Need advice with dog grooming please

[SARAHSMITH]

My dog does not shed too much, but he is less than a year old. Still if I pull on his fur lots comes out.
I bought and have used the Oster undercoat rake and that takes out his soft fluffy hair. Is that his undercoat? How often should I use this?
Problem is what is on our floor at home is the courser hair. I also have the zoom groom and this rubber brush does take out the course hair but it's a longggg soooo process.
Is there a brush that might work better for the courser hair being that seems to be what he is shedding?
Also, I have a dog dryer although I can't say I see lot's of hair come out when I use this.
Any ideas to help are greatly appreciated.

[GSD_Xander]

With Xander I use an undercoat rake followed by a slicker brush to get the excess hair that I can.

I know quite a few people on the forums use the Furminator but I have heard you don't want to over-furminate your dog. I don't have one yet since I haven't needed one yet.

Even after I brush Xander I can still get a little bit of fur - not nearly as much as before brushing but still a little.

The soft fluffy hair should be the undercoat.

I'm not sure what brushes besides a slicker type brush would help get those loose top coat hairs off.

[ed1911]

i use a ferminator it works well

[Elaine]

I just use an undercoat rake during coat blowing season and rake my dog once or twice a day until he's done.

[JKlatsky]

The soft fluffy/fuzzy hair will be the undercoat. It's easy to tell on my sable dogs because it's all sort of tan colored. I believe on a Black and tan it would be more grayish in color?

The coarse hair is their guard hairs and in general IME that really shouldn't be coming out in mass quantities- not like the undercoat. The only dog I have that really loses her guard hairs is my female when she's coming into heat because she loses most of her coat at that point. My males do not seem to lose that much of their guard hairs. Diet can have a big impact on shedding. We feed a Grain free fish based kibble here.

IN general I use a shedding rake like this...almost daily. I do not like to use anything with a blade as it cuts the coat. That includes the furminator.


If they are really blowing their coat (2x a year)...I take them to the do it yourself dog wash and a good bath and scrub with the zoom groom followed by a blow out with the forced air dryer takes out almost ALL the loose hair. The only other brush that might work is a slicker...but a couple of my dogs don't love that one.

[Davey Benson]

GSD's do tend to shed quite a bit, but it's a constant thing of short corse hair, that vacuums up easily, and I've just learned to love my vacuum.

After grooming my pyrs.... I never complain about how much hair my GSD sheds....



And he wasn't even blowing his coat with that combing out....

[doggiedad]

i use an under coat comb and pin brush.
i use the under coat first combing in all directions.
then i comb him down following the natural
lay of the hair. i finish him off with the pin brush.
i brush/comb my dog 2 to 3 times a week.

[GSD_Xander]

Originally Posted by Davey Benson

GSD's do tend to shed quite a bit, but it's a constant thing of short corse hair, that vacuums up easily, and I've just learned to love my vacuum.

After grooming my pyrs.... I never complain about how much hair my GSD sheds....



And he wasn't even blowing his coat with that combing out....

WOW! That is a lot of hair!

I bet you could knit a sweater with that