Grooming & Care
Grooming is the part of pet care you do every week, so the tools need to be quick, quiet and comfortable rather than clever. Here you will find dog clippers, deshedding brushes, nail grinders, toothbrushes, paw trimmers and coat dryers for dogs, cats and horses, plus a complete dog grooming kit if you are starting from nothing.
Brushing by coat type
Match the tool to the coat, not to the dog. A double coat, the kind huskies, german shepherds and most spitz breeds carry, has a soft undercoat sitting under coarse guard hairs, and that undercoat is what ends up on your sofa. A deshedding tool or a deshedding brush reaches through the topcoat and lifts the loose undercoat out before it sheds. Single-coated and curly dogs are the opposite case. A poodle, a bichon or a doodle has no undercoat to remove, so a bladed deshedder simply cuts healthy hair and leaves the coat thin and frizzy. Those coats want a slicker or pin brush followed by a metal comb worked right down to the skin, which is where mats actually form. Cats usually accept something gentler again, such as a corner massage brush they can rub against on their own terms.
Clipping at home
A clip at home is mostly preparation. Brush the coat out completely first, because a mat will jam the blade and pull the skin, and start with a longer guard comb since you can always take more off. Work in short passes with the lie of the coat rather than against it, and keep your free hand flat on the skin ahead of the blade so loose folds cannot roll into it. For a nervous dog, low noise and low vibration matter far more than motor size, which is what a quiet model like the SMEHNSER D9 pet clipper is for, while the grooming trimmer with a vacuum collects the clippings as you go. Blades blunt and warm up with use, so keep a spare blade to hand and pause to let one cool. Around the pads and the face, a small paw trimmer is safer than a full-size clipper.
Nails without the fight
The quick is the blood vessel inside the nail, and it is what turns nail day into a fight. On pale nails you can see it as a pink core, so cut a couple of millimetres in front of it. On black nails you can see nothing, which is where a nail grinder for dogs earns its place: it takes off a fraction at a time and you stop as soon as a dark dot appears in the centre of the cut surface. Grinders are also kinder to brittle nails, since clippers can crush and split them. The trade-off is sound and vibration, so a dog who hates the buzz may genuinely prefer one clean cut, and a 2-in-1 clipper and grinder with an LED lets you do both in one session. Swap the grinding heads when they start rubbing instead of cutting. Cats can keep their own claws in shape on a self-sharpening claw board.
Teeth they will tolerate
Dental care fails when it starts too fast. Spend the first week letting your dog lick the paste off your finger, then off the brush, and only then brush a few teeth at a time. Thirty seconds along the outer surfaces of the canines and back teeth, most days, does far more than one wrestling match a month. A soft finger-style dog toothbrush is the easiest way in, and an electric toothbrush for pets covers more surface once the routine is settled. For visible tartar on the outer surfaces there is an ultrasonic tartar scraper and a hand scraper set, and a dental chew toy keeps things ticking over between sessions. Home care slows plaque down; it does not replace a veterinary dental check.
Drying and everyday routine
A thick undercoat holds water long after the top feels dry, and a damp undercoat is how you get the sour smell, the itching and the mats behind the ears and under the legs. Towel the worst off with a microfibre dog towel or a dog bathrobe, then dry from the skin outwards with a coat dryer, lifting the hair with your other hand so the air reaches the base rather than skating over the top. A hands-free pet hair dryer leaves both hands free for a dog who will not stand still. Beyond the kit, the one change that fixes most grooming problems is frequency: five minutes most days beats an hour once a month, stops mats forming at all and leaves a pet hair remover much less to lift off the sofa. If you groom a horse as well, brushes, shedding blades and hoof stands sit in for horses.
Petifo is a Swedish company and we ship across the EU with tracked delivery. Prices include VAT, with no extra customs fees on EU orders. If something is not right you can request a return within 30 days under our return policy, and our team is happy to help you choose before you buy.
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