Grooming and Coat Maintenance

There's a lot of info about what's necessary to keep your dog looking and feeling their best, but sometimes it's hard to navigate exactly what information applies to your four-legged friend.

The biggest thing to know is what kind of coat your dog has. The main two categories are single-coated and double-coated. The easiest way to understand the difference is in terms of shedding. Technically anything with hair sheds, but breeds we think of as shedding, from Huskies to Chihuahuas to Golden Retrievers, are all double-coated. This means their coat has a standard length it won't ever surpass.

Dogs with coats that keep growing until they're trimmed, like Shih Tzus, Afghan Hounds and Poodles, are single-coated.

Why It Matters:

What kind of coat your dog has will largely impact how often they need brushed, bathed, and full grooms. Single-coated dogs need to be brushed and combed routinely in order to avoid matting, and/or trimmed short on a very regular basis. The longest time to go between grooms--whether just getting the full brush, bath, blowout and trim or getting the fur clipped down--is eight weeks. This is complicated by the fact that these dogs will often get more matted if bathed or allowed to get wet without being properly dried with a high-velocity or fluff dryer.

As for double-coated dogs, there's further variety. A dog with a dense undercoat like a Husky, a Shiba Inu, a Great Pyrenees or a Samoyed, will all need pretty extensive undercoat removal seasonally, and this will also be dependent upon how much time the dog spends outside. Regular brushing is necessary to avoid impacting and matting.

Alternatively, dogs like Pugs, Boxers, Labradors and such will also need pretty regular upkeep, but mostly just to keep the at-home shedding down. These dogs can be bathed and dried at home without any repercussions, and rubber curry brushes work best for minimize the amount of fur on your clothes, floors, furniture and literally everything else you own.