# Grooming during COVID



## Melissa Woods (Feb 21, 2019)

Our grooming appointment is still 2 weeks out, and I’m proud of myself for getting him used to being brushed, and his coat is so soft and shiny. BUT I still have mats on the underside of his chest. I’m able to work some out w my fingers. And I do like cornstarch. Weekly baths with completely blow drying helps too. What do you all think about different sprays designed for mats? What about Biosilk or silicone sprays? Looking at all my options! His coat is THICK.


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

Well I’m impressed! Mine is a mess right now. I enjoyed learning to groom, including trimming, when we first brought him home. But I really relied on being able to follow the lines of a good cut from the groomer, and we needed a cut going into the holidays. Now we are here months later and I’m just trying to keep it from getting too much worse! I am NOT good about grooming while at home. I do very poorly without structure and a schedule and I’m just not interested in grooming right now, it takes a ton of effort for me to just make sure he’s decently combed. 

For mats, I really like the Chris Christensen Ice snd Ice Ultra. It’s not so much for every day grooming, but it does well on mats. Not sure how it compares to cornstarch because every time I buy it, cornstarch disappears into slime or paper-mache or clay. 

Honestly, most of the everyday sprays are the same to me. I definitely prefer silicone. The comb slides through better. The ones that work the best do tend to make the coat heavy after a few days so I find he needs a bath more often. It’s kind of a trade off. The best one for me right now with his coat ridiculously long is Precious Drops, also CC, but it’s a bit heavy. it makes his coat nice and silky but it removes the “poof” a little too much and about day 5 he’s a bit stringy around the ears. I like Ice on Ice, the one a lot of people use, and it’s by far the best value. the quality is much higher than sprays from the pet store, and since it’s concentrated, one bottle is really like 10 in one. I don’t love it any more than any other, though. Its more on the watery side, which many probably prefer, while I prefer the sprays that have more silicone. 

I tried one plant based spray, an off name brand, that is silicone free. It worked well for combing and didn’t leave quite the residue as the silicone sprays. I think I would have liked it better if I hadn’t ever used a silicone spray. Compared to no spray, or just water, it’s great. 

I have tried a ton of different sprays, anything I could find on Amazon, in the pet store, and even in Home Goods. I have come to the conclusion that with really dense coats, in order for them to saturate and provide the most benefit, it almost becomes too much product. I bought a mister bottle to see if it would help to gently spray between thin layers in order to use less product, but it was stolen by my daughter for her own hair  

I have used biosilk for humans on my dog, but not the actual dog version. The clear bottle of the classic leave in is fantastic, but it’s very hard to spread without leaving too much in one spot. I have also used Argan oil, Kenra, Chi, and a couple of other leave in sprays and shine sprays for humans in a pinch. As far as I’m concerned, anything from my reject drawer, which is basically human hair stuff I didn’t love but was too expensive to throw away, has been fair game. The human ones feel less watery to me. Again, though, they do get a bit heavy. The one that was probably the best, and I used up on him, was a Kenra spray for fine hair. But, not good enough that I would pay full price just to use it on my dog. 

Anyway, if he has a very dense coat, don’t expect miracles. That being said, I’m a believer now that most anything will help compared to not using a spray at all


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## krandall (Jun 11, 2009)

Melissa Woods said:


> Our grooming appointment is still 2 weeks out, and I'm proud of myself for getting him used to being brushed, and his coat is so soft and shiny. BUT I still have mats on the underside of his chest. I'm able to work some out w my fingers. And I do like cornstarch. Weekly baths with completely blow drying helps too. What do you all think about different sprays designed for mats? What about Biosilk or silicone sprays? Looking at all my options! His coat is THICK.


I like Ice on Ice better than anything else I've tried.


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## Heather's (Jun 18, 2012)

Scout has a very soft thick coat. I use Pure Paws H20 Hydrating mist for matting. The mist is watery, but evaporates quickly and leaves no residue on the coat.


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## EvaE1izabeth (Nov 14, 2017)

Heather's said:


> Scout has a very soft thick coat. I use Pure Paws H20 Hydrating mist for matting. The mist is watery, but evaporates quickly and leaves no residue on the coat.


I had Pure Paws on my list (I think it was a silk one though?) but never got around to trying it because none of the places I usually order from carry it. If it's watery but dries fast, I feel like I might like it because it could saturate the layers without making his coat really wet.

I do think my opinions about sprays change a bit depending on how well grooming is going, hence my novel. But maybe I just haven't found that one spray that really makes a big difference and it's still out there. I don't think I've ever tried anything that I felt was a huge waste, because I just end up mixing it with other things I like better. I'd definitely like to try it.


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## Heather's (Jun 18, 2012)

EvaE1izabeth said:


> I had Pure Paws on my list (I think it was a silk one though?) but never got around to trying it because none of the places I usually order from carry it. If it's watery but dries fast, I feel like I might like it because it could saturate the layers without making his coat really wet. .


I also have the Silk conditioning spray. It's a nice all over conditioning spray. I use the H20 mist for matting. It does have a scent if that is something that you don't want. The scent does dissipate quickly as it dries. I saturate a mat and then use the slicker.


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## Melissa Woods (Feb 21, 2019)

Biosilk for dogs is AMAZING. I’m just using that on like one mat a day so he doesn’t hate me (they are mostly underneath. I’ve cut some out too). And brushing consistently. It’s working. His coat is beautiful. One more week!


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