Dogs

My Old Dog Brushes

The reason I had 3 brushes that I used regularly (a few times a month) was because each one brushed my dog in a slightly different way.

For instance...

The small blue one is actually a flea comb. While my dog has never had fleas, I used this brush for helping to remove ticks after walks in the woods. After noticing that it worked so well at pulling up loose hairs from the dog's undercoat, I started using it regularly as a basic undercoat brush. Since it's so small and is only made of plastic, it wasn't all that effective, but it was one of the best ways I had at the time to remove loose fur from the dog's undercoat.

The paddle-shaped pet brush with actual bristles on one side and metal tines on the other was pretty innefective with my Lab-mix. Those types of brushes work better with long-haired dogs. This was simply a brush that I'd had leftover from my days with Jersey, our long-haired dog.

The rectangular curved small-tined brush was my favorite at the time, because it had some sharpness to it. The teeth were so tiny, they appeared sharp. Therefore, they grabbed a lot more fur on any one stroke of the dog's fur. Until I tried the Furminator, I thought this was as good as it got in terms of dog brushes.

Now I know better...

Here are some of the pros and cons of the Furminator dog brush, as I see it:

Furminator Pro's

• It always grabs lots of fur, so you feel your accomplishing something from the get-go

• It gets rid of the flyaways -- those loose hairs lying just under your dog's outer coat

• It lessens the degree of shedding that takes place

• Less frequent vacuuming is required

• My dog loves it (though he truly enjoys any type of brushing)

Furminator Con's

• It's sort of clunky and has no "give" to it

• There's only one direction you can brush using it

• If you brush too hard, you could hurt your dog, as the bristles are actually tiny blades

• It's more difficult to get into tight places at the "right" angle

The Dog FURMinator Brush ROCKS!

I used to use a de-tangler of sorts called the MatBreaker Dematting Tool with my other long-haired dog (an American Eskimo). It had a curved razor-blade contraption that worked really well at eliminating matts and tangles that had built up over time.

The design of the Furminator is similar in that it uses the razor blade idea, but it's much larger and intended for full-body brushing, rather than one-spot detangling. I love it.

Oh, and even though the sharp tiny parts of the razor blades in the Furminator are somewhat recessed behind solid blades of steel, it does come with a simple protective cover to keep the blades from getting caught on anything -- say, while being stored in a drawer or something.

I got my Furminator at PetSmart, but it's widely available now at most pet stores.

Did You Know?  The Furminator is such a great tool that dog groomers use it. They typically charge $10 to $20 for Furminator de-shedding treatments. (See... it's worth every penny!)