Weak Furnishings in Doodles
Furnishings are the biggest contributor to the “fluffy” look for the doodle, how much doodles shed or don’t shed, and how good they will be for folks with allergies. For a deep dive into furnishings, along with more info on the doodle coat, please reference this post.
Here, we will take a look into doodles with weak furnishings.
In a nut shell, if you don’t care about the fluffiness of the coat, don’t mind a little shedding, and don’t have any allergies to dog hair, then a doodle with weak furnishings can be a great fit for you and still give you the personality traits and health diversity a doodle can get you!!
Physical Attributes
Puppy Coat: Overall coat will look “less fluffy” overall, and may have very short hairs on the pup’s muzzle/face and legs. They may experience some “wispy” hairs on muzzle.
Tip: I suggest keeping the wispy hairs on their face trimmed with shears and a feathering scissor until the adult coat comes in for a clean, even look :).
Adult Coat: On average, a doodle’s adult coat starts coming in around 8 months, and may have a couple more coat changes over the next couple months until their adult coat comes fully in. The adult coat of a weakly furnished doodle can be unpredictable and can range from a lesser fluffy look, to a moderately strong look!
The coat may look less wavy or curly than a strongly furnished doodle. They can have a soft feeling coat, a lighter feeling coat due to really fine hairs, or a little more wirey haired coat, or anything in between.
Shedding/Allergies
The furnishing gene is one of the biggest contributors to doodles being low shedding. With doodles that are weakly furnished, some can be low shedding, but some could also have a moderate shedding level and, as of right now, there is no way to predict the level of shedding in an adult coat as a puppy. So for folks who have mild to moderate allergies from hair and dander related to shedding (not saliva allergies), it may be too unpredictable to get a doodle with weak furnishings.
Grooming Maintenance
Overall, the maintenance for the doodle with weak furnishings can be less, both on you as the owner, and less grooming needed with a groomer. This means it can be better on your pocket book and your time! Overall, doodles with weak furnishings can be less prone to matting, so that would require less brushing and combing from you, the owner. Also, it can mean more time between going to the groomer, which can equate to less funds for you to spend.
