How to Control Your Pet’s Shedding

You know when your pet’s hair starts shedding there are literally thousands of hairs all over the place – on you, in the car, in the bed, on the floor, everywhere. Some pets seem to shed all year long but most pets shed their winter coats in order to prepare for their summer coats, sort of like when we change clothes for each season. Most pets shed their coats during the springtime and when this shedding happens hair is left everywhere. However, there are things you can do to control your pet’s massive shedding by using the following techniques.

The most important thing you can do to control your pet’s shedding instead of brushing the floors and beds is to brush your pet when they start shedding. Brush often and use a brush that works best for your pet’s coat. Don’t just run a brush over the top of their coat that doesn’t help at all, brush your pet from head to tail thoroughly, and then reverse the direction going from the tail to the head pulling the hairs up and out. Then brush again going the right way from head to tail. When you brush make sure you are brushing using deep, firm and short strokes, the shorter the strokes the better because it penetrates the coat much more thoroughly.

Brushing in the reverse direction can static shock you and your pet, so when brushing backwards from tail to head you may want to use a static free brush. After the thorough brushing job, use a big comb with a firm handle grip to rack through your pet’s coat; fine tuning their coat and getting rid of additional falling hair. There are a couple of devices used for grooming horses that you can also use to groom your pet’s coat after brushing and combing and control the shedding. The first one is a rubber curry comb to groom cats and shorthaired dogs. The next one is a shedding blade, which works great for longhaired dogs. Make sure you groom your pet outside or you will have more cleaning to do inside your house.

To control your pet’s shedding use a grooming glove, which works very well for pets that won’t stay still long enough for you to use any other object. The trick is that your pet will think you are just giving them a nice soothing pet but the gloves have little plastic teeth, which work to remove shedding hair. Another way to control your pet’s shedding is to brush and comb their coat after you give them a bath. The bath will help loosen and remove hair. After you bathe your pet you can apply a straightening conditioner to their coat, which can make it easier to brush and groom the hair. When grooming cats you may need to hold them by their neck firmly in order for them to sit still while you are grooming them. For longhaired dogs you can always give them a haircut, which can cut down on the excessive shedding.