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.