Your dog went on a walk through the woods and came home a matted mess, full of cockle burrs and stick tights. Now what do you do? If your dog’s coat is full of burrs, the most humane thing to do is to shave them off. Attempting to brush them out can be extremely painful to the dog and to you.
As you touch your dog, you’ll know when you hit a burr, it hurts! However, if the matting is not too extensive, there are a few tricks to getting those things out without too much pain.
Where to Start
First of all, get the dog into the tub. Be very careful about wetting him down because the pressure of the water hitting against those burrs can hurt. Try to shampoo around the burrs, but watch your fingers because they’ll hurt you as well.
Rinse the shampoo and add a glob of conditioner. This should lubricate the hair enough to let you comb the burrs out. Hold the hair away from the dog’s skin and use a pat-pull motion to brush the burrs out with a slicker brush.
Other Methods
If you have a couple of pairs of needle-nosed pliers on hand, or even better, two pair of hemostats, you can hold onto the burr with one of them and separate the hair from the burr with the other one. This is good for the larger burrs, and it saves your fingers from getting pricked by the burrs. You can also crush the burr a bit with the pliers to make the little hooks in it let go more easily.
Be sure to check your dog’s paws as well. Tiny burrs can get between paw pads and cause a lot of pain. Go over every inch of your dog’s body to make sure that you have removed every single burr. Some weed seeds can embed themselves into your pet’s skin and cause some real problems.
Chewing Gum in Hair
If your dog chews bubble gum and blows huge bubbles that pop, you may end up with a dog with gum in her hair. If your dog is not that talented, then you can probably blame gum in the dog’s hair on the kids or grandkids. Depending on how badly it is embedded in the hair, there are various tried and true ways to remove gum.
If the dog has long hair that you won’t miss, simply cut the hair to remove the gum.
Otherwise, use peanut butter. Just like in kids’ hair, peanut butter is good because it lubricates the hair and allows the gum to slide out. Rub a wad of peanut butter all around the gum and massage it in; the oils of the peanut butter will start working and the gum will come out. You can also use cooking oil.
Ice is another remedy. Hold ice cubes on the gum to freeze the gum until it’s hardened, then break off the gum. If the gum is really stuck in the dog’s hair, freeze it and then clip it out of the hair. Most dogs do not appreciate you pulling their hair.
The next problem is getting the peanut butter and oil out of the dog’s hair. For this, you will need some cornstarch and a good degreasing shampoo or dish soap.