A few weeks ago in our support forums, someone mentioned a new type of pet hairbrush called a Furminator. With a name like that, I had to check it out. It’s shedding season and all six of our furry beasties are relinquishing a lot of hair. (Yes, the balls of fur are rolling across the floor these days.)
Anyway, the preliminary outing for my new Furminator was a success. I wouldn’t necessarily say it works that much better than some of my other brushes, but it has some advantages. Other than the Furminator, I have four types of brushes I have used for years. I use a shedding rake, a shedding comb, a small wood-handled rake, and a standard slicker brush.
Generally, the protocol has been to use the shedding rake for a preliminary run through, then the wood-handled rake to get out the big knots, then the shedding comb. I mostly only use the slicker brush on tails, since it doesn’t really take out much hair.
Of course, this multi-step process makes a gigantic mess. The shedding rake is particularly bad about throwing hair everywhere. In the end, most of the hair ends up off the dog, but a lot of it lands on me. I generally feel like hair is floating everywhere and I’ve eaten half of it. Needless to say, I have to change my clothes after a big four-dog brushing event.
The Furminator works as well as the shedding rake/comb combination, but it’s faster and more of the hair stays in the brush, so it doesn’t get all over the floor and me. I view that as progress. The other unexpected benefit is that the cats LOVE it. I can’t get near them with any other brushes, but last night, I tried the Furminator. The felines were thrilled with the process, purring happily as I removed volumes of cat hair.
Troi, the fat cat looks, dare I say it…thinner. Maybe some of that “fluffiness” was just hair. Maybe.