Holistic Care : Grooming : Coat Care

Our favorite tools for grooming our Leonbergers' coats are the following:

• Triangular slicker brush: This is perfect to use for small areas, and almost exclusively all that I use with puppies.
• Long-toothed rake: I like using this to comb through minor mats as well as keeping longer hair free of tangles.
• Untangler rake: This is what I use for a quick brushing with my older dogs. Each tooth rotates individually so the rake doesn't get tangled up and it also works really well on the heavy rear feathering that many Leos have.
• Shedding Rake: This rake has alternating long and short teeth, which help to get undercoats out faster during shedding season.
• Undercoat Rake: This only has short teeth and does wonders to get undercoat hair out also.
• Mars Slicker Brush: Many Leo owners rave about this brush.
• Pin Brush: Nice to keep on hand.
• Thinning scissors: These are nice to have to keep Leo toe hair trimmed, so they don't end up with huge "socks" as I like to call them. If you live someplace with heavy winters (not Texas:), keeping toe hair trimmed will help to reduce the snow bunnies that form between their toes. You may opt to use snow booties as well - we ended up having to use booties with one of our Leos when we lived in Utah.
  

Leonbergers tend to get matted very easily behind their ears, their rear feathering, and on their underbellies, especially if they go swimming often. We suggest paying close attention to these areas, so that you don't end up with mats that need to be cut out. Detangling sprays/spritzes can also help. We like to use Tropiclean Pet Cologne on occasion. Also, many Leo owners swear by "The Stuff" to get mats and tangles out.

We brush our dogs once a week, going over them thoroughly.