Spring Cleaning

Not only has Conker blown his coat, but Juneau has as well. Who knew a Border Collie X Labrador Retriever could blow her coat? A lot of people seem surprised when they learn that Juneau sheds a little year-round and also explodes in the spring. Sasha just sheds year-round, nothing explosive about her.

I noticed some tufts beginning to form on Juneau's back end recently, and that is usually an indicator that her coat is ready to be stripped out. So I armed myself with my flea comb, zoom groom, slicker, and furbuster and set off to de-fluff Juneau's coat.
The flea comb works a lot like a stripping (carding?) blade. It grabs large hunks of loose undercoat and combs them out.
The furbuster does more of less the same thing, but does not work as well on hunks of fur like the flea comb does. It's better for a quick once-over after the flea comb has been used.
The zoom groom grabs both types of coat with it's rubbery tips. It also produces a LOT of dandruff, which gets trapped by thick udercoat and released when it's shed out. (With the Girls, anyways.)
The slicker I use during my twice weekly brushings and for cleanup. It grabs mainly undercoat but gets the overcoat as well and leaves the dog looking nice.

That was yesterday. Today was bath day.
I took all three dogs out into the back and set up my cleaning station. I loop a leash and slip chain on one of the fence posts and tether a dog in place. They can move around but not too much. I used dish soap on the dogs since this was a deep clean, but I usually either just rinse with water or a dash of vinegar (makes them smell nice), or use a mild soap.
The dogs were rinsed, rubbed, soaped, rubbed some more, and rinsed again to remove any remaining loose fur and dandruff. Then released to go shake and run and roll in the dirt. They always do that after I wash them...

Conker whined like a little bitch during his washing. He doesn't like the cold water (but will swim in a cold creek?) so he whines when he gets a hose bath rather than a warm shower. (Yes I take showers with Conker.) I know he's just bullshitting though, his bodylanguage doesn't indicate he's actually stressed or upset.


In other news...

We had a roast chicken last night. I saved the giblets and gave them to Conker today, along with an egg and some yogurt.

The Girls got some kibble with a bit of chicken liver, an egg, and some yogurt.

Don't it just look so fancy all mixed up? Yumm.

Lazy Day

It's partly cloudy, around 72 degrees and generally nice outside.  But today, we are relaxing inside.  Why?  Because I don't like "nice" weather. And Conker is being an ass to the neighbor dog so he gets to stay inside.


Yesterday Mom was complaining about the dog smell and I, like I normally do, informed her that Conker wasn't to blame.  He doesn't smell like anything, and if she wanted, she could stuff her nose into his soft scruff and inhale deeply just to be sure.  She loudly declined. 
And today I was getting annoyed with the little clouds of black dog hair that was floating across the floor as I walked around so I scooped some of it up and tossed it.  I normally don't do that, dog hair doesn't bug me.  But when it begins to follow me, it kinda does, so I get rid of it.  I brushed Juneau and Sasha a bit and will try to brush them at least every other day to help cut back on the fur but I doubt I'll stick to that for very long.  But, Sasha was in a small need of a brushing since tufts of fur were beginning to stick off her buttfluffs like they do when double-coated dogs are seasonally exploding.

This is what a brushing session with Conker looks like

Grooming Tools: Furminator

I figured I'd write about my experience with the Furminator since I lack anything else interesting to write about that is dog related.
The Furminator is a type of undercoat rake.  It's actually a shaving blade attached to a handle believe it or not. The blade is the exact same as one that you'd use on a clipper to shave a dog's (or human's) fur off with.  I guess someone discovered that it could be used to get out that nasty undercoat quite easily.

While I don't own the "Furminator" brand Furminator, I've got a knock-off made by Bamboo called the Furbuster.  It cost me $20 and has an easily replaceable blade unlike the Furminator which needs to be completely replaced if something happens to the blade.  And things do happen, I've seen one that was dropped and the blade was bent out of shape.

This is my Furbuster.  It's blue, but comes in red, purple or green and maybe yellow but I'm not exactly sure.  It's not a sharp as the Furminator which I find is a plus and works just as well.

My weekly grooming routine during shedding season is to only use the Furminator on the weekend and the curry and slicker every or every other day.  Why don't I use the Furminator every day?  While my Shiba's undercoat continues to shed those days I'm not using the Furminator, it can actually damage the coat if you brush with it too often, which happens a LOT.

The Furminator is very sharp and can easily damage the dog's skin.  If you've got one drag it along your arm with the same pressure you use on your dog.  You won't do it again, trust me, unless you've got feathertouch.
The Furminator can also completely strip out the undercoat which is bad and can damage the overcoat.  This is caused by excessive or very hard brushing.  Dogs with Furminator-damaged coats and skin aren't very happy so please don't overuse your Furminator.

Anyways, when I use the Furminator I do one side of Conker on Saturday then the other on Sunday, or whatever parts of him that happen to be shedding at the time.  I get out about a softball-sized amount of fur (when bundled up) with each of these brushings and they only last 10 minutes.  I stop when I've brushed Conker for 10 minutes even if I can still get out large clumps of fur to avoid skin and coat damage.
Besides, whatever I miss with the Furminator I can keep under control with the curry and slicker throughout the week until the next weekend rolls around.

The Furminator is a great tool, but used incorrectly can do more harm than good.  Remember that when you brush your dog with one.  They are also very pricey so don't buy one in a pet store.  Instead go online and find one, they can be bought for $25 or less.  If you go with a knock-off brand try to find one that's gotten good reviews.  I personally prefer my Furbuster to the Furminator due to it's replaceable and not-as-sharp blade and generally cheaper price.

The Furminator should only be used on dogs with undercoats since it does nothing for overcoats, stiff-hair coats or wooly/curly/wire coats.  It will work on Lab-type coats for the soft fluffy crap that gets everywhere, but don't buy one if you've got a dog like a Whippet unless you also own a German Shepherd Dog.





Today Conker got: Turkey back with egg, turkey liver and turkey heart.  Took him 20 minutes to eat.

Grooming Tools: Curry Comb

As most of you double-coated dog owners know, it's shedding season!  Yay!  Depending on where you live it may be almost over or just beginning.  Conker is about mid-way through his bi-annual coat blowing.  I am very good at keeping Conker's fur at bay, so I figured I'd chat a bit about the tools I use to combat the fur monster that is Shiba and keep life during shedding reasonable.

These are my tools.  From left to right: Flea comb, comb, undercoat rake, curry comb, slicker brush and Furminator knock-off.  I use the three on the right the most.
Conker gets brushed almost every day using one or more of these tools during shedding season.

Today I am going to talk about this:

The curry comb!
Curry combs are most often used on horses and aren't really too easy to find in normal pet stores.  There is a thing called the Zoom Groom that's made by Kong that is very similar to a curry comb.  The Zoom Groom has dog and cat varieties, long and short hair, but in all honesty they are all the exact same thing.  (I worked in a grooming shop and have used all these tools on all coat types.)

So! Curry comb.  I know about these since I worked on a horse ranch and would brush "my" horse with one every time I rode her.  They work very well at getting short stiff hairs loose and off whatever animal you are brushing.  In the Shiba's case, it works wonders on the shedding overcoat.  The overcoat in my opinion is more troublesome than the undercoat since there are a million products made for getting it out but hardly any for the overcoat.

Conker is a mutant and actually likes being brushed.  His favorite spots with the curry comb are his legs and belly.  And it works very good on those short leg hairs that other things like a Furminator can't seem to get.
The best part about the curry comb is that it cost me $1.49.  I was going to get a Zoom Groom but the cheapest I've been able to see them was $7.99 but I can't spend that much on a brush when I know about a cheaper alternative.  The curry is also easier to replace of your dog decides it will make a nice chew toy.

The biggest difference between the curry comb and Zoom Groom is how it works.  The curry comb has very shallow small teeth, the Zoom Groom has large deep teeth.  The curry comb works good on short flat coats and grips the fur on top, the Zoom Groom works good on thicker coats that it can get down into.  They both get the over and undercoats out but the Zoom Groom gets more undercoat than the curry.
A good feature of both of these is that they can be used while the dog it wet or damp.

When it comes down to the bottom line:
Curry comb works better on short hair, VERY good at getting overcoat off, CHEAP!
Zoom Groom works better on long hair, gets both over and undercoat off, not a bad price.

So if you've got a chill Shiba, are on a budget or have a dog with a short coat or similar to a Lab's, get the curry.  If you've got a maniac Shiba who won't sit still for long brushings or have dogs with Husky-type coats, get a Zoom Groom.





Today Conker got: Pork with beef kidney, beef and chicken liver, chicken heart, half a chicken back, G/C/MSM and salmon oil.