Winter is drawing to a close in California, and that means shedding time. I use a combination of brushes to keep my home, and my Great Pyrenees, manageable.
When things warm up my adorable Great Pyrenees, Nemo, sheds hair like there is no tomorrow. If I break from a careful program of brushing and vacuuming around the house there are giant white tumbleweeds of dog hair (a.k.a. Nemobunnies) rolling around the halls within a day. I collect so much hair we joke about stuffing pillows and making sweaters. Some folks actually do.
First off, always brush your dog someplace you can easily collect a lot of loose hair that'll end up on the floor, you and anything near the two of you as you brush. Brushing outside or on hardwood floors is a lot easier to clean up than in your bed. Trust me.
I start with an undercoat rake. I use this $6 brush from Amazon, and it has served me well. The long, curved pins on this brush get under Nemo's heavy top coat and down into the downy fine undercoat. Dirt sheds easily off a Great Pyr and Nemo almost always stays startlingly white, but the undercoat can collect some dirt and get tangled. This brush seems to fairly gently remove the fuzz that is ready to be shed. I remove mountains of it. MOUNTAINS.
After I've spent a decent amount of time attempting to brush most of Nemo with the undercoat rake, I switch to a soft pin brush. This grabs the rest of the loose hair and acts as sort of a clean up job for everything the rake has left behind. Skipping this step, which I have mistakenly done out of laziness, will actually leave more hair on my floor. This pin brush has lasted me a while but they are far less durable than the undercoat ones. I need a new one every season.
Brushing a Great Pyr, and occasionally trimming his nails, is almost all the grooming this breed needs. I take him to the groomer but its generally a convenience and not necessary. If Pretzel, our Cavalier King Charles, didn't need to see the groomer we'd never bother.
As always, if you are interested in a Great Pyrenees or just want to aid a fantastic dog rescue, please check out the Great Pyrenees Rescue of Northern California. They are amazing!
