The furminator

[bimmerguy288]

I saw the demo video at a pet store. Bought a medium one from Amazon.com for $28, local Petsmart sells for $49!! That's a lot of $$$ for a comb regardless how well it works. But it works.

The amount of hair it pulls out is so scary to the point that I am wondering if it is pulling out hair that won't be coming off naturally for a while. After reading this thread I feel more comfortable now.

[Daisy's Mom]

I worry about the same thing. There have been threads on here before where people discuss whether the Furminator is cutting the hair or just pulling out the looser hairs. It seems to be about 50/50 on either side. I have one and I use it occasionally, but I always have the worry in the back of my mind that I am breaking/cutting off her hair. So I'm kind of on the fence because I just don't know! I compromise by not using it very often. I did use it about a week ago because Daisy has so much coat and it is so hot here now. I figured that even if it is cutting off hair, maybe that's OK this time of year.

One person said it is just thinning shears with a handle, and that's definitely not what I want to do to Daisy's coat!

[Caraline]

I've got a Furminator, used it once on Sonny & would never use it again. Despite the promos, it DOES cut the hair. Like the advert, I got a heap of hair off Sonny but his fur grew in all over the place, an utter mess several months later. It took about 9 months for his coat to look normal again. Same thing with the Marz tool which I also got. Might be great on dogs with a double coat, but there is no way I would ever use either of these on a Cavalier again. I will use the Marz tool on a stubborn knot that normally I would use scissors for, because at least it does cut the hair at different lengths, so you don't get that blunt cut look.

[hbmama]

I have to agree with Caraline....I used the furminator on Dottie a few weeks ago thinking it was all loose undercoat coming off. But it was definately cutting her coat. (Her coat is still in transition from puppy to adult lengths and she has been shedding quite a bit so I thought it would help.) Now she is really alot thinner and very uneven.

The only way I would ever use it again is if she gets one of those big, thick boufy coats later on when she is older, and it just needs a little thinning. They claim that it doesn't cut the coat but I am sure it does!

[Karlin]

I am not sure what it does -- as it takes coat off Lily and Lucy, who shed a lot, but almost nothing from Leo or Jaspar, who don't. It is useful for thinning heavy coat (the Mars coat king definitely is a thinning tool and cuts coat -- they warn to go very cautiously with it because of this). I think the Furminator too does require a very gentle hand -- the coat can come back in all funny and it is easy to kind of carve out the hair rather than take it out in smooth light strokes. I can;t decide whether I like it for the dogs or not. The cats LOVE it though and it takes out tons of hair -- but so does a brush on them, it just takes a lot longer.