Those aren’t home jobs, and a de-matting session on broken skin needs proper hands.

FAQ

Brush behind the ears and between the back legs every few days – that’s where the mats start – and you’ll almost never need an emergency de-matting session. The best-looking Poms aren’t the ones with the fanciest cut. They’re the ones whose owners did the boring 10-minute brush while the kettle boiled.