# Furminator vs. the Shedding Blade



## Nancy Jocoy

Today is payday

Any opinions as to whether the furminator is dramatically better than a seratted shedding blade at removing undercoat?

Not as much an issue with my working line dogs - but the one who is half showlines -- yeeeesh!


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## Bob Scott

I think Connie has one.


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## Woody Taylor

I have a Furminator. Come see my bald cat (the test subject who also has [had] an undercoat and is a heavy shedder). I highly recommend it. Use it outside...those pictures on the website are exaggerated, but it still raises complete hell on everything it's used around.

Still breaking Annie in on it. She gets really over-stimulated with brush strokes, and this definitely is more stimulating on skin than most brushes. 

http://www.furminator.com/


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## Kristen Cabe

I know of two or three people that say it's not worth buying. They say a shedding blade or rake works just as well.


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## Woody Taylor

Kristen Cabe said:


> I know of two or three people that say it's not worth buying. They say a shedding blade or rake works just as well.


Have to disagree with them 100%, at least in my experience. I have all three and use all three (basically the Furminator is the big gun when I really need to get in there). It gets out undercoat faster and more effectively than either a shedding blade or a undercoat rake.

Easiest thing to do is try it out--the PetCoSmarts have them--and just return it if you don't like it. I have the medium blade. They are expensive...$50.


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## Konnie Hein

I have used the furminator and loved it too. It works particularly well on my labs - much better than an undercoat rake or shedding blade. I would highly recommend it!


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## Nancy Jocoy

Actually I can get it cheaper here

http://entirelypets.stores.yahoo.net/fume.html
Medium $33.99

I have ordered from these folks before and have had great service, and am ordering Glycoflex III today so will add it on - since some folks who have used BOTH tools have replied.

Thanks for the replies


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## Mike Schoonbrood

I had a furminator in my hand today but decided to stick with my shedding blade n bought a new rake to replace the one that I mysteriously lost. I don't like the idea of the furminator.... but it might be OK...


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## Rashmi Kumar

Guys,

Went on vacation...came back and this site has really picked up...Cool  

Regarding the sheding blade. I have one. Pardon my ignorance but this is my first dog- gsd and his first summer. He has shed his undercoat but how can I be sure of this fact? No lumps of hair on the carpet seen.

Also, I was told to use the sheding blad in the reverse direct of the hair growth? Is that correct? I use the regular german groming rake that Leerburg.com sells- is that enought to take any of this left undercoat?

Thanks,

Rashmi


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## Nancy Jocoy

You basically have three types of tools for removing undercoat

The rake, which you have

The shedding blade, which is found in horse departments and is basically a fancy hacksaw blade with handles and

The furminator, which is like a large clipper blade with a handle.

The blade and furminator are designed to be used in the direction of hair growth. I thought the rake was as well, but I could be wrong. The blade and furminator are more effective in removing a large quantity of undercoat in short time....moreso than the rake IMO. I am finding the furminator also removes loose topcoat. 

I like it - can't say it is leagues above the blade but I seem to be able to use it in a more gentler fashion and the dogs seem to tolerate it better. Leerburg did decide to start selling the furminator as well. I bought mine from the link above as it is the cheapest I have found and they have consistently good customer service (I realize Leerburg does as well)


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## Woody Taylor

Nancy Jocoy said:


> You basically have three types of tools for removing undercoat
> 
> The rake, which you have
> 
> The shedding blade, which is found in horse departments and is basically a fancy hacksaw blade with handles and
> 
> The furminator, which is like a large clipper blade with a handle.
> 
> The blade and furminator are designed to be used in the direction of hair growth. I thought the rake was as well, but I could be wrong. The blade and furminator are more effective in removing a large quantity of undercoat in short time....moreso than the rake IMO. I am finding the furminator also removes loose topcoat.
> 
> I like it - can't say it is leagues above the blade but I seem to be able to use it in a more gentler fashion and the dogs seem to tolerate it better. Leerburg did decide to start selling the furminator as well. I bought mine from the link above as it is the cheapest I have found and they have consistently good customer service (I realize Leerburg does as well)


Nancy, did you have issues with the Furminator "overstimulating" your dogs? That tool...and the rake...seem to work my dog up. She's still miserable at sitting still for grooming, but it seems like some things make her more excited than others (it still works well, btw, just takes longer ;-))


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## Nancy Jocoy

No special issues with that tool vs. others. 

Brushing of any kind is tolerated at best. 

I would rather brush than trim nails and rather be independantly wealthy so I could hire someone else to do itl


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## Connie Sutherland

Bob Scott said:


> I think Connie has one.


Yes, as a gift! Good thing, because the price
turned me off.

But it was sent to me, and I admit that I forgot
it for a while, then while I was away last week the
dogsitter tried it.

She raved about it, so I tried it. I love it too.

Use it outdoors, as Woody says. USE IT OUTDOORS. :lol: 

I think it's way better than anything else I have tried. My
daughter with the Borders agrees, and they are a hand-stripping
dog.

In fact, I have to thank the donor, a tad late.


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## Al Curbow

Hi Nancy, i don't like doing nails either but i finally tried the way Will R say's to do it, with the dremel tool with the drum sander and it's definitely the way to go, my female was always a pain in the butt about it so her nails got a tad long but with the dremel she just lays there and now i got them nice and short, and there's no chance of quicking them, really simple


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## Bob Scott

Question on the furminator. Does it remove only dead hair or is it actually cutting/shaving out some of the live hair? 
I've neve in my life had a dog that sheds as bad as Thunder. He's an outside dog and even in the middle of winter I can pet him and get hair. 
Now that he's in the house during his heartworm treatment    
Thank heavens for an understanding wife. She's about going crazy even with his being kept in his crate most of the day.
I'm getting pretty good with the vaccum cleaner. :lol: 
Ditto on the Dremel tool on nails!


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## Bob Scott

ps. I Dremel the nails on my buddie's wife's three huge parrots. Now THAT'S exciting!


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## Connie Sutherland

Bob Scott said:


> Question on the furminator. Does it remove only dead hair or is it actually cutting/shaving out some of the live hair?
> I've neve in my life had a dog that sheds as bad as Thunder. He's an outside dog and even in the middle of winter I can pet him and get hair.
> Now that he's in the house during his heartworm treatment
> Thank heavens for an understanding wife. She's about going crazy even with his being kept in his crate most of the day.
> I'm getting pretty good with the vaccum cleaner. :lol:
> Ditto on the Dremel tool on nails!


It removes dead hair. As you know, what sheds is undercoat ("blown" a couple of times a year) and dead top hairs (constant shedding). It pulls out the loose undercoat and some dead topcoat hairs out without removing the glossy "overcoat."

At least that's my observation. 8)


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## Connie Sutherland

It works great on Leo too, who is a fawn Pug. (Fawn Pugs are double-coated too and are as bad as GSDs.)


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## Bob Scott

Sounds like that's what I need then. I use a steel comb twice a week and don't really have a problem with undercoat. He should be bald ten times over with all the top coat he drops.


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## Connie Sutherland

Bob Scott said:


> ps. I Dremel the nails on my buddie's wife's three huge parrots. Now THAT'S exciting!


Wow. I didn't know they needed that!


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## Maren Bell Jones

I wonder if my rats would let me Dremel their nails!  They have some super sharp nails, even if I put parrot perches in their cage to file their nails down (hehe, maybe it's making them sharper?). They just won't hold still for anything and they grow back very very fast. My ferret is the easiest to trim. Either scruff him and he goes limp and just lets you trim or put some fish oil on his stomach when he's on his back in your arms and he's so busy licking, you can just go to town.


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## Tim Martens

i just bought a furminator and it rocks. i have never used a shedding blade, but between the furminator and the rake, there is no comparison. i could probably spend 10 minutes combing with the rake, then use the furminator right after it and pull out enough hair to cover a small dog. it's awesome...


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## Connie Sutherland

Tim Martens said:


> i just bought a furminator and it rocks. i have never used a shedding blade, but between the furminator and the rake, there is no comparison. i could probably spend 10 minutes combing with the rake, then use the furminator right after it and pull out enough hair to cover a small dog. it's awesome...


I couldn't agree more. I love it. Never saw its equal. :>)


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## Lynn Cheffins

I have to get one of these - some of the dogs have started to blow coat and I have three weeks to get a head start on the fur blizzard. I have to have hand surgery in three weeks so am a little desparate. I have been using the greyhound comb and line combing but it is very time consuming.


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## Amanda Layne

Man do I feel for all of you. I dremel nails, and spray a little show sheen (for horses) to keep the dirt off...........and mine are good to go 

I guess dobermans arent all that bad


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## Maren Bell Jones

Ah, good thread that was resurrected. I got my Furminator from ebay in the fall and it's been really nice to have. My husky mix and the purebred Siberian I was fostering for about a month (he got adopted yesterday, yay!) are right in the beginning half of spring shed and there is now big clumps of fur all over the backyard thanks to that wonderful tool. PS: the rats will sometimes put up the Dremel tool.


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## Luna Wolf

I LOVE the furminator and will never use another tool for de-shedding my dogs again. I get tons of hair and it is quick and easy. Definitely worth it in my opinion. Way better than a rake or shedding blade, I think.


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## ann schnerre

just my .02: using a shedding blade on a horse works really well, using one on a GSD doesn't work for c#@p. 
i have a rake, works well enough, but it does get brix wound up a little. funny thing is, he doesn't seem to load up the amount of undercoat that my old labx does; i'm still going over her once/twice/wk, while him i just give a quick grooming maybe once/week...


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## Lynn Cheffins

Well - I bought the "Pro" model "Furminator" ...seems to haul out a fair amount hair but is a pretty slow process and it pulls out the hair in a fluffed up state so that if flies around everywhere and sticks to everything - I used it outside on a humid, buggy day and was ready to toss ol' Furmy over the fence after all that fluff sticking to sweaty old bug dope covered me -. I think I can strip a dog faster with a comb but I think the Furminator might work well on the shorter coated alaskans. I think it would take me all day to strip out one of the siberians with it. I think it would be ok to use on a regular basis for day to day shedding but I like to get them "nekkid" as soon as that under coat loosens up. 
I am not ready to throw out my "Greyhound" comb yet...


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## Kristen Cabe

Lynn, what is a "greyhound" comb? 



> is a pretty slow process and it pulls out the hair in a fluffed up state so that if flies around everywhere and sticks to everything


Yep. It can get annoying. I borrowed my aunt's Furminator and I wasn't that impressed with it on the shepherds, though it did work very well on Gypsy. I'll just stick to the ol' rake.


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## Lynn Cheffins

https://secure.highspeedweb.net/~ldcpet/aa-greyhound.htm


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## Connie Sutherland

A couple of comments from a review of the Furminator (which I loooooove):

QUOTE: A downside -- the manufacturer does suggest you will need to buy replacement blades to maintain the performance of this tool; I am not sure how one can tell if the blade is "dull" but perhaps it will become clear after more use. All in all, however, the price is well worth the performance of this high-quality tool. 

QUOTE: I wanted to add that this tool is designed to be used on clean(ish), dry, tangle-free fur. If the coat has more than a couple of burrs or tangles, use a different kind of tool (scissors or a comb) to remove these first before grooming, as the Furminator will just skim right over these areas. Also, it will not work very effectively on wet or really grubby fur; this is not the tool to reach for right after your dog's been swimming! 
from http://www.amazon.com/FURminator-Medium-Yellow-deShedding-2-6-Inch/dp/B000FSFNVI


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## Anne Vaini

My .02

Shedding blade - fairly useless except for skinning your knuckeles when reaching into the grooming kit.

Undercoat rake - not bad! The cheap ones from WalMart work btter than the ones I bought at LB.

Furminator - pretty amazing, but not worth the cost, IMO.

Mars Coat Stripper - now THAT is my kind of grooming tool! I love it.


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## Lynn Cheffins

> A couple of comments from a review of the Furminator (which I loooooove):
> 
> QUOTE: A downside -- the manufacturer does suggest you will need to buy replacement blades to maintain the performance of this tool; I am not sure how one can tell if the blade is "dull" but perhaps it will become clear after more use. All in all, however, the price is well worth the performance of this high-quality tool.
> 
> QUOTE: I wanted to add that this tool is designed to be used on clean(ish), dry, tangle-free fur. If the coat has more than a couple of burrs or tangles, use a different kind of tool (scissors or a comb) to remove these first before grooming, as the Furminator will just skim right over these areas. Also, it will not work very effectively on wet or really grubby fur; this is not the tool to reach for right after your dog's been swimming!
> from http://www.amazon.com/FURminator-Med.../dp/B000FSFNVI


Well -I matt bladed-ed, rough brushed, bathed and blow dried 6 dogs in one afternoon(got a little carried away) and it was a brand-new furminator - I bought the pro one so I could replace the blades but I am not as impressed as I expected to be:razz: - It works, but is just way too slow me - plus the dogs seem to like the comb and not like the furminator so much. I did a test this afternoon furminated one side of a dog and line combed the other for the same length of time - the comb won in actual weight of fur removed (the furminator pile looked bigger but once you gathered it up there was less there - it just spread it farther. Looks like a fur bomb went off around here but I sacrificed for science.....

Gee only 9 dogs left to do...and then they can get back to digging holes and gettng dirty.


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## Connie Sutherland

Lynn Cheffins said:


> Looks like a fur bomb went off around here but I sacrificed for science.....


:lol: :lol:


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## Bob Scott

I have to agree with Lynn. I do like the fuminator but Thunder has a very thick coat and I still use the greyhound comb for the first week or so of shedding. It seems to get right down to the skin much better then the furminator.
Also, because of the fluff thing Lynn mentioned, I only use the furminator when I'm in a windy field.......and I stay upwind of the dog.


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## Kristina Senter

I think it totally depends on the coat, but I was not particularly impressed with the furminator, especially for the price. It did a better job on the really short haired dogs, a decent job on the mals and jack squat for the colle/ chow cross.


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## Marina Schmidt

I need to bring back this thread! I'm thinking about getting the Furminatur but I'm bot sure yet. I've heard it rips out alot of alive fur and it's blade is actually too short to reach the undercoat... did you made any of these bad experience?


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## Candy Eggert

Anna K gave me my Furminator for my fur beasties and I love it!! It also came with a "Waterless Shampoo and Conditioner" (has Omega 3/6 in it). I wash the dogs, let them air dry, spray the conditioner on, rub in and towel dry. Then use the rake. It helps to loosen the thick undercoat and dead hair. I get more coat off them than a regular rake type comb.

I do find that you have to press down hard to get to the undercoat, but have to make sure you're not getting all the way to the skin. For double coated breeds it's 2 thumbs up for me ;-)


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## David Frost

My handlers think they are as handy as a pocket on a shirt. 

DFrost


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## Joby Becker

Used em. They work well. As always I'ma bargain hunter...

Got the big one on ebay for $12.00.

Groomer friend of mine does warn not to overdue it with the furminator..Can cause damage if misused.


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## Kristina Senter

I was a pro groomer for a few years and am not at all a fan of them. They may do ok on a really short haired dog (like a Jack Russell or a Beagle.) but on anything longer than that (even like a labs coat), I find them absolutely useless. It only looks like you're pulling a lot of hair, but you will spend 5x the amount of time that you would with a metal grooming/"greyhound" comb.


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## Adam Rawlings

I don't use mine anymore, I find the rake works better and like Kristina said it doesn't work well on coarse coats. However, my wife loves it for grooming her cat.


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## Candy Eggert

David Frost said:


> My handlers think they are as handy as a pocket on a shirt.
> 
> DFrost


Where the heck do they stick those pocket protectors?! :lol:


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## Kristina Senter

Candy Eggert said:


> Where the heck do they stick those pocket protectors?! :lol:


In a concealed holster?


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## Candy Eggert

Kristina Senter said:


> In a concealed holster?


Touche` Kristina :lol:


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## Johannes Gilbertson

*The FURMINATOR and Karlie Defelter are the best for the GSD. You can get the FURMINATOR on eBay for $20 shipped (or less) any day. PETedge sells a nice defelter (under rakes) for about $20.*

http://cgi.ebay.com/FURminator-LARG...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item414c4937d4


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## Bob Scott

It's ok for my shorter coated GSD but I still use the German rake and Steel comb with it. 
No good for my coated GSD. He gets just the German rake and steel comb. 
My JRT gets hand stripped.
For a short coated dog I would/have used a horse shedder or a worn hacksaw blade hand held.


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## Terrasita Cuffie

Bob,

You don't think its [furminator] similar to a stripping knife? I use it to strip out the bouv and even Khaldi. I can't believe you still hand strip Pete. That's dedication.


Terrasita


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## Bob Scott

T, it's similar but the stripping knife is assisted by the groomer's thumb. With it you actually pluck the coat, not scraping across it as does the Furminator. 
You've seen me plucking at Thunder's coat many times. Right now he looks like one of Sandra's sheep but being outside I just leave it alone for the most part till warmer weather.
Yes, I have a stripping knife but I've hand stripped all my terriers. Even the show dogs I had. The Kerry Blues are scissored. As good as meditation for me. :grin:
I still hand strip a lady's Border Terrier 2-3 times a year and by the time I'm finished I really miss the callouses that I had on my fingers and thumb from doing it on a regular basis. :lol::lol:


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## Denise Gatlin

Bob Scott said:


> It's ok for my shorter coated GSD but I still use the German rake and Steel comb with it.
> No good for my coated GSD. He gets just the German rake and steel comb.
> My JRT gets hand stripped.
> For a short coated dog I would/have used a horse shedder or a worn hacksaw blade hand held.


 What brand of German rake do you prefer? I am guessing that your German Shedders are more heavily coated due to your climate than mine in our more tropic climate. Not much need for undercoat here. The Furm works well with my guys but I would be interested in your choice of German rake.


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## Danielle Wagner

I steal my dog's furminator and use it on my horse. :grin:


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## Bob Scott

Denise Gatlin said:


> What brand of German rake do you prefer? I am guessing that your German Shedders are more heavily coated due to your climate than mine in our more tropic climate. Not much need for undercoat here. The Furm works well with my guys but I would be interested in your choice of German rake.


Offhand I couldn't tel you the brand. It has a black and grey handle. All the teeth on it are the same length and it's made in China. :lol:
I know some have teeth that are different length. Don't know why the difference. I think I got it at one of the big pet center stores. All I can tell you is that it holds up well and it works. 
My short coated dog has a short but thick top and undercoat. He sheds all yr long and is actually blowing coat now. Horrible shedder!
The longhair has a deep, thick coat with a very thick undercoat but he doesn't shed nearly as bad as the short coated dog. Twice a yr is horrible but nothing much in between.


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## Amy Swaby

-Shrugs- I've used the furminator on nearly every kind of dog coat and I'm not disappointed with it yet. For the price I certainly haven't found anything that works as well.


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## chris haynie

"Offhand I couldn't tel you the brand. It has a black and grey handle."

i have some undercoat rakes of similar style made by a company called "evolution". they work pretty good and aren;t horribly expensive at petsmart. 

i have had great success using the Furminator and the undercoat rakes. the furminator shampoo really does help if you use it during a bath, dry them and then get right to the furminating. i do also use a sheding blade for top coat removal in between baths. Furminator is awesome but doesn't get far into the undercoat.


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## Denise Gatlin

Bob Scott said:


> Offhand I couldn't tel you the brand. It has a black and grey handle. All the teeth on it are the same length and it's made in China. :lol:
> 
> A German rake made in China. Go figure!!! #-o
> 
> Thanks for the info, ya'll. =D>


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