[Willowy]

My dog Penny's fur is driving me crazy. The undercoat won't come out all at once, and instead falls out in clumps all over the house ALL SUMMER. If she'd get it over with in 2 weeks I wouldn't mind, but having furry carpets all summer is annoying. I shaved her last year, but I was hoping to avoid that with regular raking. I go after her with an undercoat rake at least once a day, and every time I pull off enough to knit a new puppy, but still she sheds. I don't know what mix she is, definitely a purebred mutt, but her fur seems closest to a Rough Collie's, just not quite as long. But seems to be of the same texture, etc. Maybe a little bit like an Australian Shepherd's, too.

The worst part is that the fur kind of "thatches" up (not quite matting, since I can part the fur to see her skin, but I can't run my fingers or a comb through it) and it makes her get too hot. Once I get all the undercoat out, her fur is nice and thin and non-thatchy, but of course that's just her summer coat. Her full winter coat is reasonably manageable---I can comb her easily---it's just when the undercoat is coming out that there's a problem. So.....any tips?

[Dieselsmama]

This is part of blowing coat and it will take some time to get the process complete. All you can do is sit and comb through her head to toe, if you can run a comb through anywhere, you're done. I see you mention shaving her previously, often times the coat does not grow back properly/if at all from shaving a double coated breed and if you're lucky it will just take time to go back to normal.

[CinnamintStick]

I have two of those hairy beast that live in my house and two Huskies that stay at my daughters (my) house next to me. All I can say is brush and brush everyday. It does seem like after a warm bath the hair really starts comming off. That helps in the long run.
My 12 year old pound dog.

[harrise]

Warm water, a towel and one of these...


I start at the bottom of the rear legs and make my way forward while brushing against the hair. It takes a few minutes to get the feel of it. Short raking motions combined with a slight upward (away from body) pull. Lucky for me my dogs wouldn't care if I tried to scalpel them, so brushing is easy.


Bada-bing!

[agility collie mom]

Hey we could start a business. Making sweaters for hairless dogs to keep them warm in the winter. What do you think?

[carolee brancefield]

if you have access to a good force dryer that would help u a lot. good warm bath, condition well, than hand dry with the force dryer and brush through while drying. this will jumpstart the fall out and make combing easier.

[Dogstar]

If you've got a dog with cottony coat- which is what this sounds like- a force dryer is a must. $120ish for a dryer that will last 10 years or better isn't too bad if you think about it over time.

All taht said, what are you feeding? I've noticed at least with Kaylee (less so with Mal) that what she eats has a BIG effect on the texture (but not so much the volume- at least, not yet) of her coat.

The other thing I've found that really helps is to comb, brush, or furminate for a few minutes every night- just 5-10 minutes, work on a different part of the dog, and pull out some of that undercoat BEFORE it gets stuck.

[txcollies]

A bath in warm water, a good undercoat rake, a good slicker & pinbrush, and a good dryer. I used to groom a Collie with a cottony coat. Hated every minute of it, it's hard to deal with.

My dogs are on a food with a high fat content, and I haven't had coat troubles since I switched them onto it.

[Willowy]

She eats mostly Chicken Soup, a few other brands now and then. Canidae makes her greasy, but I've never noticed a difference in how easy it is to comb her. I have a wide-tooth metal comb and an undercoat rake, and they work OK, just like I said, she's not shedding fast enough! LOL.

I'm pretty sure her fur came back the same way it was before I shaved her. I didn't know a double coated breed shouldn't be shaved when I did it. I wouldn't care if it did come in different, but it seems the same.

So this is just normal and I have to live with it? Bummer. I'll have to colllect her hair and sell it to a fiber artist .

[Dogstar]

It may be normal for her. :P Sucks, but may be. :P

Have you tried bathing her in warm water and combing her out in conjunction with the dryer? That's what I had to do with Skye (my first foster collie), although his coat problems were more from neglect and bad diet. (I swear that dog had rain rot.)

[Willowy]

I've never bathed her . But she's never really needed it, and I'm afraid to mess with her thick hair. She does go swimming sometimes, and I'll hose her off, but I've never bathed her with shampoo. I don't know how she'd feel about the blow dryer....she's got noise issues, and would probably freak out. I'd have to do some serious desensitizing work with her beforehand. Good tips, though! For now I think she's mostly done shedding. She looks good. Can't wait for next year .

[skelaki]

Check into getting a Mars Coat King for grooming. I haven't used one personally but I know a lot of double-coated breed owners/groomers seem to swear by them.

[Kyllobernese]

Susie is half Bernese Mtn. so she gets a really thick coat in the winter. When she starts to shed in the spring, I have always just combed her lots. This year they opened up a doggy day care with a place where you could bring your dog to bath them. I had combed most of her undercoat out but took her up there, bathed her and they had one of those forced air machines. By the time she was finished, there was hair everywhere but she has no undercoat left at all. I have never had that before no matter how much brushing I did. She also had not had a really good soap and water bath for a long time as she swims in the Lake every chance she gets. It was the best $15.00 I could have spent.

[LucyGoosy]

I used to have collies. I had the same hair situation too. I could brush and brush and seem to get no where, but when the coat started to really loosen up, nothing worked better than taking them for a professional groom with a groomer who really worked the undercoat out. Some groomers just bath them, do a surfac-y type brush, dry them, and that's it. That's NOT what you want.

A good professional groomer will have the tools/equipment to get out the loose undercoat. It really does work. I used to take my collies to the groomers every 2-3 months year round, but during the coat blowing time I'd take them every 4-6 weeks.

It will still take a couple of months to get the undercoat completely out, but the professional groom will help tremendously!!

The best thing for getting hair out is a Metro (I think that's the word, but I might be a couple of letters off). It blows air with a lot of force and blows the water right off the hair. If you part the hair and aim near the skin, it will blow the loose coat right out from the skin with just a little work from a comb or fingers. The groomers work it out in little sections and get a lot of undercoat out that way. Then, they dry them with their regular stand type dryer and brush/comb them as they go. Works VERY well

A word of caution about using a human hair blow dryer--they get hot enough to burn the skin. Be careful. When I blow dry my current dogs with a blow dryer, I keep my fingers between it and the dog's skin. That way I can tell if it's starting to get too hot. It's amazing how quickly it can get so hot my hand can't stand it--just a few seconds. I don't want my dogs to get burned. The high force dryers that the groomers use are cooler than human hair dryers and rely more on the force of the air rather than actual heat.

[Purplex15]

no owner can get out as much undercoat as a groomer. this is because regular dog owners have no idea of how to properly groom their dog. majority of dog owners dont even know how to correctly brush a dog. if your dog hasnt been groomed/bathed in a year then that is definetly going to make the undercoat thuicker, and even more thick if you shaved him last year.

just take him to a groomer.