Being a new puppy parent to a cavoodle is scary and challenging enough at times let alone when you get mixed messages about how often you should wash your dog from the breeder, the pet shop, the vet, family and friends. At the end of the day decisions made with love and sometimes gut instinct is the way to go, and sometimes even a little help from Dr Google! 

That’s why when it comes to grooming your new cavoodle puppy, let me share some of my past experiences to help you make up your mind about what is best for you and your new furbaby. 

There are many reasons people will tell you not to groom and wash your dog weekly, monthly or even every couple of months. Here are 3 reasons I found bathing and grooming my precious cavoodle girl Bambi in the first week I bought her home beneficial.

1. Created an instant bond and sense of security 

Although my cavoodle’s first wash was far from perfect and she cried literally the whole time, I made sure the experience was stress-free as possible. 

How to make the process stress free:

• Make sure no one else is home - although it might be fun for the whole family to be in the room to watch their first bath, I can assure you it won’t be fun for your new little pup. It’s best to tackle the first bath one on one. 
• Try not to use excessive amounts of water near their face - this may scare them and the shampoo may get in their eyes, sometimes accidents happen, but that's why you want to look for a tear free shampoo to be safe. 
• Hold them close to your body the whole time - this gives them a sense of security and also creates an instant bond of trust. Just make sure you’re wearing old clothes as you are sure to get a bit wet!

Having grown up since I was 11 years old with a cavoodle (back when they were not a popular breed), I know a majority of them seem to fear or even have anxieties around water and the grooming process. 

With Bambi, it was a goal of mine for the bathing routine to not be a total dreaded event that we both didn’t look forward to. This is why in the first week she was bathed, also in the second week of having her and the third. Some may argue this is not good for their skin or coat. However, each time there was a huge difference in her behaviour as she became more and more used to the routine.

Each bath after that became easier and now she actually loves the water! She will jump in the pool and swim in the beach with us. It’s so refreshing to have a cavoodle not be afraid of the water!

That’s why getting your pup used to water from week one is so important for bath time and also for their safety. 

Another important part of the grooming process is getting your cavoodle used to being lathered in shampoo and conditioner, brushed and trimmed on all parts of their body or face. During this process in the early days of bringing your cavoodle home, be sure to touch, grab, pull and hold all their paws, fur, face, tail, ears and any other limbs. This ensures your pup gets used to being held and touched in all areas so that when they do go to a professional groomer or even the vet that they don’t mind being handled by a human. 

Benefits of this include:

• They will react less during the process and flinch less - means it will be safer for your pup and avoid any accidental cuts from the scissors/shaver. 
• It will reduce any anxiety they may have and it can also protect the human handler from unwanted biting if your cavoodle feels threatened - this is especially essential to know if you are bringing up your cavoodle pup with young kids who don’t know better than to accidentally pull the pup’s tail or pull their fur a bit harder than usual. 

We have a friend who’s dog is 15 years old (not a cavoodle) and one thing they didn’t do when she was a pup was play with her back two hind legs and now she refuses to let humans grab her hind paws which has made the process of bath time harder than it needs to be! She also is very unpredictable around young children because of this, so very important to know before bringing your cavoodle home. 

Cavoodles have different Ph balances to humans

Cavoodle skin and our human skin have very different pH balances. If you don’t know what a pH balance is, it basically means how acidic or alkaline something is. 

More acidic solutions, have a lower pH. More alkaline solutions, have a higher pH. Substances that aren't acidic or alkaline (that is, neutral solutions) usually have a pH of 7. Acids have a pH that is less than 7. Alkalis have a pH that is greater than 7.

Human skin has a normal Ph balance of 5.5-5.6, which is on the acidic side. Cavoodles, on the other hand, have a neutral Ph balance of 6.2-7.4. 

Cavoodle skin also has a thin layer called the acid mantle, which protects the top layer of the skin from contaminants such as viruses and bacteria. By using human shampoo on your cavoodle it can disrupt the acid mantle, leaving your dog vulnerable to parasites, viruses, and bacteria. It also makes their skin feel dry and flaky, which can lead to repeated scratching and abrasions. 

Therefore shampoos with the wrong pH balance or harsh chemicals can irritate a cavoodle’s skin, stripping away protective good oils from their coat. That's why choosing a good shampoo for your cavoodles is crucial!

When it comes to bringing your baby home for the first time and I mean your “fur baby” it’s important the whole family is on the same page!

Being a puppy parent is hard work enough, let alone having your cavoodle pup learning different methods of training because we humans don’t know how to communicate between ourselves!

So here is a list of certain training topics for you and your partner/family to discuss before you bring your beautiful new cavoodle puppy home!

1. Where is your cavoodle puppy going to sleep?

This is definitely a topic you want to have sorted out before you bring your cavoodle puppy home if you ever want a full night’s sleep again!

• Are you going to crate train your cavoodle puppy?
• Will your cavoodle puppy sleep in your bed?
• Will your cavoodle sleep in their designated pen to keep them in a small confined space during the night?
• Are you happy to let your cavoodle puppy roam free while you sleep?

There is no right or wrong answer at the end of the day, but remember once your cavoodle gets used to any of these sleeping routines, it becomes harder to change them down the track. Trust me, I’ve been there!

When we bought Bambi home, Daniel and I thought we had Bambi’s sleep routine down pat. For the first week, she settled quickly and slept 8-12 hours a night in her designated pen which contained a food and water bowl, a pee pad, some toys, her bed and a blanket.

We put her to bed around 9 pm and she would wake at 6 am perfectly synchronised with my alarm to get up for work. I would wake up and take her straight outside for a pee and poo. We were in puppy heaven, we thought we hit the jackpot and found the perfect cavoodle pup! Little did we know a change of routine put a spanner in the works.

For Christmas, I decided to spend a week with my family down the south coast, probably not the smartest idea on my end as my cavoodle was just getting used to my home environment, then she had to adapt to a whole different one.

From then on she would wake up all hours of the night to go outside for a pee and refuse to go back in her pen. This resulted in Daniel and I sleeping on a couch near Bambi just so she could fall back asleep. He's going to hate me for sharing this photo!

The things we do for these little balls of fluff!

While I was originally all for “tough love” and happy to let her self soothe. Her crying in all hours of the morning was driving Daniel insane and resulted a couple times with him bringing her in bed with us! This was definitely something I didn’t want to become a habit.

Daniel and I decided we value our sleep since we both work full time. So we set her bed up outside our closed door so she was closer to us, with pee pads set up in our corridor for her to use during the night.

But when Daniel decided she was too cute to sleep alone he bought her in the bed and I lost the fight!

Come present day we have a furbaby in the bed which I never thought in a million years would happen! She sleeps throughout the whole night now and means on weekend we both get sleep in!

Remember there is no right or wrong answer how you want to bring up your pup but....happy parents = happy pup!

2. How are you going to toilet train your cavoodle puppy?

Another very important question and probably one that we all struggle with. It’s best to break this question down further as its going to be more complex if your cavoodle puppy is going to be an inside dog. So talk about these questions with your family and partner so when the time comes to choose everyone is on the same page, trust me poo hanging around in your corridor is not a pretty sight or smell!

• Will you use puppy pee pads?
• Will you use a fake grass mat or a real one?
• When you’re home where does your cavoodle do a number one and two?
• When you’re not home where does your cavoodle do a number one and two?
• Will you leave your puppy outside when you are gone for long periods of time so they can do their business outside?
• What method will you use if it’s raining outside and you want your cavoodle to be an inside pet?

Trust me you want to think about that last question, you never think it will rain for 2 weeks straight until it does…

We’ve come up with a very mature compromise in my household for who has to pick it up and put it in the bin when Bambi does a shit. It’s called “Bags NOT”.
There are pros and cons to all these, but let me run you through my experience.

When we bought Bambi home I swore I was going to be strict in terms of getting her into a routine to go outside and do her business… that was until mother nature decided it was going to be a very wet 2 weeks during Christmas and new year of December 2020 (what a shit year!). She refused to go outside in the rain because she didn’t want to get her paws wet and her puppy eyes made my heart melt so we moved onto the next method.

Eighteen dollars later at Kmart I came home with an artificial grass mat. Coming home from work for lunch, it took Bambi all of 4 hours to shred the artificial grass matt up, pull it apart and eat the plastic! So that was a definite no on that method.

Daniel was never a fan of leaving her outside since day one, she was so tiny and it was definitely a time when puppy thieves were after this precious breed. This meant leaving her outside when we were not home was a big no no!

Puppy pads are what we still use now inside the house and also a combination of bringing her outside in the backyard when we are home. Puppy pads are not for everyone and aren’t the most cost effective option but she seems to love them and it’s the best option for my partner and I. I have even trained her to pee on command before bed, just takes a lot of patience and repeating the same word over and over again... "do pee pee, do pee pee....", you might get a few strange looks from your partner but hey it works!

3. Who will be the alpha in training and what commands will you teach your puppy first?

It is common that dogs often choose a favourite person in the household who they bond with. This can happen with cavoodles too and they are likely to bond with a single person who matches their own energy level and personality. This can also happen when one person spends more initial time with the cavoodle puppy after you bring them home. Some signs you are their master or the alpha of your cavoodle is if they listen to you more than anyone else, shows you more affection, follows you around the house like a shadow or makes direct eye contact with you.

However just because a cavoodle bonds more with one person doesn’t mean everyone shouldn’t be on the same page when training and teaching your puppy commands. Some questions for your partner and yourself to agree on is the commands you will teach your cavoodle puppy when you first bring them home.

• Will you train your pup daily and for how long a day?
• What common commands will you start off with teaching your new cavoodle puppy? Sit, stay, lie down, shake, no, jump, fetch, let go, walk, stop.
• What sign language and phrases will you use? For example, when you want your dog to stop on the side of the road when walking are you going to use the term “stop” or “halt”? These simple conversations help you train a healthy, happy pup and can also save their life if they get off their leash near busy roads!

Remember simple commands should be taught by one person at a time in a room with not too many distractions around, this is how they will learn quickly.

Best to also keep training short and sweet for 15-20 mins a day maybe 2 times a day. Puppies get bored and distracted quite easily so any longer than 20 minutes at a time they will start getting off track.

Small chewable treats that they can quickly break down also allows you to move onto the next trick straight away so they don’t forget. We highly recommend ZIWI® Peak Air-Dried Mackerel & Lamb or their chicken treats as they have a very strong smell which makes your puppy alert for training and they are very soft and small which means they can be consumed easily by your little cavoodle puppy.

If you have easily worked your way through these questions without disagreeing with your partner, kudos to you! If you didn’t well maybe a couple more conversations before you bring your puppy home will be the best solution for everyone.

To sum it up here is a free downloadable question list on what you and your family need to think about before bringing your beautiful new family member home.