Good Shedding Blades - Page 1

Hi all, well, I'm in Michigan, and as you "Michiganers" know, our GSD's are blowing their winter coats. Well, I was wondering what blade others have tried that work well. I currently have a 10 year old "4-Paws" Shedding Blade, and while it is nice, the fur sticks to the blade...is this normal, and do the more recent ones do that too? Here is a link to a website I google searched, and I am thinking about buying it, all opinions welcome. I'm looking forward to hearing of brands that others have tried that works wonders, because the one I'm using now, It took me little over an hour, and she's STILL full of that puppy/winter fuzz! I just brushed her about two days ago, with a bristle brush, and it took me over 4 hours to get what I thought was it all, out...needless to say, I found out that the brush/me missed a LOT of the under coat. Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions.

http://bestinshowsf.com/sheddingblade.html

Or the link to the site:

bestinshowsf.com/sheddingblade.html

Sorry, I'm an ex-groomer and a GSD owner for over 30 years.. a shedding blade is great for a horse or that type of coat.. useless waste of time on a coat like a GSD.. because the closest coated GSD will shed like a woolly mammoth when it starts to blow!!

You need an undercoat rake.. 4paws probably makes them.... they are a flat piece of wood rounded at both ends, one end has what appears to be a collection of penny nails in the end of it. You have to separate the coat in layers and do a layer at a time.. you will undercoat rake, slicker brush and then comb each separated area.. it will take forever and appear to be never ending.. sometimes throwing them in the tub helps.. you can get a ton out when its wet and soapy and then a blow dryer helps as well.. but even after all that and filling a grocery bag with hair, there will still be more and more hair.. you just must keep at it...

Be careful, repetition with anyof these tools can burn or scrape the skin. 

It's the nature of the beast as they say.. they don't call them German shedders for nothing!!

Denise

The Furminator!! It really works. I bought mine a couple of years ago at Omaha Vaccine Co. They are cheaper than other sites.

Chris

I use an Oster shedding rake that works far better than anything I've ever used before.  You can get them on-line - just Google it.

Yvette

The Furminator is great, but use it with a light hand or you will end up with a dog that looks like it's been shaved.

When I was researching the breed I went to a huge dog show and was able to find the GSD area by following upwind the tumbleweeds of fur in the parking lot. LOL 

Blitzen,

I bought one and all it does is immediately get balled up with fur, like a yard rake with leaves. Am I doing something wrong, do you think?

I like to use a force dryer on my dogs. I bath and condition and then blow them out. It is not irritating to the skin and gets all the undercoat out. They are a little pricey but I have also seen some Craftsman shop vacs for around 80.00 that you can use as a blower as well. I spend about 1/2 hour blowing them out and then 5-10 min everyother day and usually within a few days the excess hair is gone. Really saves the arms too!!! Good Luck!

I've never had that problem, Dawgs, but Blitz doesn's have much of undercoat either. However, some of my Malamute friends use them on longcoats and don't have problems. Longcoated Malamutes have maybe 5 times the amount of undercoat of longhaired GSD's and 10 times as much as stock hairs.  Maybe you are trying to take out too much loose hair at the same time?  Using too much pressure? Try just skimming over the top of the guardhairs or parting the guardhairs with your hands as you rake out the loose undercoat.

Ok, I'll try that. Maybe I am pressing to much. 

 Do you know if the width of the blade has anything to do with how closely set the teeth are? If so that may be adding to the problem. I have the small one that I bought for a friends little dog. She didn't care for the way it worked and I decided to try it.