These
come in many different shapes and sizes so that you can find a brush to suit
your dog.
This page is all about the grooming tools, some you will be very familiar with (or should be!!) others are used by professional groomers. The more you get to know about grooming the easier it will be to ask for what you want from a professional groomer.
These
come in many different shapes and sizes so that you can find a brush to suit
your dog.
The Slicker Brush is the main brush used on dogs with longer coats. They have wire pins which are bent half way down, this allows the pins to grab into the dogs coat and pull out the dead hair and enable you to tease out mats. They come in many different sizes to suit all breeds and enable you to get into the hard to reach areas like the arm pits. Slickers can also be curved, the extra 'rocking' motion you can use makes it easier to work into thick coats and great for working out knots. Slickers can also be 'gentle' with finer pins set in a cushioned base, these are great for general grooming.
The Pin Brush comes in many sizes, it has straight wire pins (ideally with capped ends to protect the coat and skin from scratches). It is used to break up the coat and remove loose hair - often used on spitz breeds and Old English Sheepdogs etc that are in full coat. This brush will fluff up the coat without removing much of it. This brush is not good for dogs with knots as it will slide over the knots/mats.
The Pure Boar Bristle Brush will distrubute the natural oils throughout the coat, it promotes a healthy skin and shiny coat. Great for short coated breeds like Staffies, Great Danes etc. These brushes can be expensive but the cheaper ones are not pure boar and will do a poor job at best. A cheaper version you can use are the gents old fashioned hair brushes. Horse suppliers also sell softer dandy brushes which can be great on fine coated dogs like Greyhounds.
The Double Sided Brush is often sold in pet shops with a straight pin wire side (often with a rough finish to the end of the pins) and a plastic bristle side. This type of brush is next to useless, you won't get it into the dogs coat to remove dead hair and knots and the 'bristle' side will just glide over the top of the coat.
The Rubber Brush these come in various types. A horse rubber curry comb is great for removing the moulting coat on a short coated breed. 'Zoom Grooms™' come in 2 types, the pink being softer then the purple. These are good to loosen moulting coats of Labs, Goldies, GSD etc and handy for working up a lather in the bath.
Come
in many shapes and sizes and have different uses. Always look for a comb
with rounded ends to the teeth, these will not scratch the dogs skin.
Flea combs are very fine and have short teeth, they are used to find the flea dirt in a coat though you might occasionally see a flea run or jump. They can be handy for removing the tiny knots found in beards around the lip area.
Moulting combs have a long tooth then alternate with a shorter tooth, this allows the comb to work into a thick coat and grip onto the loose coat. Take care not to dig in to much or you will cause the dog some pain as you pull. An alternative is to use a wider tooth comb with an elastic band woven into the teeth, the elastic then grips onto the dead hair - great for the body coat on spaniels. You can also use your thumb to grip onto the dead coat.
Greyhound/Split combs have one side which has a coarse spacing of the teeth and one side which is medium spacing. These are the most useful, for checking there are no mats in the newly brushed coat, for fluffing up the coat and used when scissor cutting the coat. Longer teeth make the comb easier to use and you can be sure they get down to the roots of the coat. You can even get combs with an anti static coating!
Extra wide tooth combs are used on breeds like poodles in longer trims to give volume to the coat without pulling out any hair.
Useful
for those times when your dog is dropping coat all over the house, you can only
remove the coat that is ready to fall out. Factors such as breeding, where
the dog lives and what he is fed on will also affect how much a dog moults.
I have already mentioned the rubber brushes useful at this time. You can
see the zoom grooms on the right of this picture.
Undercoat Rake has teeth that are thicker nearer the base, this has the effect of squeezing the hairs together as it is pulled through the coat and pulls out the loose hairs. V ery good on GSD, just make sure the loose hair hasn't got matted before you start to pull at the coat!
Shedding blades are like a flexible. blunt saw. They can be used straight or curled into a U shape. Their effectiveness really depends on the dog, some Lab and Goldie owners find them great but on other dogs of the same breed they can have little effect.
'Furminator'™ is a new product. Basically it is a fine clipper blade base in a plastic handle. It can be very good at removing the undercoat of many breeds including the larger terriers and schnauzers
'Mars Coat King'™ has curved, sharp blades which will cut through the undercoat to thin out the coat.
Stripping
knivesThese are used on wire coated breeds as an aid to pull out the top coat and rake out the undercoat. They come in many different shapes and sizes. It is important to find one that feels right in your hand as well as have the correct 'head' for what you wish to use it for. Make sure that new knives have been blunted on a stone (or back door step) before use as they are NOT meant to cut the coat - this can ruin the texture and colour of the coat.
I will also add at this point stripping stones - these are blocks of lava, the finer bubbles are best. They are used to remove undercoat but take care not to graze the dogs skin. Some people also find the 'Scholl'™ foot file does the same job.
There is no easy way to demat a dog. If the coat has many mats or solid to
the skin it is far kinder to clip off the dog. These tools basically have
one or more sharp blades which will cut into a knot to break it up, allowing you
to then brush out the rest. An alternative is to use a pair of scissors
and cut away from the skin in the direction of hair growth. Various
conditioners and spray in products also claim to assist in mat removal but the
best way is to not let them happen in the first place.
Come in 3 types
whiskers and trimming feet up to the 9" blades used to trim large
dogs. They should be sharp (never use for anything else), well oiled at
the screw and ideally have one blade with cross hatching pattern which helps to
grip the hair. They can vary in price from a few pounds up to
hundreds. A good quality, work horse brand is Roseline™ - reasonable
price and keep a good edge for a long time if looked after.
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There are many different makes and they vary from the very old fashioned 'hand clippers' to the almost industrial style with a vacuum attachment to remove the cut hair, many groomers use Osters A5™ or Andis™ or Aescalup™. These clippers all come with a huge choice in different blade sizes allowing you to shave the coat to the skin up to leaving a half inch of coat. You can also use attachment combs which clip over a short blade to coat coats as long as 2", however these will be rough and need going over with scissors to neaten. I find them more trouble then they are worth and can scissor cut a dog quicker. Most brands can use the Oster™ blades except for Aescalup™ (these clippers and blades are twice the price of the other brands).
Come
in 2 types. The scissor style are my favorites though other people prefer
the guillotine style. Both types must be sharp or they can crush the nail
before they cut (which is painful to the dog). Other people are using a
Dremel™ hobby grinder with a sandpaper disc fitted - never use the grinding
stone as this can get to hot. Nail clippers also come with a clipper guard
which is supposed to stop you cutting off to much nail, I find they just get in
the way of me seeing what I am cutting. It is a good idea to have some
quick stop powder or stick handy just incase you nick into the blood vessel in
the nail.
Ear forceps are used along with ear powder to pull out the hair from the ear canal of some breeds. You must never poke down further then you can see as you can cause a lot of damage to the ear. Fingers are a much safer option if you don't have long nails.
Some people will use scalers on their own dogs. Not a good idea as this will roughen up the tooth enamel and make it easier for tartar to stick again. Vets do this with the dogs under sedation so they can polish the teeth and also remove any that turn out to be only held in place by the tartar. Much better to regularly brush your dogs teeth, encourage him to chew on appropraite items or the use of 'Plaque Off™' or 'Fragaria™' supplements. Filtered drinking water can also help in the fight against tartar.
Very handy if you have a longer coated breed, teaching a dog to relax and settle on the table which becomes the 'grooming place' will pay long term benefits - much easier then chasing the dog over the kitchen floor or lawn! A table is also easier on your back. Long coated breeds can be taught to lie down on the table so you can easily get to the hard to reach places. The table should have a smooth rubber top for good grip, though tables often have a pattern top. Cheaper tables will fold up, some have wheels which make them convert into a trolley (handy for show exhibitors) and for the professional there are hydraulic or electric tables which alter in height at the touch of a button.
Control posts and arms attach to the table and allow you to fasten the dog to is by a collar attachment. Grooming frames which attach to both sides of the table also allow you to run a second strap under the dogs belly, handy for the fidgets, lazy or older dogs that need an extra bit of support.
Come in a huge selection from the tiny hand dryers, the same as you would use on your own hair. Then there are stand dryers which are powerful dryers on a stand leaving the groomers hands free, they have different heat and power settings, some have a swivel nozzle. Cage dryers have a tube which attaches to the front of a wire crate and blow air around the dog. Cabinet dryers and like a kitchen cabinet with glass door and a wire base, beneath which is a big fan, some dogs have died of heat exhaustion in these and others have got into a real mess when they panicked and the s*!t really did hit the fan!! There are also high velocity driers, they do give off some warmth but they mainly dry by blasting the water off the coat - they give a great massage to but not for the nervous or tiny dogs.