Greetings fellow husky owners,

I have been brushing my dog with a special comb (FURminator) and it left me with this.



The outer layer is simply not coming off no matter how much I try to brush it off.. I appreciate any help you can provide.

Thank you for your time.

I just have the cheap basic undercoat rake, heard the furminator can damage the fur by cutting it, and it works fine. The thing about coat blowing is that while it feels like it is happening all at once, it isn't. It will take a week or two for the whole coat to finally turn loose even with hours of brushing. The more often and longer you brush the faster it will go but most dogs just can't stand for you to tug at them until the coat is all gone. In the mean time you are stuck with a mangy looking mess. It's all natural. Just brush often and preferably outside to save your house and it will eventually all flush off. Some people use High Velocity dryers to help them push the fur off as well. Have heard a few have had really good luck with the dryer stimulating the rest of the coat into turning loose.

Yeh, tell me about it! Avalanche has a thin coat and a corresponding thin undercoat so his 'blow' if pretty quick - he won't tolerate a brush, keeps mouthing my hand, so we stay outside while I pluck!
Sasha is going through her blow and, thank the gods, she'll stand still for me to brush and brush and brush - I swear there's more hair there than dog!!

I've found that for most dogs (husky's and lab's) a plain old fashioned slicker brush seems to work best for me.

I really appreciate both of your replies! So i needn't worry? Are you say its completely normal?

While Sasha has much longer guard hair she looks a lot like your picture right now. Where she's shed her color is a more intense black, where she's still shedding it's a much more puffy grey.

So, yes, what you're seeing is completely normal for a Husky who's blowing his coat. I haven't tried the furminator since I've heard to much that I don't like about them - as I said, I use a plain slicker brush and a lot of time .... and patience!

In my experience, the Furminator cuts too much hair, leaving you with the drastic difference between the guard hairs and undercoat. Theya lways look halfway groomed and mangy that way.

When I switched to a regular undercoat rake, a lot more hair came out, without cutting away the hair. It just removed the dead undercoat, so her hair looked much more even and not awkward.

We have this one from Oster and it's a miracle for under $20.

And yes, a forced air dryer can help a lot getting the hair and dirt out. We'd be lost without our Metro.

Shame on the money I wasted on the Furminator then :/ I'll just stick to the regular one I have then..

Thank you for assistance everybody

Now, Jazara you are going to come back with pictures when you can get a more 'normal' picture, aren't you? Normal for us with Huskies, of course, also include those like your current one. Everything and nothing is normal in a Husky household.