Has anyone tried the Furminator?  I've seen one work on a lab and it looked good, mine all have a very different type of coat to a lab. Good or bad feedback please.

I have a cat one that I use on the schips and the cats great piece of equipment, certainly out does the good old Rake. I have problems with my hands due to a neck injury so anything that takes the pain out of grooming for me is worth its weight  as they say. 

i have one for my newfs and its great.
but you do have to be careful how much you remove from each spot as it can leave you with a dented look if your not careful and the coat wont lay right.

i have one for my newfs and its great.
but you do have to be careful how much you remove from each spot as it can leave you with a dented look if your not careful and the coat wont lay right.

Does anyone know if it would work with schnauzers?  I clip both of mine, but as it is suposed to remove the undercoat, would it do this and leave top coat untouched?

Can't answer that Debussy, but my daughter uses one on her akita and thinks its fantastic. Has certainly cut down the time she  spends grooming her when she looks tatty, and is a great help by cutting the time it usually takes to thoroughly blow her coat!

Great on Pugs

Barry

Absolutely fantastic! I recieved mine a week ago and it tackles my huskys like nothing else! One of mine has really thin and sensitive skin and it doesn't bother him in the slightest unlike some of the brushes we have tried in the past. I also got mine from the USA off ebay. It took a while for it to arrive but it was loads cheaper and definately worth the wait!

Anyone know if this is good on a Bernese coat at all?

> Anyone know if this is good on a Bernese coat at all?

Since Bernese have double coats I would have thought it would be ideal. It's not recommended for dogs that don't moult e.g. poodles as it only removes loose undercoat.

I use a Furminator on my Tollers and Border Collie, I brush them with a normal brush first, then the furminator takes out twice as much undercoat afterwards. I only wish I'd had one with my first dog, a spayed Sheltie cross, as she had a really thick coat and it was such a battle to get through it as she got older, I had to use thinning shears to make it manageable.

silly question maybe, but how does it actually work?

My other half is an engineer and was totally impressed with the engineering qualities of this tool ( yep it got him excited as anyone else with engineers in the family will know there's nothing better to them then a bit of precisely crafted lump of metal! ) 

Anyway basically the teeth are crafted so as to easily and genttly pass through the fur reaching deep down into the undercoat and easily removing all the loose hair.

The down side is the fur just flys everywhere rather then getting collected in the teeth as it does with a standard comb. Works great on the dogs but then leaves you needing a brush with a furminator!

I've seen this on TV.  Would it work on a Border Terrier?  Would it be the same as the stripping knife the groomers use?

CG (not trying to be cheap here but every little helps)

No I've read on another board that it definitely isn't suitable for Border Terriers, who need to be stripped.

I thank you Carene!  Back to the groomer then - who I have to say does a fabulous job. 

CG

Thanks for your replies, think I will have to invest in one.  I am hoping that apart from saving me some time it can help make my spayed girl look a little more presentable, her hair went haywire after her op!!

so really only for use on a longer coated breed? i have a rhodesian ridgeback, who normally is ok, but is losing his puppy coat at the moment and is moulting like mental! honestly, i cant believe that so much hair can come off him!

I use a furminator in the grooming salon and its brilliant for the short coated dogs,it would be great for a rhodesian ridgeback.

A lot of people with Cairns use the furminator or similar tools, not for dogs that are shown though.   I bought one a little while ago when I was in the U.S. and used it a little on my most coarse-coated dog. His coat is also very thick.  It did remove only undercoat but I don't think it got down to the bottom, the teeth are too short. 

I find back-combing works really well to removed undercoat, don't need a fancy tool.  

Years ago I had a GSD that never stopped shedding.  There was a tool then and probably still is one that does exactly the same thing as a Furminator.  It look like a narrow band of metal folded over on itself, like a loop.   The outer edge of the band was cut so it was tiny serrated teeth - like a serrated knife, but not sharp of course.   It worked wonders get out the undercoat and left the top coat untouched.

Will be fine on a ridgeback. It doesn't matter what length the coat is as long as the dog is a dog that moults. They must never be used on non shedding breeds.

"They must never be used on non shedding breeds."

Well it won't kill them :-)   It is just that non-shedding breeds tend to have very heavy coats and the Furminator's teeth are too short to do much good; as my own experiment with my non-shedding Cairn proved.

Is a furminator different to a coat king?

Hi

Have a look at the Furbuster.  http://www.petplanet.co.uk/product.asp?dept_id=731&pf_id=8694
It is the same as the Furminator at a fraction of the price and also has interchangeable heads.

h

Yes, the coat king works on undercoat and outercoat.

In coarse-coated breeds it tends to pull out a moderate amount of undercoat, pulls a little of outercoat, and cuts some of the coarse outercoat as well.