grooming doodles

Question
Do you have any advise on how I can keep a "natural look" when groooming doodles.When I brush them it removes the curl and I think that is one reason my clients think they look like poodles. I try brushing before bath and combing with rake while wet and cage drying but that didn't always work. The pictures of the doodles on the internet that my clients like are shaggy and corded. There is no way those dogs are not matted messes but the clients will not accept what I am trying to say about matts. I wish I could turn away all doodle clients! Please help! Thank you. I loved the answer you gave the doodle owner!

Answer
Hi Anne,
I don't do Doodles for the record, a personal choice. This is always a quandary that we put ourselves through thinking there must be something wrong with the way we groom when the reality of the situation is you are dealing with an unknown property here- a mutt by any other name is a mutt. The Doodle has barely been around long enough to even get a handle on a standard let alone be able to breed it consistently. Therefore there are so many different kinds of supposedly doodle coats you can't be sure which one you got . You can rest assured that the good coated dogs are kept by the breeders to parade in front of potential clients and the "clients" get stuck with the rest. Sometimes they luck out and get a decent one and those cost big money anyhow. No bargain designer mutts out there. Their coats are disasters for the most part for exactly the reasons you say and you know we have spent long hours commiserating over this issue.
That said - you make your life easy and tell them the only way to get the curl is too air dry the coat- no cage or hand drying - first brush out and clip, then  bathe the dog and send him home. Period. Hey why do more than you have to? This is what works best. Be firm and stand your ground. If they want the dog dry, you're back where you started.
If they get cage dried the only other thing to do is to spray a fine mist over them like you would do to a Kerry Blue or Portuguese water dog to get the curl to revert.
Hope this boosts your morale a bit- Holidays are here and they are all coming for their Christmas do's.
best of luck and patience