# Line Brushing & Sheltie Grooming



## littlesoprano (Sep 21, 2013)

So Cosmo and I are heading back home to Michigan tomorrow, and after getting his two little mats out, I gave him a nice bath, and briefly looked up how to properly groom him. His fur is starting to get quite long, so I figured now would be the time to start to really properly groom the little man. I think I sort of line brushed him (with a fine toothed comb), but not fully. All I know is I got enough undercoat to make a second Cosmo out of him, and his fur feels so much better. It's lighter, softer, and smoother too. I didn't even realize how much loose undercoat he had, but now he looks handsome as can be!

I do have a few questions though regarding line brushing, and also developing a proper grooming schedule for him.

*Line Brushing*: 
How do I properly do this? I think I did it right, but now that I look back, I don't think I did lol. 

What are the proper tools for doing so?

What's better, misting the fur with water or using a leave-in conditioner (for dogs of course), type spray?

How often should I line-brush him? I normally run over him with a pin-type brush every day, but now I realize how much of his undercoat I was really missing.

I ended up having to do chunks of him at a time, because he wouldn't sit still and was screaming bloody murder if I ran out of cheese-even if the comb wasn't touching him. He got a bath previous to me doing so, and I waited for him to dry some before doing so.

*Other grooming questions*
What kind of brushes should I have? I have a pin-brush, and a fine-toothed comb, but what else is a NECESSITY with a long-haired double-coated dog?

How often can/should I be bathing him. Since we got him, he tends to get baths when he turns into a ball of mud, which is quite often, but how many baths are too much?

How should the fur around his paws be kept? I keep the bottom-between the pads, VERY short to reduce irritation from the snow, but what about the rest of his paw/lower pegs.

Last question: How do I get him to stay still for grooming lol. I have been giving him treats and trying to make brushing fun for him since the DAY we brought him home, and it's been 4 months, and I feel like we've gotten no where. For the most part he won't bite the brush as long as I have treats, but it's just getting to be way too time consuming. Especially when I need two hands to do the troublesome and delicate spots on his coat, I can't because he needs a treat or he bites the brush (playfully not hard, but still annoying nonetheless). 

My BF agreed to help me build a little grooming table, but would this help in anyway? I.e. keeping him still, and possibly getting him to stand for more then 1 second? It's just getting to be frustrating and stressful grooming him. Today he just gave up after a while and laid next to me while I combed him out (did so thru the entire football game, and he fell asleep), but it's just an exhausting elongated process. 




Okay anyway sorry for the long post, any help would be greatly appreciated!


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## Damon'sMom (Aug 2, 2011)

As for the grooming questions:

For my Aussie I use: undercoat rake, pin brush, greyhound comb.

I bathe Jazz once every 2 weeks. I brush him out really well before. Then I will use shampoo, and a conditioner on his coat. After his bath he gets blow dried with a force air dryer. I do this outside because all of his undercoat blows out EVERYWHERE!! Its pretty cool to see really. Once he is fully dry (not even one damp or moist spot!) I will brush him out again and trim up anything that needs it (feet, butt, etc).

Its really up to you on how you want his feet to look. I trim Jaspers fur between his toes and on his pads. I also shape his feet fur because I hate that unkempt look.

I have taught my dogs the stand command. One of my dogs know the command freeze, it means the same thing just a different word. Once they are on the table the command is given and they are not to move. I feel a grooming table is great. If I try to brush Jasper on the ground he gets antsy. Once he is on the table he knows its down to business and he has to stay still until told otherwise. 

I brush Jasper everyday for 10-15 minutes. When it is grooming day he is brushed for 30 minutes before the bath, and about 30 minutes to 50 minutes afterward. I feel the more you do it the less work it will be on grooming day. Plus they get practice on how to behave when being grooming daily.


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## Boleyn (Aug 25, 2008)

Make sure your pin brush does not have the little round balls on the tips of the pins. My Skye Terrier's breeder told me those actually damage the coat. For brush outs I use a 50/50 combo of water and Infusium 23 leave-in.


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

One thing to keep in mind is that he's probably shedding out his puppy coat right now, which makes everything so much worse. So you might need to do some extra grooming and really stay on top of him now, but by the time he's a year old it might not be this difficult.

I don't have any sheltie specific advice, but can your breeder help with things like trimming up the feet? I'm sure there are some good YouTube videos on line brushing as well.

When I do feet, I use clippers with a #30 blade on the bottom and scoop out some hair, but you can do it with straight scissors as well. Then I use scissors and thinning shears to neaten around the foot and on top, brushing up the fur that grows between the toes, but not taking it all out. I just try to get a round neat looking foot. Not sure how much sheltie feet fur grows.

For getting him to stay still, the best method I've found by far is to get a grooming table. You can also buy just the arm and use a regular table with a non-skid mat. Watson is wiggly and doesn't want to stay still, but as soon as I plop him on the grooming table he mostly stands there and doesn't fight it. Tons of treats too! You can train without one, of course, but I think it's worth it for a more grooming intensive dog.

For bathing, it's really up to you. Show people might bath a dog every week or multiple times a week without issues. You just need to make sure to rinse out all shampoo and conditioner residue. The forced air dryer is also a huge help.


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## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

For my shelties I used an undercoat rake to get out the undercoat. The furminator totally ate their hair. :/

I actually used a slicker brush vs a pin brush (I use a pin brush for the paps though). Looking online I see some people use slickers and some use pins for both paps and shelties. 

I just took shears to the feet to trim them neatly/trim up the pads. I also trim from the hock down on the shelties and the paps. And thinning shears to tidy up the lines (legs/pants/etc)

Not sure if that's how you're SUPPOSED to do it but... lol


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## littlesoprano (Sep 21, 2013)

I mostly just use the pin brush to straighten up his coat after brushing. Not much more then that. I do think most of it was puppy hair I got out. But man he looks so handsome-and skinny! I didn't realize he was so skinny underneath all that fur. He has a pretty good tuck, solid abdomen, and you can feel his ribs actually. I was so worried he was getting chubby, and what do you know, I have one skinny little pup. 

I definitely will trim from the hock down. He has quite a bit of fringe on his legs already, which I'm pretty shocked at. How long of a slicker do you suggest? I mostly used a human thin-extremely thin actually, hair comb, and it got so much fur out of him I could make another Cosmo-or two.


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

For trimming around the legs and feet, I would recommend thinning shears if you don't have them already. They blend the hair in and you don't get the choppy appearance of straight scissors.

The comb sounds like it's doing a pretty good job. I have a flea comb and it gets out more hair than the standard comb or either brush.


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## Laurelin (Nov 2, 2006)

Oh gosh, I have no idea how long the pin brush was. I don't think I was aware there were different lengths, actually. We had two and they both worked well but the undercoat rake will be your best friend as far as getting hair out.

I always took regular shears to get bulk off of the hair then used thinning shears to blend the lines.


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## littlesoprano (Sep 21, 2013)

It's a bit blurry but that was after I "line brushed" all of him minus his tail-he was done an entire day of grooming lol. Getting mats out, a long bath, and then all of this craap, Cosmo got away with his tail.









Another one. I think his mane definitely looks a lot better with it, and the area around his face too. His fur is SO much softer, and the fact that he doesn't like fat anymore with all that extra fur makes me happy lol.


In contrast, this was a few weeks ago, but you can definitely see a difference, in my eyes: 










I'm not gonna lie for under his feet I have literally been using kitchen scissors -GASP-. Then for his butt area I've just been using blunt-nosed scissors. Talk about noob dog grooming. I plan on going to the pet store today or tomorrow, so I will definitely be getting a pair of thinning shears, and of course an undercoat rake (not furminator), and other assorted brushes. Should I bother in investing in a "pet" comb, or is it fine to be using my $3 dollar plastic walgreens comb?


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

He looks so good! What a beautiful boy! He has so much hair for his age too. At that age Watson hardly had any hair. I do remember that puppy coat being a huge pain - it was kind of dry and brittle feeling, and an awful shade of orange (compared to the deeper color of his adult coat). I was so happy when that was done and gone. I bet you'll see a lot less mats once the puppy coat is totally gone.

For a comb it's absolutely ok to go cheap. I do like having a stainless steel one, because the sharp tines can get into a mat, but it really doesn't matter. My grooming quality greyhound comb was only $10 I think.

I would definitely invest in a good pair of thinning shears and scissors if you can. I think I spent $50 on each, which is pretty much the low-medium end of grooming quality. You can get something cheap now, but you will probably want to swap them out for something nicer in a year or two (at least that's what I've done with the stuff I bought cheap to start). It's fine to use what you've got though as long as you're happy with how it's working.


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## littlesoprano (Sep 21, 2013)

elrohwen said:


> He looks so good! What a beautiful boy! He has so much hair for his age too. At that age Watson hardly had any hair. I do remember that puppy coat being a huge pain - it was kind of dry and brittle feeling, and an awful shade of orange (compared to the deeper color of his adult coat). I was so happy when that was done and gone. I bet you'll see a lot less mats once the puppy coat is totally gone.
> 
> For a comb it's absolutely ok to go cheap. I do like having a stainless steel one, because the sharp tines can get into a mat, but it really doesn't matter. My grooming quality greyhound comb was only $10 I think.
> 
> I would definitely invest in a good pair of thinning shears and scissors if you can. I think I spent $50 on each, which is pretty much the low-medium end of grooming quality. You can get something cheap now, but you will probably want to swap them out for something nicer in a year or two (at least that's what I've done with the stuff I bought cheap to start). It's fine to use what you've got though as long as you're happy with how it's working.


I think this ridiculous cold spell is contributing a bit to be honest lol. The other week it was -40something with the wind chill and Cosmo was still rolling around in the snow not wanting to come inside. 

If greyhound combs are that reasonably priced-I don't need some professional style equipment-I will definitely invest in one. I discussed the grooming table with my boyfriend, and we might convert an old card table into one, it's used for puzzles and has a rubber grip top on it due to that. Plus it folds away, which makes that much more convenient. I was home in NJ this past two weeks, and with my mom feeding Cosmo cheese he could care-less about me line brushing him, but when the cheese went away he screamed bloody murder-because laying on his side is the worst thing ever. I really wasn't expecting all this fur on him at such a young age, but regardless he needs to learn to suck it up once a week for serious grooming LOL!

What brands of thinning shears are best?


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

A card table would make a great grooming table. You could get an arm, but you might not need it - dogs just seem to sit there because they're up off the floor. 

I have a greyhound comb similar to this one: http://www.amazon.com/Master-Groomi...qid=1390339585&sr=1-3&keywords=greyhound+comb

For scissors and shears, I would take a look at Cherrybrook.com and Petedge.com (I'm sure there are others, but I like those two sites). Mine are Dubl Duck. Geib is top notch. I see Master Grooming Tools stuff around. They all offer options in a lot of price ranges, so I pretty much decided what I was comfortable paying, and then picked one. The more teeth on the thinning shears, the better it will blend, but the less hair it will remove. So if you remove most of the hair with straight shears and just blend with the shears, then lots of teeth is better for blending out the lines. If you had a breed where you were taking off lots of hair with the shears (like a spaniel or something), you might want one with less teeth and one with more. Mine is 46 teeth, which is pretty fine. My straight shears are 7.5".

Here's a thread I started when I was shopping and Graco gave some good advice on shears: http://www.dogforums.com/dog-grooming-forum/116998-spaniel-grooming-tool-recommendations.html


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## littlesoprano (Sep 21, 2013)

elrohwen said:


> A card table would make a great grooming table. You could get an arm, but you might not need it - dogs just seem to sit there because they're up off the floor.
> 
> I have a greyhound comb similar to this one: http://www.amazon.com/Master-Groomi...qid=1390339585&sr=1-3&keywords=greyhound+comb
> 
> ...


I really like that thread on the thinning shears so thank you! I don't think I'll need an arm, but after watching more videos and knowing how much he freaked out, he needs to learn to lie on his side for quite some time, and for him that is torture. I don't even know how to teach it. I lure him too it and when he takes the treat he lays upright.

Can you use thinning shears on the back end? He has the most ridiculously poofy butt fur, and as of now I just trim his butt area with scissors, but I wonder if the thinning shears would yield the same result. It's just this super thick rough fur, and he was NOT letting me back there with the comb after a day of getting out loose hair (but we are okay with scissors??). 

Maybe Graco has some advice on how to get him to tolerate the line brushing haha. It worked so well for him, I think it will be added into our regular grooming schedule (something to do every 1-2 weeks as his coat grows in).


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## elrohwen (Nov 10, 2011)

littlesoprano said:


> Can you use thinning shears on the back end? He has the most ridiculously poofy butt fur, and as of now I just trim his butt area with scissors, but I wonder if the thinning shears would yield the same result. It's just this super thick rough fur, and he was NOT letting me back there with the comb after a day of getting out loose hair (but we are okay with scissors??).


Yes, you should be able to. Remember to always point the shears in the direction the hair grows so it blends well and you don't get ridges. For example, to trim Watson's ear, I point the shears either up or down, not side to side, because his hair grows down. So on his back end, I would point the shears towards his bum trying to stay parallel to the hair, or point towards his head, not down towards his feet. I have seen people take out bulk by getting the shears under the coat and clipping away, so you can experiment with that. Just brush the hair up a bit, get the shears in there and snip a bit, then brush the hair back the correct direction to assess what you've done. Youtube videos might be helpful.

For teaching him to lay on his side, I would lure him down, treat him, say "stay" or "wait", then move the treat away from him a little bit. If he stays, let him nibble on the treat again. Gradually move the treat further away while he lays there, but reward periodically. Then start putting a cue on it.


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## littlesoprano (Sep 21, 2013)

elrohwen said:


> Yes, you should be able to. Remember to always point the shears in the direction the hair grows so it blends well and you don't get ridges. For example, to trim Watson's ear, I point the shears either up or down, not side to side, because his hair grows down. So on his back end, I would point the shears towards his bum trying to stay parallel to the hair, or point towards his head, not down towards his feet. I have seen people take out bulk by getting the shears under the coat and clipping away, so you can experiment with that. Just brush the hair up a bit, get the shears in there and snip a bit, then brush the hair back the correct direction to assess what you've done. Youtube videos might be helpful.
> 
> For teaching him to lay on his side, I would lure him down, treat him, say "stay" or "wait", then move the treat away from him a little bit. If he stays, let him nibble on the treat again. Gradually move the treat further away while he lays there, but reward periodically. Then start putting a cue on it.


Well I put him on his side, he screamed bloody murder like I was killing him, and then proceeded to dose off to sleep while I was finishing up his back end. So he doesn't make any sense once so ever lol. Getting on your side=OMG THEY ARE KILLING ME, once on side and getting brushed? -OMG FEELS SO GOOD, SLEEEEP-. So that would be Cosmo in a nut-shell. They didn't have any Thinning Shears left at Chow Hound, but I picked up one of their brand of leave-in spray moisturizing conditioner, a longer thin toothed comb, and a slicker brush as well. The conditioner made his coat SO nice especially once it had dried. I only did the other leg which I didn't complete over the weekend, and I just ended up spraying down that side, and it's noticeable if you run your hands over. 

Thank you so much for your advice! Still on the hunt for thinning shears, but they normally get new things in pretty quickly, and he said if not they can order a specific kind for me!


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## TriColor (Jan 29, 2014)

He looks great!! I definitely second the slicker brush for Sheltie coats. And you'll love your undercoat rake. I have a huge rough collie with a ridiculously thick coat and I would be lost without my slicker brush and rake. I'm also a grooming novice (have had Shelties and Collies for years, but never did anything other than brushing), so I had been trimming her back end hair with regular scissors, and then I have clippers for feet and sanitary trim. I definitely need to look into some thinning shears, I think they would help out a lot!


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