# Brushes 101?



## ireth0 (Feb 11, 2013)

So, I admit, I'm a total novice when it comes to grooming. I know basically nothing other than you need to do it, and have no experience. I thought about brushing a dog at the shelter a while ago and opened our drawer of brushes... only to be overwhelmed and have no idea where to even begin, and ended up just closing the drawer again.

Thus, I'm curious and was wondering if someone could help. Basically I was just looking for a basic rundown of what brushes are appropriate to use for what coat types, and how to tell which type to use on your dog. Not at all looking for anything in depth that would be for a professional, just for your average dog owner wanting to keep their dog's coat in good shape.

Pictures would be SUPER helpful (since, like I said, I have no idea about most of the terminology) but I know that's a lot to ask, haha!

Thanks for your time!


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## Kyndall54 (Apr 26, 2013)

I would be interested in this as well. Ammy will eventually have a pretty substantial coat. I have a shedding brush that I brush her out with as well as a slicker brush. I know a lot of people use undercoat rakes but I don't get it? It doesn't look like it would be helpful on Ammy's coat as it is right now. Whats the best brush for regular brushing?


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## Kayota (Aug 14, 2009)

i'm interested too with faxon, i'm so inexperienced


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

I look for grooming information from breeders for dogs that look sort of like my mixed breed dogs. Max seems to have coat like a Golden Retriever, Sassy looked like a Lab for instance.

The goal in brushing is to remove old hair and to prevent mats, right? Dog fur isn't like human hair, there are multiple hairs growing in each follicle. If the coat has a dense undercoat a bristle brush would be completely unable to get to the skin and lift out the old coat that would then mat up as a bristle brush is pretty much the same as the dog's coat! Try to clean a bristle brush with another bristle brush and see how far you get! So cross that one off the list of suitable brushes for labs and long haired dogs. Likely would be very nice for a single coated short haired dog like boxers though. I use one to help get dogs used to grooming, just an old very soft one that is completely useless to brushing my own hair as it feels good and gets them used to the big object on their body.

The next most common brush one sees is the slicker. It has a head that is often rectangular and can be curved with lots of short very thin wires set in a rubber base. Professional groomers love this brush. I dislike it as it is easy to scratch dog skin with it especially on the head, ears and lower legs. The wires are short, if you brush a thick coat with it you won't get to the skin. The pros use a technique called line brushing where they start at shorter haired areas of the dog holding up the longer hair and brush to the skin and let hair down as the coat is brushed through. In the right hands this brush is very versatile and works for long haired dogs and any that are double coated. I use mine on 20 pound Ginger who might be a giant long haired Chi. The pins get through her thick but single and not dense coat easily.

I like pin brushes. They have plastic or metal pins set apart on a flexible base set on a wood or plastic handle. Mine is oval but they can be any shape. Cheap ones have balls on the ends of the pins. Those balls are supposed to keep the pins from scratching skin but they catch in the coat and pull on hair instead. If you want those balls use a brush meant for human use instead, likely to be easier on fur. The pin moves out of the way if it encounters a snag in the fur. Mine makes a particular sound as it does this so I know to keep brushing the area. I just go over with a light hand and if it is just a snarl it comes out easily with no particular care needed in a few strokes. Once the fur is snarl free the pins will go to the skin easily. The low number of pins means it is easy to get down to the skin to lift out loose hairs that would wrap around other hair and start a mat. It is great for Max who sort of looks like a small black golden with a not very dense coat, Artie a double coated terrier mix and short haired densely double coated Sassy. My current pin brush is just too large for 20 pound long haired Ginger. I don't even know if she has an undercoat yet.

Another sort of brush is the zoom groom/curry brush type. Usually all rubber with varying number of nubs to notches to actual rubber tines. The rubber grabs loose hair and removes it from the coat. They are reportedly awesome for bathing and short haired dogs. I never liked them as it takes forever to get all the hair out and I seem to prefer handles on brushes, very possibly I just never got the right one. They are very gentle and one can use them for ages without hurting the dog.

The shedding rake was incredible on Sassy' short double coat and useless on Max's double coat. Sassy blew coat. Max doesn't. If I had a long haired dog that blew coat like a Siberian or Newfie one would be in my hand daily for a couple months out of the year and in the grooming box the rest of the year. Mine looks like a miniature metal gardening rake, straight back with scary looking tines on it set at right angles to the handle. 

Really, one of every type is best to have on hand. Even if I was good with a slicker I would still want something else for the face and lower legs, perhaps Max would do better with a bristle brush or even a curry brush? His face isn't going to mat but there sure is a lot of hair that comes off face and feet!

My take on brushes, have to go Ginger already posted this once, she will delete it next time.


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## Tankstar (Dec 30, 2006)

*For double coated long hair dogs* (goldens, newfies, collies, shelties ect)
slicker brush:http://www.renspets.com/greyhound-10-aluminum-fine-medium.html

undercoat rake(s)
http://www.renspets.com/coat-wizard-20-blade-wide.html

http://www.renspets.com/millers-forge-double-row-undercoat-rake.html

dematter 
http://www.renspets.com/matts-b-gone-9-blade.html

grey hound comb
http://www.renspets.com/greyhound-10-aluminum-fine-medium.html

*Short double coated breeds* (labs, husky, corgies)
zoom groom
http://www.renspets.com/zoom-groom.html

grey hound comb 
http://www.renspets.com/greyhound-10-aluminum-fine-medium.html

under coat rake
http://www.renspets.com/coat-wizard-20-blade-wide.html

http://www.renspets.com/millers-forge-double-row-undercoat-rake.html

*for single coated non shedding breeds* (poodles, bichons, maltese, shih tzus ect)

grey hound comb
http://www.renspets.com/greyhound-10-aluminum-fine-medium.html

slicker
http://www.renspets.com/greyhound-10-aluminum-fine-medium.html

dematter
http://www.renspets.com/matts-b-gone-9-blade.html


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## Kyndall54 (Apr 26, 2013)

Thanks tank star!!!


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## Flaming (Feb 2, 2013)

The undercoat rakes and de-matters are a tool from heaven if you have a thick furred beast. I don't think I could live without them.


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## GrinningDog (Mar 26, 2010)

Note to self: get an undercoat rake

I've been struggling along with our cheap, pet store puppy-brush for years.


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

I want to add stripping knives, since I haven't seen them mentioned yet. Watson is double coated and feathered, though he doesn't have a ton of undercoat so a shedding rake wouldn't work well. Graco, plus some spaniel literature, talked me into a classic stripping knife and I love it. It gets out his undercoat while leaving the top coat untouched (like the furminator is supposed to do, but the stripping knife doesn't cut guard hairs). I need to get a finer one for use on his head and neck, but the medium sized coarse one that I have works well on his body coat. It's not stripping the coat like a terrier, but carding it to get out the undercoat. The teeth are short, so it wouldn't work for a breed with a super thick coat.

Otherwise, I use a pin brush and a slicker for his feathers (2-5+") and body coat most of the time. The pin gets down to the skin and lets me find any mats or tangles in his feathers, while the slicker gets more loose hair out and leaves a fluffier finish (only lasts for 5min, but I do it right before going into the show ring).


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## Indigo (Mar 31, 2011)

If you need visuals check out youtube for grooming tutorials of different breeds. Technique is important too.


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## Hellocat (May 13, 2013)

We got our first dog earlier this yr. from a rescue. She was bald, except for her face and tail. She looks like a different dog since we started feeding her salmon food and grooming her regularly. My kids help me to groom her every other week. I'm totally new to this, so I have gotten tips from anywhere I can. We started out using a wire brush, then I purchased a comb after observing a groomer at petsmart puff up a bichon w/ one. The comb is my favorite- I use it for her regular hair brush daily. I asked the groomer at petsmart for other ideas, and she recommended the slicker, which I'm not fond of. I use it at the tail end of her grooming to poof up her hair, but not to detangle. Duchess doesn't seem to care for the slicker either.

I'm enjoying this- I am not comfortable using clippers, but I use small scissors to trim around her face and eyes. I take her to the groomers every once in awhile to get her butt shaved & glands squeezed, and ear hair pulled- I do everything else.


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## nemefeme (Jan 10, 2013)

I'm using a regular pet store brush for my westie and notice that he gets wavy hair after he's washed (as opposed to that sleek hair he has when he leaves the groomer) is it my brush or my lack of blow drying? 

And we're getting a new dog this week; she's a pitbull/German Shepard mix with short but thick hair... someone told me that if I brush her once a day the shedding won't be as annoying, but I have no clue what brush to use on her. I see the guide above but I'm not sure where she would fit in. 



Indigo said:


> If you need visuals check out youtube for grooming tutorials of different breeds. Technique is important too.


Or I could just shut up and do that. lol


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## Flaming (Feb 2, 2013)

nemefeme said:


> I'm using a regular pet store brush for my westie and notice that he gets wavy hair after he's washed (as opposed to that sleek hair he has when he leaves the groomer) is it my brush or my lack of blow drying?
> 
> And we're getting a new dog this week; she's a pitbull/German Shepard mix with short but thick hair... someone told me that if I brush her once a day the shedding won't be as annoying, but I have no clue what brush to use on her. I see the guide above but I'm not sure where she would fit in.
> 
> ...


I have the same thing with Manna, if I don't use a hair dryer she gets wavy fur, most noticeably around her ears. My hair as well.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

nemefeme said:


> I'm using a regular pet store brush for my westie and notice that he gets wavy hair after he's washed (as opposed to that sleek hair he has when he leaves the groomer) is it my brush or my lack of blow drying?
> 
> And we're getting a new dog this week; she's a pitbull/German Shepard mix with short but thick hair... someone told me that if I brush her once a day the shedding won't be as annoying, but I have no clue what brush to use on her. I see the guide above but I'm not sure where she would fit in.
> 
> ...


Max gets wavy neck hair if I am lazy and brush him dry instead of blow him dry. You could try brushing him dry, maybe your dog's fur doesn't have as strong a wave as Max's does. Not that hard, just every few minutes brush again until he is even dry behind the ears and under the chin.

Your new dog sounds like she has the same sort of coat as Sassy. Looks sleek but was actually 1/2" deep on her sides and so dense I couldn't use a flea comb except on her legs. Difficult to wet as it was so tight I couldn't flip it back or part it. I massaged watered down shampoo in to get it wet. 

I used a rake meant for short haired dogs when she was shedding and later a furminator. Use the rake if you can groom for 1/2 hour at a time, furminator if you get sick of it faster as it shouldn't be used as much. A slicker or pin brush removed more hair than the often suggested zoom groom when she wasn't blowing coat but that could be just me. A warm bath followed by a walk where I brushed or ruffled her fur every few minutes until she was absolutely dry would reduce hair in the house by quite a bit for about a week. Later I bought a small force dryer and while I had a great time with it her hair hit like tiny needles and got up my nose and in my eyes and mostly because it was hard for her to stand that long so back to the walking dry we went. Really fun to see her skin for the first time ever and watch the hair fly away though......


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## Hellocat (May 13, 2013)

Duchess will get curly when her hair is wet and not blown dry too. I won't bathe her unless one of my kids (assistants) is hm to help. I have one kid do the hair dryer while me and another kid brush/comb her. I prefer a poufy hairdo on duchess, rather than a perm-look. If her legs get wet, they curl up too & will stay that way, unless I comb or dry them.


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