The Top 3 Brushes to Pamper and Groom All Dogs
Every dog lover knows grooming is an essential part of keeping their little friend clean and also helps to avoid health problems like irritations, infections, and scratches. Also, when you groom your dog, you pamper them by strengthening the bond between the both of you, you make them feel more relaxed, and you reduce their overall stress.
If you do it by yourself instead of going to a dog salon, it is important you know the tools, how to use them and which one is appropriate for your dog because the coat has different characteristics for every breed and doing it without the right brushes will not prevent the problems grooming is supposed to.
In the market exists a wide variety of brushes to comb your little canine friend, but there are three brushes that are necessary and very versatile to groom a dog with any hair.
1. Bristle Brush
A bristle brush is basic for any type of breed, especially those with short coats. These brushes are often used to make the hair look shiny and smooth, and it should be used regularly to keep the shedding to a minimum.
There are different bristle brushes and the feature that will tell us if it is suitable for our pup or not is the separation among the bristles. For short haired dogs, finding a brush with the bristles close together will work better. The wider the separation gets on the brush, the better it is for longer haired dogs.
There is also a variety of stiffness, and deciding how stiff your brush should be will depend on how rough your dog’s hair is. Usually stiff brushes work better for longer hair, and soft brushes work better for short hair. In general, these brushes are used to comb the top coat and make it smooth, removing dirt, removing dead hair, and stimulating the skin.
2. Slicker Brush
These pet grooming brushes are made of bent wire pins on a flat surface. The pins are angled to avoid the skin and brush the hair. The slicker brush is one of the most used in pet grooming; they are typically used to smooth the coat, remove loose hair and to get rid of tangles complemented with a conditioner or oil.
This brush is suitable for medium-long coats or curly hair, and like the bristle brush, there is a variety of stiffness too. In general, a stiffer brush is recommended for thick heavy coats.
It is not recommended to use it around the dogs’ eyes or mustache because of the material it is made from, which could cause injury to your dog. It is also important to be gentle when using this brush because the careless combing can cause discomfort to the dog.
3. Undercoat Rakes
This brush is vital to have if your dog has thick, dense hair because this tends to develop tangles in the undercoat near the skin, which can lead to skin infections and disease. If it is not properly maintained, the tangled undercoat can pull the hair and skin and cause your dog to feel pain; this gets even more crucial during shedding season when the care should be intensified.
These brushes come in different sizes, and the longer the undercoat is, the longer the brush should be. Otherwise, if it is too short, the pins will not reach the inner layers, and if it is too long, you can hurt the skin. As a recommendation of use, you should use minimal pressure; you don’t want to hurt your dog.
Where to Go From here?
Choosing a brush for your dog can be confusing, especially for those dogs that have multiple coat types on different parts of the body. The tips lists in this article can cover the needs of most dogs, except for a hairless dog, but that’s an article for another day.