The importance of using the correct brush on your dog

Brushing

If a dogs coat is not well maintained and becomes matted, there is a chance they would have to be clipped quite short. This is because brushing out matt’s can be extremely painful for your dog and can cause the skin underneath to because sore due to brush rash/brush burn.

You can help prevent this by brushing your dog at home in between trips to the grooming salon. Brushing your dog at home not only helps you bond with them, but it also helps reduce matting in breeds such as Shih Tzus, Bichons and Cockapoos.

Brushing also helps remove any shedding hair, in breeds such as Huskys, Akitas and German Shepards. When brushing wool, silky and combination coats, it is important to seperate the coat to ensure you are brushing right to the hairs root with a slicker brush before brushing through with a comb to ensure all the small knots have been removed from the coat.

If you do not brush right to the root, the dogs coat will appear to be knot free on the top but could be matted or tangled underneath.

• Wool coats (Poodles, Bichons) - Slicker brush, comb
• Wire coats (Border Terrier, Jack Russells) - Slicker brush, comb, banded comb for handstripped dogs
• Silky coats ( Yorkshire Terriers) - Slicker and comb.
• Smooth coats (French Bulldogs, Staffies) - Rubber curry comb
• Double coats, long (Chow Chows, Golden Retriever) - Slicker Brush, comb.
• Double coats, short (Labradors, Akitas) - Comb, rubber curry comb, deshedding tools, e.g furminators.
• Combination coats (Shih Tzus, Lhasa Apsos) - Slicker brush, comb.

Using the incorrect brushes can cause some breeds to matt (Using a rubber curry comb on a Shih Tzu) or can cause the dogs skin to become irratated or damaged (Using a slicker brush on a Staffie). Always enquire what correct brushes to use before purchasing any.

Handstripping

Wire coated dogs can be both clipped and handstriped. Handstripping helps keep the coarse texture of the coat and helps maintain the colour. This usually only needs to be done ever 5-8 months, depending on how quickly the dogs coat grows. Handstripping is when you remove, or pluck, the dead hair by hand from the dogs coat. This does not hurt the dog, as the hair does this naturally. This does take longer than clipping however as the process is done by hand and is more expensive then clipping.