TIPS FOR BETTER BRUSHOUT

"Bella" is an adorable Maltese mix.

Many dogs have coats that require a commitment to brushing out between visits to the groomer or home styling.  This includes all the so-called “non-shedding” breeds, such as Bichon Frise, Poodle, Terriers, the popular “Doodles”, and many designer breeds.  A combination coat, where there is a mixture of firm, primary, hairs and soft, secondary, hairs is the most challenging.  Here are some tips to help make your brushing out more successful.

   1. Use a comb as well as a brush. For many canine coats, simply brushing is not sufficient to keep it tangle-free.  Brushing will loosen the hair and lift out some debris, but often does not completely separate the hairs nor remove dead undercoat.  Combing is essential.  If you have trouble combing your dog’s coat, try using a more widely spaced “coarse” comb rather than a finer one.  Fine combs often snag rather than separate and are uncomfortable for the pet.

  2.   Mist lightly with a coat spray or detangling spray.  Brushing and combing dry coat, especially if not bathed and conditioned, can generate static electricity and break hair.  Choose a product that contains an antistatic ingredient, such as Cetrimonium Chloride.  Silicone ingredients, such as Amodimethicone, protect the hair as well as help to release tangles. 

3   3.  Work in layers from the bottom up and back to front. One of the most common mistakes of the novice or inexperienced groomer is brushing over tangled areas deeper in the coat.  Working up the legs from the foot up, addressing all four sides of each leg, will help prevent missed areas.  When you brush or comb from the top down, you may leave uncombed areas covered up by a layer of nice coat.  A brush over is not a brush out.

4    4.  Be systematic and establish a routine.  Having a certain order in which you proceed not only helps you become more thorough, it gives the dog confidence in the process.  Dogs love a predictable routine.  If allowed to take the lead and dictate the order of grooming, however, they will often dance away from problematic areas and cause you to lose focus. 

5    5. Thoroughness is more important than frequency. A complete and thorough brushing and combing once a week can be more valuable than a daily brush over.  Light brushing may be helpful after walks to remove debris from the coat, but unless you are combing through the entire coat on a regular basis, a combination coat will accumulate loose hair and begin to have deep set tangles or mats. 

  

Brushing and combing are critical to the successful maintenance of fluffy, curly coats.  Long, straight coats such as Maltese and Havanese also need thorough brush out.  The concept of ‘non-shedding’ is something of a misnomer, as all canine coats are in some stage of growth and replacement.  Fine, soft, secondary hairs are often replaced more quickly than primary or “guard” hairs.  While the loose hair may not fall out as happens with visible shedding, the shed hair can get caught up within the coat and cause matting.

Worse yet, some combination coats or very soft coats will “felt” if left unattended.  Felting describes thick matting that occurs at the skin and can become so tight that it cannot be removed except by very close clipping.  Felting is most likely to occur when matted hair is bathed and not combed.  Bathing removes sebum that naturally coats the hair and keeps it from clinging together.  When the matted fur is bathed and dried it can cling together and tighten to the skin, causing felting. 

6. Should you brush out before or after the bath?  Good question!  Old School grooming practices before the '90's dictated that one must ALWAYS thoroughly brush out the dog's coat before bathing.  
These were the days before the evolution of pet shampoos.  Pet shampoos prior to the mid '80's were often rather harsh and would strip the coat of oils.  Any tangles allowed to dry in the coat would likely tighten and become more troublesome.  Sometimes undercoat that was not combed thoroughly could "felt" into a bad situation.  Today's products are quite improved.  Many pet shampoos contain conditioning ingredients, and there is a wide range of conditioning products that can be used after the shampoo.  Conditioners encourage the hair to relax and separate, and can actually facilitate brush out.  Professional groomers gradually became aware that brushing and combing after bathing is easier on the dog and the groomer, and causes less hair damage than tugging on dry, dirty hair.  It is also much healthier for groomers to work on clean hair.  If you are brushing unbathed hair, please always use a grooming spray to minimize damage to the hair cuticle and accidental breakage, which causes more matting.  

Barbara Bird is an International Certified Master Groomer and owner of Transformation Pet Center in Tucson, Arizona, USA.  She has been grooming professionally since 1971.  For more writings by BBird for groomers, check out the BBirdTalk Blog on Groomwise.

For our selection of favorite combs and brushes for sale, visit the BBird Shopping Cart.  

To make an appointment for your pet, call us at 520.795.5743. We are open Wednesdays, Fridays & Saturdays 8:00 am to 4:30 pm.