Teddy Bear Cut for Dogs: What It Is & How to Ask For It

Ask ten groomers for a ‘teddy bear cut’ and you’ll get ten slightly different dogs back. It’s the most-requested look in the salon and the most misunderstood – because it isn’t one length, it’s a shape. Ask for it the right way and you walk out with the round, fluffy face you pictured. Ask for it the wrong way and you get a tidy trim that looks nothing like the photo on your phone.

A teddy bear cut leaves the body at one soft, even length – usually around 25 to 50mm – and scissors the face round and full so your dog looks like a plush toy. It suits curly and wavy coats like cavoodles and poodles. To ask for it, bring a photo, give a body length in millimetres and say whether you want just the face rounded or the whole coat taken short.

So what is a teddy bear cut, exactly?

A ‘teddy bear cut’ is a scissor-finished style that keeps the coat at one plush, even length over the body and shapes the head into a soft round, with the muzzle and cheeks left fuller than the rest. That rounded face is the whole point – it’s what makes the dog look like a stuffed toy rather than a freshly clipped pet. It works best on coats that hold a shape: the curly, low-shedding coats of a cavoodle, a poodle or a doodle. We get asked for it more than any other style, and the dogs who pull it off all have one thing in common – a coat long enough to be sculpted, not clipped flat.

It’s also not a shave. A shave-down takes the coat to a few millimetres with a blade and loses the fluff entirely. A teddy bear cut deliberately leaves length on, which is exactly why it needs more upkeep than a short clip.

Teddy bear cut vs puppy cut

People use the two names as if they’re the same thing. They overlap, but they aren’t identical. A ‘puppy cut’ is usually one short, even length all over, face included – low-fuss and practical. A teddy bear cut is really a puppy cut with the face and ears left longer and scissored into that signature round. So every teddy bear cut is a kind of puppy cut, but not every puppy cut is a teddy bear. If you want the round face, you have to say so, because a groomer working quickly will default to tidy and even.

Which dogs suit a teddy bear cut?

The look depends on the coat, not the breed name. Curly and wavy coats that grow continuously take it well; flat, short or heavy double coats don’t. The usual candidates:

• Cavoodles and cavapoos – the classic teddy bear coat, soft and wavy, and the reason the style took off in Australia.
• Groodles and other doodles – a groodle carries enough coat to sculpt a full, round head.
• Poodles – a poodle holds a teddy shape beautifully, though the dense coat mats fast without brushing.
• Maltipoos, shih tzus and bichons – a maltipoo suits a shorter teddy that stays manageable on a small frame.

If your dog is a labrador, a staffy or a husky, a teddy bear cut isn’t on the table – those coats either don’t grow long enough or shouldn’t be clipped at all.

How to ask your groomer for a teddy bear cut

This is where most disappointments start. ‘Teddy bear cut’ means something different to every groomer, so don’t rely on the words alone. Walk in with specifics:

1. Bring a photo. One clear picture of the exact look you want beats any description. Save two or three to your phone before the appointment.
2. Give the body length in millimetres. Say ‘about 30mm on the body’ rather than ‘medium’. Numbers travel between groomers; vague words don’t.
3. Be clear: teddy face, or full teddy? A ‘teddy face’ rounds the head while the body goes shorter; a ‘full teddy’ keeps the whole coat at one longer length. They look quite different, so name the one you mean.
4. Point to the bits that matter to you – the ears, the muzzle, the fringe over the eyes. Tell the groomer if you want the ears left long or tidied in line with the face.
5. Don’t ask for it ‘shaved right down’ to keep your dog cool in summer. A close shave on a curly coat loses the look and, despite the myth, doesn’t actually cool a dog the way owners expect.

How short should the body be?

For a full, plush teddy look, most groomers leave the body somewhere around 25 to 50mm. Go shorter – say 15 to 20mm – and you get a neat, low-maintenance version that’s easier to keep mat-free through a hot Australian summer. There’s no single ‘correct’ number; it’s a trade-off between how fluffy you want the dog and how much brushing you’re willing to do. One thing worth knowing: a longer coat gives a little more shade for the skin, while a very close clip on a pale-skinned dog can expose it to sunburn on our high-UV days. Most owners settle around 25 to 35mm as the sweet spot.

Keeping it looking good between grooms

Here’s the part nobody likes hearing: the longer you leave the coat, the more you have to brush it. A teddy bear cut on a cavoodle that’s never brushed at home will be a mat farm within a fortnight, and a matted coat can’t be re-fluffed – it has to be shaved off and started again. Brush every day or every second day with a slicker brush, then run a metal comb right down to the skin to catch the tangles forming underneath. Pay attention to the friction spots: behind the ears, under the collar, in the armpits and around the bum. Ten minutes most days keeps the look alive between salon visits.

Thinking of doing it at home?

The rounded face is genuinely hard to scissor well, and it’s the part that makes or breaks the look, so most owners are better off leaving the full cut to a groomer and just maintaining it at home. If your dog won’t sit for the long scissor work, that’s worth fixing before anything else. A bit of cooperative care training – rewarding your dog for staying still while you handle the face and paws – makes every future groom easier.

For an anxious dog, work through a slow desensitise your puppy routine with the scissors and clippers before you attempt a full cut, or hand the first few sessions to a patient groomer. A teddy bear cut takes time and stillness; a stressed dog and sharp scissors are a bad mix.

What it costs and how often

A teddy bear cut takes more scissor time than a plain clip, so it usually sits at the upper end of salon pricing – roughly $90 to $150 for a small-to-medium dog at a metro salon in 2026, and around $110 to $180 for a mobile groomer who comes to you. Coat condition matters: a matted dog costs more, because the groomer has to clip it off first. Most teddy bear coats need a full groom every 6 to 8 weeks to hold the shape, with regular brushing in between. Leave it longer and you’re usually paying for a de-matting job instead of a style.

When a teddy bear cut isn’t the answer

Sometimes the kind thing is to skip the look. If your dog’s coat is already matted to the skin, a teddy bear cut isn’t possible – the coat has to come off short and grow back before you can shape it. If the skin underneath is red, broken or smelly, that’s a vet visit first. And if your dog finds grooming genuinely frightening, a shorter, faster style is fairer than forcing a long sculpt. A good accredited groomer will tell you honestly when the coat or the dog isn’t up to it, rather than push the style you asked for.

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