Brushing 101: Brushing & De-shedding Tips for Happy Dogs

Line brushing is a technique popularly used on long-haired pets. It is an effective way to work the coat down to the skin. The process. Hold or push up the coat with one hand and with a slicker brush or comb, work the seam line by pulling down a small amount of fur with each stroke. I would suggest starting from the lower section of the dog and working your way up. Do not move to the next section before your brush can move through the coat smoothly and the seam line of the skin can be seen. Before moving on, you can use your comb to check that the coat is properly untangled. The motion you should use when line brushing is pat and pull. While keeping your wrist straight, pat the coat with the full pad of the brush and pull out and away from the skin. Do not flick your wrist as this may puncture the skin or cause brush burns. To correctly hold the brush, place your hand at the balance point of the brush, which is where the pad and the handle meet. Another method is back brushing. Brush backwards against the lay of the fur or hair's growth direction and then brush it back into place. Brushing this way usually loosens and removes dead hair and stimulates the dog's skin. Back brushing can also be applied during the drying process to decrease drying time since you are separating the hair strands from each other and allowing the airflow to penetrate in between. Back brushing should also be applied during the shaving process. Back brush the entire coat and pass over the pet with your clipper. When the bulk of the coat is gone, repeat for a second time to get a smoother finish. On the third back brush, look only for high spots or uneven areas and pass over it with your clippers. What is de-shedding? This is the process of removing hair from your pet's undercoat which was not or could not have been completely removed by brushing. Normal brushing primarily focuses on removing hair and debris from the top layer of the fur, the guard coat. By frequently de-shedding, the amount of fur your pet sheds will be greatly reduced as you have removed the fur from the undercoat before it had a chance to shed. I will now demonstrate how to de-shed a coat. Check for any skin problems, open wounds or sores. 2. To de-shed a dog, the coat must be completely dry. So do it preferably before you bathe her. 3. Make sure there are no mats or knots in the coat. If so, remove with a de-matting tool. 4. Start by brushing from the neck down the back to the tail angling the de-shedding tool's teeth in the direction of hair growth. 5. Brush with firm, gentle and long strokes. 6. Distribute pressure evenly on the tool, not too hard, in order to not scratch the skin. 7. Remove hair from the tool when it clumps up on the teeth. If you enjoyed today's video, please leave a comment in the section below. Send us some suggestions of content that you would like to see next time. And we're here to educate. So send us all your questions via our social media channels or even straight direct to me via email. Thank you so much for watching. And remember to hit the subscribe and like button if you've learned something new today. Thank you for watching. Stay Fur Fabulous!