Furminator?
 

Hi all,

Shadow is having the moult to end all moults this year - no matter how much I brush her, it's still coming out and she's getting a bit bored with it all. I have been seeing stuff about the furminator, but there is a lot of contradictory information/reviews.

Does anyone have experience of using this on a CsV? Is it good for their coats? Does it leave bald bits like I have read in some reviews?

Any experience/advice gratefully received:)

i do not like them at all :( they 'rip' the fur out and imo are not good for the sort of coat a csv has.

i just use a 'pin brush' which will not damage the coat.

i find a good swim loosens the fur and when he is dry then i brush him.

I love my Furminator, I use it on all of my CSVs and GSD, no bald spots! ;) I only use it when the dog is shedding though, and the fur is coming out in little clumps, and only on dry fur - I imagine other tools work just as well, but I like the fact that I don't have to clean the furminator as I go, when the shedding fur seems never ending - the fur just falls away. I never use it in other times of the year. My only complaint is that it builds static electricity and gives little zaps that the dogs don't like (like brushing human hair in the winter). As I understood, it is blade like you find on clippers for shaving hair - but I have never found it to "cut" hair in the way I use it.

I do not like the way furminators work (from a grooming POV) they are quite good on dogs that need to be stripped for getting the worst off, but not great for the undercoat IMO.

I use a Rake
http://www.diamondedgeltd.com/acatal...ke%20short.jpg
Which has spinning teeth and a bit of give - it is fantastic about getting the under fur out.

Tassle,

what make is that? Can I get it online?

Thanks

I have one and I use it on my Alaskan Klee Kai with good results. She has a plush undercoat and a typical 'open' coat, so it works well.

It doesn't work as well with my CsV though. I haven't tried to brush him with it much, just ran it over him cause he seemed curious what I was doing with my AKK. Could be that he's still in a short puppy coat though. He just doesn't seem to have the type of plush undercoat the Furminator works well with.

Have to wait until a winter coat to see for sure!

Why is it needed to brush a Csv?
 

Hi and Hello to everybody here first of all ! -

I watched the little discussion here and I want to ask a simple question to you :

Is it really needed to brush a Csv ??
Who is brushing wild canides outside in the forest ?

I remember some years ago we had a simular thread on German wolfdog forum, it was about may be cutting hair of Csv in summer during the hottest time of the year...

At last most people agreed to the opininon, that of course it is not needed or senseful - because our breed is not a poodle or bobtail and still has his natural coat, which is very good adapted to all seasons of the year and all temperatures by changing the structure and density of hair without any need of manipulation by human hands.

I keep my dog 99 percent of time outside, not inside my house, even in cold winter time and he changes his winter to summer fur-coat very easily and without any "help" in some two or three weeks in spring time.

If you have the dog most or all time inside house it might be a little different, but I think even then it´s not needed to do great work on hair and coat, some brushing with normal brush for dogs is just enough.

Best greetings , Silvester from Germany

This is exactly it! I keep the dogs inside with me unless I am outside with them... :)

And I don't have to brush, no, but then that would mean I have to vacuum more often, and change the air filter more often (allergies), so brushing seems like the easier of the choices!

there are many makes of 'rakes' all easily bought online or from pet shops cheaply :)

This one is a Mikki one - I would try and get one that has the give (I do not like the rigid ones)

I'm afraid my dogs are inside dogs and all that comes with it :) Hair is brushed out otherwise they get itchy and my floors take twice as long to clean....

And call me vain - I like my dogs to look nice ;) so I get rid of the tufts ;)

oh yes the itch!! lol :roll:

Hello.
I don't have CsVs but SWHs and when it comes to MY experience of Furminator I would like to give a little word of warning.

I bought a Furminator last year and it’s SO effective that it’s really easy to overuse it. If I remember the instructions right you should only use it for 10-20 minutes 1-2 a week and you have to be careful not to press it too hard against the dog.

I thought I used it carefully but two of my dogs ended up with hair pore infection (folliculitis) witch gave them itch, bald spots and made them look like they suffered from mange. (had to give them antibiotics to get rid of it.) Afterwards I found out that a friend had the same experience using Furminator on one of her Huskies.

I'm not saying Furminator is a bad tool, just that you have to be careful with it.

/Ninni

Everytime I dream of having snow here I wait for a sudden wheater change to hot, then I dont brush my dogs and in a matter of days I will have my hot fake cream snow spreaded all over the house, garden and even flying outside.
Well, it's very usefull to substitue the cotton at our christmas three. :p

I use original furminator second year. I have good opinions with it. But first I use "normal" brush and after it I finish with furminator. I have dogs outside, but I don´t want to have full garden and kennels of lost coat. And I want have nice dogs. So I brush them ;-).

Originally Posted by Tassle http://www.wolfdog.org/forum/images/...s/viewpost.gif
I'm afraid my dogs are inside dogs and all that comes with it :) Hair is brushed out otherwise they get itchy and my floors take twice as long to clean....

And call me vain - I like my dogs to look nice ;) so I get rid of the tufts ;)

Yeah, I can agree to all of what you wrote before and I understand you -
but in spite of it, it´s not NEEDED for the dog - only for YOU ! :grins

Ok, the wish to have a clean house without dogs-hair inside at any time and the keeping of Csv ( or any other dog with the exception of a poodle ) inside house will always be in the contradiction / collision to each other, no question.

Because of that i wrote my last sentence:
"If you have the dog most or all time inside house it might be a little different, but I think even then it´s not needed to do great work on hair and coat, some brushing with normal brush for dogs is just enough."

Originally posted by Nebulosa:
...then I dont brush my dogs and in a matter of days I will have my hot fake cream snow spreaded all over the house, garden and even flying outside.
Well, it's very usefull to substitue the cotton at our christmas three. :p

Yes, that´s a nice effect , isn`t it ??:cool3:lol:

But i have noticed that here in my place it only takes one, maximum two days until the little birds which are building their nests in spring-time have collected and taken away all the hair which is down on the grass in garden... In nature it´s perfect recycling !;-)

(Of course this might be different in South America with complete other climate and time of nesting of birds...;))

Best regards, Silvester

I brush mine outside and the hair is taken by the birds - especially at this time of year. :)

I also think it makes the dogs more comfortable. Yes the hair will fall out of its own accord - but they are very itchy with it - especially with us (UK) at the moment. We have gone from fairly cold to summer temps, I have to keep reminding myself it is spring, but it has been very hot (for us!) and the dogs have had to adjust very quickly!

Also I find it is a bonding thing - my dogs love being groomed - they will come over and push for one or the other to be done.

I guess we all enjoy it :D

Originally posted by Tassle:
Also I find it is a bonding thing - my dogs love being groomed - they will come over and push for one or the other to be done.

I guess we all enjoy it :lol:

So that´s fine ! Go on with it if you´re all enjoying this... no question !

Again I say that I only talked about that there is no NEED of doing so -

not about anything else !

Course no need to do so.. otherwise I wouldn't have gotten a CsV.. :lol:

I don't think I can have dogs that need constant hair care, like Pulik, Komodorok, or even small dogs like Havanese.

But I greatly admire all who can.. :shock:

Originally posted by yukidomari:
(Of)Course no need to do so.. otherwise I wouldn't have gotten a CsV.. :lol:

I don't think I can have dogs that need constant hair care, like Pulik, Komodorok, or even small dogs like Havanese.

Yeah Yuki - that`s exactly my opinion too !!:ylsuper

But in opposite to you I do not admire people who can have dogs that need constant hair care .....!

And I also have no compassion with them....:wink::diablotin:grins

Thanks everyone for your experiences/ advice/ recommendations etc. I got hold of a rake like Tassle mentioned and it is working a treat :) - Shadow loves it and turns herself around to get the 'favourite' bits combed :wolfie. I decided against the furminator since she was past the 'coming out in clumps' stage that many of you said you used it for, plus I couldn't source one locally.

Thanks again (and a big howl of thanks from Shadow) x

Glad you got one......you need to do before and after pictures now, compete with removed hair!!

That would have been a good idea, but it's a bit late now...

Got almost a bag of hair off her over the last 3 days (one of the bags you put veggies in in the supermarket) - she is much happier :)

Ahh well - there will always be next year!!! ;)

If my sieve brain remembers...

I can't say from exact experience with CsVs, but with grooming experience with many double coated dogs (including my own husky) I'd say brushing a dog like this, that is primarily kept indoors, IS necessary. The problem is, dogs/wolves outside get soaking wet in the rain and often go for a nice swim here & there. They also rub up against things like trees and bushes. This all helps get the undercoat out. With house dogs, they don't have that same experience, especially since most owners would prefer if their dogs NOT get soaked in the rain. ;) This is why brushing is necessary, if the dog isn't getting wet to help the undercoat push out, it stays on the dog and builds up, which can get worse over time. Like I said, no personal CsV experience, but it's been the same with all the various double coated breeds I've worked with!

Originally posted by Vicky :
I'd say brushing a dog like this, that is primarily kept indoors, IS necessary. The problem is, dogs/wolves outside get soaking wet in the rain and often go for a nice swim here & there. They also rub up against things like trees and bushes. This all helps get the undercoat out. With house dogs, they don't have that same experience, especially since most owners would prefer if their dogs NOT get soaked in the rain. ;) This is why brushing is necessary, if the dog isn't getting wet to help the undercoat push out, it stays on the dog and builds up, which can get worse over time.

Yeah, Vicky I agree - that´s just what I have told before in my postings before :

Originally posted by Silvester:
Who is brushing wild canides outside in the forest ? and

Originally posted by Silvester:
If you have the dog most or all time inside house it might be a little different,...!

You also told:
Originally posted by Vicky :
Like I said, no personal CsV experience,...

Ok, my experience with Csv ( now 15 years ) is that even if kept all time inside house it is not like you tell about
...if the dog isn't getting wet to help the undercoat push out, it stays on the dog and builds up, which can get worse over time.

This might be true for the breeds you know,like Husky - but Csv normally don`t build up undercoat because of keeping inside house, they only do loose their hair constantly over the whole year ... and a lot of hair, both the upper hair and undercoat too.

So you need good stuff for house-cleaning, a lot of humour and a wife who tolerates that... best you have all this three things together!:lol:

Best regards, Silvester

Well I spoke too soon!!

Our pup started to lose a lot more fur (got warmer recently), more than I thought he had, so I took the Furminator to him and it worked really well!!

Yuki - we have a saying "Don't praise the day before the evening!" and it is absolutely valid concerning wolfdogs ;o)

Very, very true :lol:

Originally posted by saschia :
Yuki - we have a saying "Don't praise the day before the evening!"

Yeah, that´s true indeed - and in Germany we have a little change / variation of this sentence, it´s called in translation :

Don´t praise the cook before the dessert is served !:mdrmed

Best regards, Uli alias Silvester