# Battle of the Burrs



## Targhee (Mar 15, 2012)

I've been battling with this for quite some time now and need a better solution. My dog works most of the day out on our land which has a lot of burrs. She is an Australian Shepherd and has medium length hair. By the end of the day she usually has a good amount of burrs stuck in her coat. The other day it had to be over 100. Alot of the burrs get buried right up against her skin. My only option is to cut them out. This has worked as she is a working dog so missing patches of hair here and there isn't a big deal. This does take a lot of time daily. She doesn't enjoy getting those burrs out (nor do I) and can hardly sit still. The other day when attempting to cut out a clump of burrs right up against her skin on the underside of her leg I accidently cut a bit of skin off as well. I feel really bad and don't want to do it again. What I'm looking for is a better solution to get the burrs out. The burrs are not going anywhere nor are we. I've heard of the Mars Coat King tool. I've even thought of a jacket but think she will overheat. Any suggestions to make this easier on the both of us?


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

Max hasn't anything like the coat your dog has but he would refuse to run through weedy fields because he hated the long grooming session that followed. He has a 'spay' coat with nasty sticky undercoat that doesn't shed well on its own. I did get a 12 tooth MCK and it was amazing, with the sticky damaged undercoat gone seeds don't stick as much. We don't run into horrible stuff like cockleburrs, the seeds and stickers he gets will comb out easily now. Shortening the coat might help too. I experimented with leaving his feet natural but even between the top of his toes a tiny seed would start a mat but since I have been trimming his feet no more mats. My theory is there isn't enough fur length to wrap around the seed now.

I wouldn't use the MCK to pull out burrs but you might consider removing excess undercoat and possibly shortening the hair to a couple inches all over. Whether a MCK is the tool for that or not is your choice. A cheap metal flea comb pulls undercoat very nicely as well but the MCK is faster.


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## Graco22 (Jul 16, 2007)

The coat king isnt going to get thru a thick aussie coat when burrs are in there deep. Get some Show Sheen, and a hard slicker. Separate the coat around the burr, mist it with Show Sheen, and work them out with the slicker. A coarse gteyhound comb would be helpful too. What happened to you with the scissors is why you should never cut matts or burrs out with scissors. If they must be cut out after all attempts to brush them out, use a clipper. Much safer.


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## KodiBarracuda (Jul 4, 2011)

I have found a wide-ish tooth rake works best for us. Our aussie doesn't pick up burrs but our schnauzer/poodle picks them up terrible with his beard. Living on a ranch in the sandhills our yard was chemically killed after a few months of summer because we couldn't handle the outbreak, our entire yard was infested with sand burr plants. Oh and our burrs are sand burrs and ouch, I HATE pulling them out with my fingers.


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