Shedding undercoat

sachismom

My AA is shedding for the first time. What is the best way for me to help her get through it. I have been using a rake type comb every evening. Is there anything else I can do? It is a very warm spring, I think the sooner she can be free of the extra coat the better. All advice welcome.

sachismom

Just saw the info on the Zoom Groom and ordered one. Any other thoughts or ideas?

sachismom

sachismom

sachismom

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sachismom

CarabooA

Great pics!!! I love the last one there... wet, rolling in sand and hhhaaappy!! lol

sjp051993

Normally a warm bath and a blow out does the trick although not everyone has access to a blower.

Losech

Yeah, nice warm bath with a ton of good rubbing, and a blow dry if possible. Hair will fly everywhere but it'll get a good amount out. Some of those self-serve dog-wash places have them, if you can't get one and don't want to pay a groomer to do it. If anything, an air compressor with the right nozzle works.

shibamistress

I use the undercoat rake on my AA...he's in his first real coat blow. (He'll be 2 at the end of the May, and last year he did some shedding but not a true blowing of the coat). I like the zoom groom too--just bought one last week--but the undercoat rake works better.

And yeah a bath helps.

Love the pics, esp. the covered in sand one!

sachismom

Thanks, everyone. I am guessing from Shibamistress's comment that this in not a real full coat blow, as she is only 10 months. Something to look forward to. There is a lot of hair in my house and in my yard and in my car, even if it is only a trial run.

PoetikDragon

I wouldn't necessarily say that, @sachismom. I've had my dogs do a "real" full coat blow at that age. In fact when she blew her coat at 10 months old was the worst my Gojira has *ever* looked:

sachismom

Oh, good to know, because it is just chunking off of her.

shibamistress

Yeah, they can and do blow earlier--Oskar just didn't! (I mean he shed a lot, just not a full coat blow). And Gojira looks WAY better in that pics than my Shiba when he's blowing his coat. My Shiba looks like he has a terrible disease when he gets going!

It varies from dog to dog and year to year. My male Shiba does a pretty serious coat blow every spring, with another round of serious shedding in the fall. I used to think I knew what his coat blowing was like (it's amazing one medium sized dog could produce so much hair) but then last year he lost ALL his undercoat til he looked thin coated and awful, and I thought something was wrong with him til Lindsay told me Shibas can have really thorough coat blows and it sounded like that was what was going on with him. And it was--I just hadn't seen it like that before!

My female has a mild coat blow, but I never know when it is going to happen, and it's never bad (she doesn't have much of an undercoat, truth be told). The Akita, well, we'll see, but right now it's starting.

sachismom

I guess over the years I will get to see what happens. I'm glad she won't have to go round all summer in all of her winter fur though. She really hates it when it is over 60 degrees.