Dog grooming brushes: a UK buying guide
Most owners own three brushes and use none of them properly. The brush aisle is built to make you buy one of each, and almost none of the packaging tells you the thing that actually matters, which is what your dog's coat is made of.
Work that out and the choice narrows to two tools for most dogs. This guide covers the five coat types, which brush belongs to each, how often to groom, and the mistakes that do real damage.
Start with the coat, not the brush
Everything else follows from this. Part your dog's coat with your fingers and look at what is underneath.
Double coat
A coarse outer layer of guard hairs sitting over a dense, soft, woolly undercoat. Push your fingers in and you hit a second, thicker layer that feels like felt.
Breeds: Labrador, golden retriever, german shepherd, husky, malamute, border collie, corgi, chow, most northern and working breeds.
What it does: sheds the undercoat heavily twice a year, in spring and autumn, and moderately all year round. This is the coat that produces the drifts of hair on the hall floor.
Single coat
Guard hairs only. Part the coat and you see skin, with no soft second layer.
Breeds: whippet, greyhound, boxer, dalmatian, poodle, maltese, most terriers with smooth coats.
What it does: sheds lightly and continuously. No seasonal blow. Needs far less work.
Curly or wool coat
Tight curls that grow continuously rather than shedding. The hair does not fall out. It catches in the surrounding curls and forms mats.
Breeds: poodle, cockapoo, cavapoo, labradoodle, bichon, portuguese water dog.
What it does: barely sheds, which is why these breeds are sold as low-shedding, and mats faster than any other coat type. Low shedding is not low maintenance. It is the opposite.
Silky or feathered coat
Long, fine hair, often with heavy feathering on the ears, chest, legs and tail.
Breeds: cocker spaniel, springer spaniel, setter, afghan, yorkshire terrier, shih tzu.
What it does: the body coat behaves itself. The feathering mats, and it mats in specific places we will come back to.
Wire coat
Harsh, bristly outer hair with a softer undercoat beneath.
Breeds: border terrier, wire fox terrier, schnauzer, airedale, most working terriers.
What it does: holds dead hair in the coat rather than dropping it. Traditionally hand stripped rather than clipped, which is a separate subject.
The tools, and what each one actually does
Undercoat rake
A single or double row of long, rounded, widely spaced teeth on a handle. The teeth reach past the guard hairs and pull dead undercoat out from underneath.
For: double coats. This is the tool that removes the hair drifts.
Not for: single coats, which have no undercoat to remove, or curly coats, where it will drag through curls and tear them.
Deshedding blade
A fine-toothed stainless steel edge, usually set in a moulded handle. It works like a very fine rake, taking loose undercoat out in a dense mat of hair.
For: double coats, in a seasonal shed.
Not for: anything else, and it needs a light hand even where it belongs. A deshedding blade is a cutting edge. Pressed hard, or used on the same patch repeatedly, it takes guard hairs and can score the skin. Short passes, light pressure, and stop before the skin looks pink.
Slicker brush
A rectangular pad of fine, angled wire pins. Works through tangles in the top coat and lifts loose hair.
For: curly coats, silky coats, feathering, and general finishing on almost anything.
Watch: the wire pins are sharp. Held flat against the skin and worked in circles, a slicker causes what groomers call slicker burn, which is genuine abrasion. Work in the direction of hair growth, in short strokes, with the brush at a slight angle.
Pin brush
Widely spaced pins with rounded ends, on a cushioned base. Gentle, and mostly a finishing tool.
For: long silky coats, and dogs who dislike being brushed at all.
Reality: it will not remove undercoat and it will not get a mat out. It smooths what is already tidy.
Steel comb
The most underrated tool in the category and the one almost nobody buys. Usually wide-set teeth at one end and fine at the other.
For: every coat type, as the last step. A comb is how you find out whether the brushing actually worked. A brush glides over a mat. A comb stops dead at it.
Use it as a test. Run the fine end through behind the ears and under the front legs after you have finished. If it passes cleanly, you are done. If it snags, you were not.
Rubber curry or grooming glove
Soft rubber nubs on a mitt or oval pad. Lifts loose hair from short coats and gives a light massage that most dogs enjoy.
For: smooth single coats. A boxer, a staffie, a whippet.
Not for: anything with length. It will not reach.
Dematting tool
Curved blades that cut through a mat rather than pulling it out.
For: mats that a comb cannot open. Used sparingly.
Careful: these are knives. Always work with a hand or a comb between the blade and the skin, and never on a mat that sits tight against the body.
Matching the tool to the coat
| Coat | Main tool | Second tool | How often |
|---|---|---|---|
| Double | Undercoat rake | Steel comb | Twice a week, daily in a shed |
| Single, smooth | Rubber curry or glove | Steel comb | Once a week |
| Curly or wool | Slicker brush | Steel comb | Every other day, no exceptions |
| Silky, feathered | Slicker brush | Steel comb | Two or three times a week |
| Wire | Slicker brush | Steel comb | Twice a week, plus stripping |
Two tools per dog. The comb appears in every row because it is the one that checks the work.
How to actually do it
- Dry coat only. Brushing a wet coat tightens mats rather than opening them. Dry first, then groom.
- Work in the direction of growth. Against the grain lifts more hair in the short term and irritates the skin.
- Short passes, light pressure. The tool does the work. Leaning on it does not remove more hair, it removes more coat.
- Section the dog. One flank, then the other, then the chest, then the trousers, then the ears and feathering last because that is where the patience runs out.
- Comb through afterwards. The test above.
- Stop before your dog does. Ten minutes twice a week beats an hour once a month, and a dog who has learned that grooming is endless will fight it for the rest of their life.
The seasonal shed. A double-coated dog blows its undercoat in spring and again in autumn, over roughly two to four weeks. During those weeks, daily. Outside them, twice a week is plenty. Most owners groom the same amount all year and then feel ambushed in March.
Where mats actually form
Almost never on the back, where everyone brushes. Mats form where hair rubs against hair or against equipment.
- Behind the ears. The single most common site on any long-coated dog.
- Under the collar or harness. Constant friction, and hidden.
- In the armpits. Skin on skin, movement all day, and the last place anyone looks.
- The feathering behind the front legs and on the trousers.
- Around the tail base.
Check those five places every time. A mat found on day two combs out. The same mat found in week three has to be cut.
To open a mat: hold the hair at the base, between the mat and the skin, so any pulling goes into your fingers rather than into your dog. Work from the outer edge inward with the fine end of a comb, a few hairs at a time. If it will not open, that is a groomer's job, not a scissors job. More dogs are cut by owners freeing mats with scissors than by any other grooming accident, because skin pulls up into the mat and you cannot see where it ends.
What not to do
- Never shave a double coat. The undercoat insulates against heat as well as cold, and the guard hairs protect against sun and bites. Shaved, it frequently grows back patchy or woolly, and in some dogs never returns properly. A shaved husky in July is hotter, not cooler. The exception is on veterinary advice.
- Do not use a deshedding blade on a curly or single coat. There is no undercoat to take, so it cuts guard hairs instead.
- Do not brush over a mat. You are pulling the skin underneath it. Open the mat first.
- Do not groom a wet dog. Covered above, and worth repeating because it is the most common cause of a coat going from tangled to matted in a single session.
- Do not use human brushes. The pin shape and spacing are wrong and the ends are rarely rounded.
Common questions
How often should I brush my dog?
Curly coats every other day, and that is not negotiable. Double coats twice a week, daily during a shed. Silky coats two or three times a week. Smooth single coats once a week, mostly for the skin contact rather than the hair.
Will a deshedding tool stop my dog shedding?
No. It removes hair that was going to come out anyway, in a controlled way, into your hand instead of onto the sofa. Nothing stops a healthy double-coated dog shedding, and any product claiming to is overstating.
My cockapoo does not shed, so why does she need brushing more than a labrador?
Because the hair still dies. In a shedding coat it falls to the floor. In a curly coat it stays put, wraps around live hair, and forms a mat. Low shedding means the dead hair stays on the dog, which is more work, not less.
Is it worth paying a groomer?
For curly, wire and heavily feathered coats, yes, every six to eight weeks, with brushing between. For double and smooth coats, usually not. You can do it yourself with two tools and ten minutes twice a week.
My dog hates being brushed. What now?
Almost always one of three things: it hurt once, the sessions are too long, or the tool is wrong for the coat. Go back to thirty seconds a day with a treat and no expectation of finishing. Build from there. A dog who has been dragged through a matted session remembers it.
Should I bath before or after grooming?
Brush first, then bath, then brush again once fully dry. Bathing a matted coat sets the mats hard.
What we would do
Work out the coat type first. Buy two tools, not five: the main tool for that coat, and a steel comb. Ten minutes, twice a week, in the direction of growth, with a light hand. Check behind the ears, under the collar, in the armpits and in the feathering every single time. Increase to daily for the few weeks of a seasonal shed, and leave the shaving alone.