Advice please for grooming Border Collie

IrishHomer

Looking for some advice please.

I have a one year old male Border Collie.

For the past two months i have been brusing him a couple of times a week and the moulting is now in full swing and was wondering is there a recommended period where i should avail of a professional groom and have him thoroughly groomed?

I don't want to pay out a lot of cash only to find him losing buckets of hair a few days later?

Would a dog hair blower be better than a regular brushing?

Any tips/advice appreciated.

Knine

A decent groomer would probably just brush out the coat and tidy up legs, belly etc. This would be similar to what you do at home. They might use a blaster to speed up the process. These are quite expensive to buy. I've seen them used on collies.

However lots of unqualifed people call themselves groomers and you could end up with a shaved collie! There was a thread here about a Labrador being shaved! I thought I had seen it all up until that point!

barking1503

If your dog is outdoor he will have a couple of clear periods of moulting but if indoor then with central heating he will just shed all round the clock!!! (although he will be a happy boy). A professional groom will defo help. It will clear out the loose undercoat, combination of the blasting drying and the brushing. You should find a difference with the shedding though it will be relatively a short term gain. Still will help hugely. A border collie will benefit from being groomed a couple of times a year, if you could stretch to it every 12 weeks would be even better!

DBB

Knine wrote: »

However lots of unqualifed people call themselves groomers and you could end up with a shaved collie! There was a thread here about a Labrador being shaved! I thought I had seen it all up until that point!

Do indeed select your groomer carefully OP... At the same time as the shaved Labrador thread was up here, a good friend of mine rang me, quite upset that a "groomer" in the southwest had shaved her client's long-coated German Shepherd, leaving the head and tail intact :-o

Pumpkinseeds

Just wondering if the OP has tried a Furminator brush. We used the cat version on our cats and it takes a lot more fur off than a standard brush. It might be worth a try. They can be bought online a lot cheaper than what is being charged in pet shops.

DBB

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

Just wondering if the OP has tried a Furminator brush. We used the cat version on our cats and it takes a lot more fur off than a standard brush. It might be worth a try. They can be bought online a lot cheaper than what is being charged in pet shops.

I think the furiminator seems good on a short, easy-moulted coat, but I found it destroyed the longer, silky coat of my long haired GSD... It tended to break the long hairs of the topcoat. I'd imagine it could do the same to a long collie coat? But I can imagine it'd be great on a lab, husky, or beagle type coat. Or a cat!

Pumpkinseeds

One of my cats has very thick fur, not long, just very thick and it was great for him. He hated it but it was far better than the slicker that we normally use on him. Our other cat loves it even though he has very short fur. I think its just a matter of finding a brush that works well.

I would be looking for personal recommendations for groomers if I had a dog though. There seems to be an awful lot of people calling themselves groomers and I've heard horror stories about some so called groomers trimming dog nails with horrendous results.

I think its too easy nowadays for people to have some cheap business cards printed up and call themselves professionals when they really aren't qualified.

IrishHomer

Pumpkinseeds wrote: »

Just wondering if the OP has tried a Furminator brush. We used the cat version on our cats and it takes a lot more fur off than a standard brush. It might be worth a try. They can be bought online a lot cheaper than what is being charged in pet shops.

Us I have actually used the fulminant or. It's great but I was put off it recently a dog owner pal of mine says fulminations are bad that they take too much off?

boomerang

A Furminator will ruin a Border Collie's coat.

What you need is a double-row rake (to pull out the dead undercoat) and a pin brush (to smooth and untangle the top coat, and massage the skin to distribute the oils.)

ISDW

IrishHomer wrote: »

Us I have actually used the fulminant or. It's great but I was put off it recently a dog owner pal of mine says fulminations are bad that they take too much off?

Furminators have blades, so they cut the coat, they don't brush it. I won't use them on my dogs.

tk123

I'm undecided on the furminator tbh. I've tried it on teddies and even on my own hair lol to see would it break and it didn't but still not sure about it because you hear all the time that they're supposed to damage the coat! Luckily my boy is a swimmer so it takes care of a lot of the loose hairs and I brush him down once a week after hydro with a rake and slicker. I have a blaster too which helps - best €140 I ever spent!

IrishHomer

tk123 wrote: »

I'm undecided on the furminator tbh. I've tried it on teddies and even on my own hair lol to see would it break and it didn't but still not sure about it because you hear all the time that they're supposed to damage the coat! Luckily my boy is a swimmer so it takes care of a lot of the loose hairs and I brush him down once a week after hydro with a rake and slicker. I have a blaster too which helps - best €140 I ever spent!

Any links to the good rakes or blasters?

I would gladly pay a few hundred Euros for the right equipment and DIY rather than paying a groomer on a regular basis for the next decade or spoof the dogs life.

Outkast_IRE

Im not sure where people are getting "furminator cuts the hair" in my personal experience in a border collie X with shorter hair than normal , the furminator only gathers up the very, very thick undercoat she grows.
If i look at the ball of hair after using the furminator its nearly all soft white/grey undercoat hair, which if i dont remove she will rub herself off every bush in sight anyway.

Maybe its unsutied to longer haired dogs but it works great on my dog.

ISDW

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Im not sure where people are getting "furminator cuts the hair" in my personal experience in a border collie X with shorter hair than normal , the furminator only gathers up the very, very thick undercoat she grows.
If i look at the ball of hair after using the furminator its nearly all soft white/grey undercoat hair, which if i dont remove she will rub herself off every bush in sight anyway.

Maybe its unsutied to longer haired dogs but it works great on my dog.

I'm getting it from the fact that it has a blade in it and the one and only time that somebody else used it on my wooly coated husky, it cut his hair

tk123

IrishHomer wrote: »

Any links to the good rakes or blasters?

I would gladly pay a few hundred Euros for the right equipment and DIY rather than paying a groomer on a regular basis for the next decade or spoof the dogs life.

I got the blaster from this seller on ebay - http://www.ebay.ie/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180585682302&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT
You get a little handheld battery operated clippers too. I'll have it 2 years in June and no problems - it's been used most days since I got it and sometimes twice a day depending on the weather or if he goes for a swim!

I just have a standard rake from the pet shop but interested in the idea of a doulble one!

DBB

Originally Posted by Outkast_IRE
Im not sure where people are getting "furminator cuts the hair" in my personal experience in a border collie X with shorter hair than normal ,

I specifically said that it'd probably be okay on shorter coated, moulty breeds, as it seems your is. Take it from me who has seen what it does to a long, silky coat, and I've asked qualified groomers about it, it's not really meant to be used on a long top-coated dog, because for the blade to get through to the undercoat-the bit it's meant to remove- it's got to get through the topcoat first. As ISDW says, it is a blade, and it cuts any hair that's not being pulled out (i.e. the topcoat)

tk123

DBB wrote: »

I specifically said that it'd probably be okay on shorter coated, moulty breeds, as it seems your is. Take it from me who has seen what it does to a long, silky coat, and I've asked qualified groomers about it, it's not really meant to be used on a long top-coated dog, because for the blade to get through to the undercoat-the bit it's meant to remove- it's got to get through the topcoat first. As ISDW says, it is a blade, and it cuts any hair that's not being pulled out (i.e. the topcoat)

I wonder though are they the standard furminators (like what we have - long hair ones weren't invented when we got it! ) that did the damage or the ones they make now specifically for longer hair? My guys coat is in the best condition it's ever been thanks to his raw diet so don't want to risk our furminator damaging it!

mirekb

I use a furminator on my two short haired terriers and a pinhead brush daily on my border collie. She doesn't seem to moult much, but is only 10 months so is this something I have to look forward too?