For long haired puppy breeds we recommend professional grooming every 3 weeks at 3-5 months old (after at least the 2nd set of shots) then every 2 weeks from 6-8 months old. After 8 months, we recommend every month until a full grown adult. After adulthood keep checking the nails and get your dog groomed when they are getting too long or every 4-8 weeks depending on the length of the hair and how often you may brush and comb out your dog yourself in between grooming.
Regular brushing and combing of your puppy is important. Don’t let your puppy get knots in its hair. We call this matted hair or pelted hair. It is not good for your puppy as it can pull on the puppies skin and leave red bald spots. Matted hair is also bad because it doesn’t get any better, only worse, and your puppy may start chewing or itching. It can get to the point where all the hair must be shaved off. Just don’t expect a groomer to demat your pet, especially a puppy! This is not tolerated well by puppies and if you let it get to that point yourself, just know it is best to accept the blame and let the groomer either cut the mats out, shave it, or do whatever is necessary to NOT hurt your puppy!
Puppy grooming is necessary for the experience and tolerance building for your puppy. Try to make this a pleasant experience by choosing a groomer who will be gentle and positive while being firm at the same time. Think of this as your puppy learning how to be a well rounded pet child. You want your puppy to be able to be groomed by professionals or it could get out of hand where you may need to have the (full grown) pet sedated because no one can groom him/her. The professional grooming can be just a bath, nails cut, and ears cleaned, gentle (no nozzle) blow drying (NOT heavy duty nozzle force drying while it is getting used to this process) and bangs/eyes trimmed, sanitary trim and feet trim or just the bath itself which you can do at home with gentle care inbetween the professional grooming.