Corded Poodle: Facts, Origin & History

Corded Poodle: Facts, Origin & History

If you’re wondering about a corded Poodle, then this guide will help explain what it is and how you can achieve this appearance. Before getting started, here’s what you need to know. Each breed has its unique characteristics, colors, and styles that make them who they are. When it comes to the Poodle, you can find a lot of diversity among this one breed. Poodles are often well-known for their elegant and beautiful appearances. They can also have coats that shed very little, making them an excellent choice for people with allergies.

• Vizslapoo: Vizsla Poodle Mix
• Chow Doodle: Chow Chow poodle mix
• French Boodle Puppies: French Bulldog Poodle Mix
• Pit Boodle: Pitbull Poodle Mix
• Full Grown Pugapoo Puppies: Pug and Poodle mix
• Mini Doxiepoo Puppies: Dachshund Poodle Mix
• Full Grown Irish Doodle Puppies: Irish Setter Poodle Mix
• Toy Aussiedoodle Puppies Breeders: Poodle Australian Shepherd Mix
• Mastidoodle Puppies Breeders: Mastiff Poodle Mix
• Are Poodle Hunting Dogs?
• Corded Poodle Coat
• Malshipoo Puppies: Maltese Shih Tzu Poodle Mix

Poodles also are highly intelligent, friendly, and make a great family friend for all ages. Poodles can also come in various sizes, ranging from Toy to Miniature to Medium to Standard. Each size has its range of weight, height, and life span. If you are looking for a Poodle friend, you can find one that will work well whether you live in a small apartment or have a large backyard. With the Poodle’s appearance, there is also a range of different styles, textures, and colors that their coats can incorporate. Their coats can come in dark colors like black, brown, blue, and red.

They can also be lighter in color, with options like cream, beige, tan, apricot, and white. Sometimes, Poodles can incorporate several different colors in the markings on their coat. For all dogs, but especially for the Poodle, proper grooming and trimming practices are essential to keeping them healthy and free of skin irritations. While their coats can be somewhat complex to manage, it’s necessary to keep up taking care of your dog’s hair. Sometimes, that can be done through different hairstyles for Poodles.

Although one of the more common hairstyles for Poodles is short to keep their hair more manageable, there are several other hairstyle options that you can choose should you want a more sophisticated and unique look for your Poodle. One such hairstyle is corded. With its popularity and unique design, it can be an excellent option for your Poodle. To help you best take care of your Poodle’s coat, here we share what a corded coat is and other best practices in grooming to help your Poodle look and feel their best.

What Is A Corded Poodle?

• Corded is the name given to a unique hairstyle for Poodles. The hairstyle exhibits long curls or cords that droop and twist down to the Poodle’s body. Cords tend to be shorter on their head, ears, face, and ankles.
• Except, this hairstyle looks more beautiful, clean, and well maintained. But if you have a bit of knowledge about the Poodle, you might know that this breed does not naturally have long hair, which means the corded hairstyle can take a bit of time to achieve and maintain.
• Cords are carefully created and are not brushed or clipped out when grooming. Typically a Poodle’s hair starts out as a straight when they’re pups, then it curls and afterward is made into a cord through washing and drying. But, I’ll explain this process later.
• The Poodle achieves this dreadlock look as the cords continue to grow in that shape. Initially, their coat will start to cord around 7-9 months of age. Part of the reason for this is that their puppy coat will fade, and their adult coat will grow in.

Can A Regular Coat Be Corded?

• Naturally, Poodles have soft curly coats, which means it can be achieved. While most people tend to keep their coats short and curly for easy maintenance, you can certainly still choose to cord a Poodle. After all, it’s worth it if you want to give them a unique look.
• Another reason why their natural coat is good for cording is that it can protect them from cold weather. The reason behind this is that their coat is naturally water-resistant (dates back to their waterfowl hunting days), and the more corded it is, the more they repel.
• Back in the day, though, when their natural coats were corded, they mainly had a sour smell attached to them, alongside bits of twigs, mildew, and more stuck in their hair. You might also think that this could be easily the case with the lack of brushing cords. However, due to better canine hygiene, cleaning products for corded hair, and grooming facilities, it’s highly unlikely cords will smell as bad as they once did.

How To Cord A Poodle’s Coat – Step By Step

If you’re interested in trying this hairstyle out with your Poodle, then you should set aside time for its maintenance. While initially, it might be an easy task, you must devote a lot of care to the upkeep. If you feel like you have time on your hands and are up to the challenge, then you will need to do the following:

Trim Hair

First, trim the hair of your Poodle short along with its hindquarters. Then clip hair that’s located right under the tail. Make sure you also carefully trim around the genital region, keeping the hair at the length of 0.5 inches. You must do this to stop urine and fecal matter clinging into the cords and causing them to matt.

Stop Brushing

Do not brush your Poodle at all! To make sure you cord properly, you must let your Poodle’s entire coat tangle and mat. Even the slightest of brushing strokes can stop its coat from matting. However, if there are any sticks or debris in the coat, you should use your hands to remove them.

Separate Into Smaller Cords

Split and separate the more giant mats into small cords. To do this, you will want to place a small piece of meat in one hand, then pull it away in a horizontal direction from the larger chunk. If you find your Poodles hair is heavily tangled, pull the hair apart using a steel dog comb.

Continue Separating

Keep separating the mats until your Poodles whole coat has been divided evenly. Try and make sure the Poodles strands are a quarter-inch in length. Moreover, you might want your Poodles sections to be small to fit in with the general cording trend of the breed. Different breeds tend to have longer and thicker chords. 

Grooming Practices With a Corded Poodle

With a corded Poodle comes some more unique grooming practices that may differ from other breeds and other Poodles who do not have a corded coat. Taking care of the Poodle’s corded coat ensures that the cords will maintain, even in the activity of daily life.

Bathe Weekly

• During bathtime, you’ll want to do your best to keep your Poodle’s cords intact. While other Poodles may be able to jump right in the tub and be shampooed all over their coat, a corded Poodle takes a bit of extra effort. Baths can undo the cords of the Poodle’s coat easily, so it’s essential to be intentional about how you bathe your Poodle. With dog shampoo at the ready, squeeze soap into each cord of your Poodle’s coat.
• Ensure that the shampoo gets into the hair and cleans out any debris or dirt you don’t want to stay in their coat. After all the cords have been thoroughly shampooed, rinse each cord with warm water to remove all the soap. Keep in mind that bathtime may take longer with a corded Poodle than a non-corded. You may also want to consider using a leave-in conditioner to keep the hair soft and smooth.
• When it comes to drying off your corded Poodle after a bath, squeeze out any excess water that you can from each cord with a soft towel. Then, grab a blow dryer and dry each cord. Be sure to keep the cords separated as you dry each cord. Even after blow-drying, you’ll want to put a fan in front of your dog to dry each cord thoroughly. Without proper drying, cords can start to develop skin irritations and other foul smells.

Don’t Brush

While this may go against every other grooming recommendation for other dogs, it’s not recommended to brush your corded Poodle’s coat. Brushing their coat will result in deteriorating cords that you’ve worked so hard to maintain for your Poodle. Regular bathing and drying of their coat can keep them clean, so they wouldn’t need brushing.

Corded Poodle Puppies

It’s not ideal to cord a Poodle puppy as their hair is still growing. The reason why Poodles can be corded so easily as an adult is because their hairs have become finer and curlier. Plus, the adult coat is easier to clump and cluster around the core. Moreover, the puppy part of their coat becomes the core of the chords at this point.

How To Properly Bathe A Corded Poodle

When it comes to bathing a corded Poodle, it’s often a touchy subject. Baths can easily remove any essential moisture in cords, making them droop and fall apart. Therefore you have to be really careful how you bathe a Poodle.

Washing The Cords

• The best way to bathe a corded Poodle is to apply dog shampoo and soap individually to each cord. You must massage the cord to remove any debris or dirt. But make sure you rinse the cords thoroughly with warm water and soap.
• You should also be prepared that the bathing experience will take a lot longer than it did previously. Moreover, you might want to use a leave-in conditioner to keep their hair soft and smooth. However, this is completely subjective to you, some groomers believe in doing this, and others think it interferes with the matting process.
• Using other moisture like vaseline or other oils may be tempting to keep the cords clean, but this isn’t recommended. Often, a Poodle with a good diet will grow a healthy coat that won’t need additional oils.

Drying The Cords

• After your Poodle has had their bath, you will want to gently squeeze each cord using a towel to remove any excess water. Following this, you should use a blow dryer and dry each cord carefully. Often when doing this, you might want to clip sections of the Poodles coat to make sure each cord is dried properly.
• To ensure its hair is dried completely, you might wish to place a fan in the room after using the blow dryer. If you fail to dry the Poodle’s hair properly, their cords might develop a bad odor and get skin irritations.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to choosing a hairstyle for your Poodle, you have a lot of options. Regardless of your Poodle’s coat color or marking patterns, you can develop a hairstyle for them that matches their personality and your lifestyle. The corded look for a Poodle can be a unique and beautiful style that is worth the effort. While bathing and general grooming may take up a bit more time, their distinctive look may make it an easy task to keep your Poodle looking their best. Whatever hairstyle or look you choose for your Poodle, be sure to keep up on the recommended grooming practices. Bathe them regularly and ensure their skin is well taken care of.