GOLDENDOODLE GROOMING: Brush-&-Comb | Avoid the #1 MISTAKE

What comes absolutely part and parcel with golden doodle ownership is this, knowing how to use a brush and a comb. Actually, I feel like combining these two things into a single word because they are two parts of the same process. Brush and comb, both equally important for maintaining the doodle dog's coat. Today, I'd like to do a deep dive into this essential grooming tool duo to see how they work in tandem, what to look out for, and how to ensure your golden doodles are brushed correctly to avoid the number one biggest grooming mistake. Hi, welcome to my golden doodle diary, the channel dedicated to golden doodles. Subscribe if you'd like to join our pack. So here are the two grooming tools in question. There's nothing much to look at. Buy one of these, you buy one of these, and they can last for decades. I'll first cover off the way that these work individually on the doodle coat before showing how to use them and why it's important to use them together. Let's get to know this slicker brush first. This one I've had for about 15 years. It's made of very thin, very sharp pins, about half an inch long. The pins are attached to a soft padded cushion, which allows for a little bit of extra pin movement, but they still remain reasonably stiff. The brushing area itself is three inches by two inches, and this size slicker brush is okay for me because Sophie is a relatively small size for a standard golden doodle. But if your golden doodle is or will be a bigger dog, you have a lot more doggy real estate to brush through, and you may want a slicker brush with a larger surface area. Now Sophie's coat is medium in density, by which I mean it's still very easy to get to her skin. So no matter what her coat length is, I can normally manage to get to the skin with a half inch brush. If your golden doodle's coat is, say, thick, curly and long, perhaps try a brush with pins that are longer, maybe one inch or around two centimeters. Here's another hand-me-down. It's a slicker brush with only a hard rubber backing. It's got quite a pronounced curve on its back. It's designed to be used in this kind of a motion. It's a matter of personal preference if you have a cushioned or an uncushioned brush, and if you like it to be flat or curved. Another consideration for me is how comfortable the handle is to hold. This one has a soft rubber handle, which I prefer. The red one here has a hard plastic one. I use the sharp brushes on Sophie in her least sensitive parts, from the neck down her back and a bit to the side. As I brush further down and underneath, the coat gets sparse and the skin is sensitive there. So a sharp slicker brush can easily scratch her, which is why I used to use this soft little puppy brush, which was okay. But then I got this new slicker brush and it has been a real game changer for us. Firstly, the surface area is bigger, four inches by two inches or about 10 centimetres by five centimetres, which is an improvement. There is no cushion and it's quite a flat backed kind of a brush. The pins are still super thin and they can rake through the coat. But the most important part of this brush is that the pins have tiny little balls at the end. If I compare it to the very sharp pins of the previous two brushes, those little ball pins are far less scratchy, which makes a big difference on the skin. With this slicker brush, I can confidently brush Sophie anywhere. Actually, I now use it as an all over brush. Again, if you have a dog with thick curly hair all the way around, using the slicker brush without the balls on the pins will likely be fine for you because the skin has a thick enough layer of coat to protect it from scratching. So to recap, these are the elements of slicker brushes to consider. The surface area of the brush, which you match to the size of your dog, the length of the pins, anywhere from half an inch to an inch, and you match this to the length and thickness of the dog's coat. Then your personal preference regarding cushioned or uncushioned pins, whether the brush is curved or flat backed, and the feel of the handle, and of course sharp pins versus ball pins. Having said all this about slicker brushes, some people use regular brushes for humans on their dogs quite successfully. This is especially good if the doodle coat is a little more coarse overall, and you're not having to rake through the very fine coat hairs. So there is no one size fits all brush solution because golden doodle sizes, coat types, and coat lengths vary, and so do your own personal preferences. Slicker brushes are amazing, but they do have their limitations. Now let's look at how they work and what they are capable of. The principle behind them is to glide over the coat, even if there are obstacles. The sharp pins brush through knots and take out loose hairs and any debris. They separate and lift hair away from the body and are designed not to get stuck. With many controlled strokes across the body, you can cover a large area relatively quickly. The reason for doing many strokes is best demonstrated with my hand and this board. Pretend the board is the dog's skin, my fist is a mat near the skin, on top of the skin and mat is the dog's coat. So I glide over the top of the skin and continue gliding over the mat, untangling it little by little each time. Soon I get the feeling I'm done with the mat and move on to brushing another area. The problem with this approach is I can't be sure the mat is fully brushed out, and when a little bit of it is left, it soon gets bigger again. The only way of knowing the mat is out is to be right at the skin without irritating or scratching it. This is when the comb comes in. I mainly use it to check how well I brushed. Depending on the thickness of the coat in different places, I run either the wide or the narrow side of this double-sided comb along the skin after it's already been brushed. I use a metal comb because it doesn't create static the way that plastic combs can. These are very inexpensive anyway. This one was around five dollars. The edge of the comb is blunt so it won't scratch, but if it snags on something, I know that there is still a tangle left behind. I then either comb it out gently on an angle, starting away from the skin and working in, or I use my small soft puppy brush or my big new brush with the ball pins. If it doesn't work and the mat is in a sensitive spot, I just cut it out. Unless Sophie's coat is very short or I'm working on just one small area, I don't normally use the comb by itself without running a slicker brush first because the way the comb is designed, it snags on any obstacles and pulls on the skin. Now we've gone through the mechanisms of the brush and comb, let's address the number one most common grooming mistake on golden doodles, and that is not brushing and combing the coat to the skin. People often use only the slicker brush over the coat without resistance, thinking it's brushed, but in the meantime there may be a huge flat mat forming beneath the coat right at skin level. Matting at skin level causes the dog pain as they move. Any movement on the skin creates pulling and can create some nasty skin problems for the dog without people even realising. That's why I'd like to show you this photo. It's from a groomer who's had to shave an entire pelt off a golden doodle held together by a huge mat underneath. And this is from a loving owner who regularly brushed their dog on the surface. They were simply unaware of the matting underneath. Thankfully there was a great communication between the groomer and the owner and they came to an understanding about what had happened and without anyone taking offence. It was a learning experience and the owner kindly gave permission for this photo to be circulated to help others understand the pitfalls of not brushing and combing to the skin. This is the reason for a lot of misunderstanding between groomers and owners. The owners may think their dog is well brushed and have the dog booked in for a little clip and get shocked when they pick up the dog because it's been completely shaved down, which incidentally is the only humane thing to do when there is a lot of matting underneath. It comes down to understanding how to maintain the coat correctly, especially when it gets all cute and long. I'm not talking here about instances where the groomer cuts the hair much shorter than what you expected or instructed. That's something else still. I'm all for clear and open communication between groomers and owners. And that's all I have for you today. If you found this video useful, leave a like and consider subscribing. And if you want to find out what I do to prepare Sophie for the groomer, you may want to see this video on screen right now. Thank you for your company and bye for now. And why it's important to use them together to prevent the big mistake. Thanks, Sophie.