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If you have a double coated, or triple coated dog, I bet that title had you clicking away madly! Especially if your dog is BIG, like some of our favourites; Aussie Shepherd, Rough Collie, German Shepherd, Golden Retriever, Labradors, The list is endless.
Well until I studied to become a groomer, I really just thought it was a part of the territory owning these dogs for your house to be covered in hair and for your backyard to have hair tumbleweeds floating around. I am here to tell you that itsnot the case.
Breeders often mess you around, suggesting you get a slicker brush. And yes, they have their place – I use them in the salon quite often – but they definitely don’t do a whole lot when it comes to deshedding.
What you do want are two simple tools that, quite frankly, your groomer doesn’t always want to share with you, because they do a lot of the hard work for you,especially if you are doing it on a regular basis.
This magicians wand can be raked through a clean coat to remove dead undercoat. The beauty of it, is that it does not cut hair, but rather catches that hair which is already dead to literally rake it out. It can be used on wet clean hair, or dry clean hair and let me tell you it does the job and does it well.
When using it, don’t push the rake into the skin as you can cause brush rash, quite easily in fact. Just lightly press and pull in the direction of the hair. It shouldn’t require great force and if there are existing matts it may be best to try and remove those using the comb (or scissors if you can’t get it out) before you get started.
Recommend that you do this weekly or bi-weekly dependant on how heavily your pup sheds. Don’t overdo it or you’ll end up stripping away healthy coat once the dead coat is removed.
This one is another winner. It's good to get one with graduating pins so that you can start easy and move to the finer pins once you have got the majority of the knots out. This simple tool I would say is number one in grooming across the board.
If knotted start at the top of the knot and move your way toward the knot to give it a smooth exit point. If only detangling, you can work the other way, from root to rip. You want to ensure that you can run the comb cleanly through the hair. The little bits of fluff you get out is dead undercoat andthatis what prevents you’re dog getting matts.
You can comb asoften as you like. The more you do it and reward your dog, the more they will enjoy it. Make it a part of your routine, maybe in the evenings when you’re watching TV or when cleaning their teeth (yes this is a thing). But remember the coat must be relatively clean and combing through a dry dirty coat may end up snapping the hair.
Introduce these two tools and methods into your grooming routine, you’ll thank me for it! The more you do it, the more rewarding it becomes for your hound.
