Best grooming regimen for a German Shepherd??

Well, I'm about to adopt a German Shepherd, in spite of my fear of ALL THAT FUR!! I'm used to Dobermans and Danes, so I suspect I'm in for quite a shock in the shedding department... :yikes:

I wanted to see if anyone had advice as to what kind of grooming schedule, methods and tools work best to minimize shedding and make a GSD look and feel good. I can include periodic professional grooming in the plan, but I'd prefer not to do that very often.

Any thoughts?? Thanks!

Diet plays a big role in the shedding process, for example our Newf's when on commercially processed foods no matter the quality shed a ton of coat. Now on home prepared they dont' shed as much and have a healthy shiny coat.

For a GSD I would take a slicker over the dog, then follow up with a rake, I love rakes on Shepherds. I don't like a furminator on a Shepherd although they are great for other breeds. It would depend on the Shepherds coat to see if I would use a furminator on one since they can come in all kinds of coat types. I would brush out once a week and perhaps take to a professional groomer twice a year as long as your taking good care in between. The groomer can get a ton of undercoat out with the h/v dryer, which is btw a great investment Also when lathered up during the bath you can get a ton of undercoat out by taking a slicker over the dog.

Say hello to your best friend.. lol its a life saver

other than my shedding blade, i use the zoom groom when kenya has a bath and a good shampoo

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For best effect, wait until the hair is coming out in clumps. Bathe the dog, and allow to air dry (your goal here is to loosen almost shed hairs, without loosing those tuffs of loose fur). Then take dog and shedding blade outside, in front of your least dog friendly/overly clean neighbors. Proceed to take a garbage bag of fur off dog!

You probably are going to be in for a big shock; but it's worth it!! I would have to agree with the others; as a proud owner of 5 Shepherds (and rescue for others!!), I really like the horse curry comb. I've had fantastic luck with that. I have used the furminator on my dogs but didn't really care for it. I did invest into a dog dryer and that literally blasts out the loose hair but do NOT do it anywhere near indoors!! Diet is going to be a HUGE factor. A couple of my Shepherds do better on a different type of diet so I have to feed two different foods. I also highly recommend K9 Show Stopper which is a powder supplement that you can add to their diet. It made a world of difference for me. I noticed a dramatic improvement in my male's coat. Good Stuff!!

I'm not completely sold on the curry for my not quite GSD. It works well enough for removing loose topcoat, but its never really affected the undercoat, which is where most first time shepherd owners have their heart attacks.

They do work great on hounds and silky haired cats though.

I use a slicker on my Smooth Collies (same coat as a GSD) when they're blowing coat, otherwise regular maintenance of weekly brushing with a pin brush. I'll echo the others - diet will have a lot to do with it. Mine don't shed near as bad as I've heard other Collie/Shepherd/related coated breeds complain about ...

Also, the zoom groom. a lot of people think they are bathing their GSDs.. but they aren't lol it has happened to me atleast twice where i notice that the only thing that got wet is her top coat while her undercoat is totally DRY lol

The zoom groom not only gets all that dead hair out, but kenya loves it.. its like a massage. and it lets the shampoo get in deep and feels great


any rubber curry brush will do the trick, i just only know of the zoom groom

Another vote for all three brushes suggested/pictured. We used both the shedding blade and the wire curry on our Norwegian Elkhounds when I was growing up. Boy do they get a lot of hair out. I used to use a shedding blade on our Siberian/GSD mix. Just make sure you not only use them outside, but stand upwind of your dog if there is even the slightest breeze blowing. LOL And you can't beat a Zoom Groom, no matter what kind of dog you have. The only other suggestion I have is an undercoat rake. And don't forget a bristled brush to finish the job! Plus, it's great for legs and faces.

Thanks for all the suggestions!! I ended up adopting a 6 year old Shepherd from the city shelter near my house. Well, actually the shelter said he was 6, I thought he was 4, and after a trip to the groomer he looked 2!! A gorgeous, sweet boy!

Fortunately, I have most of the goodies you guys mentioned, since I've used them on my previous dogs. I don't have the undercoat rake mentioned by MicksMom... does it do something different/better than a shed blade or curry brush?

Thanks!!

Undercoat rakes will get out just the undercoat and leave most of the topcoat alone. Zoom Grooms get both and are great for both wet/dry. Pin brushes/slickers are great for getting the top coat taken care of.

I have an Australian Shepherd, slightly different coat texture, but what works best for him is bathing with the HydroSurge system (you can use a ZoomGroom here after applying shampoo to massage out/loosen the undercoat), towel off the excess, blow out with a high-powered dryer and then have fun with the undercoat rake! When the coat is almost dry, you can use the ZoomGroom again or the slicker.

Diet will play a HUGE role in the amount of shedding, the better the food, the less the shedding. Throwing in some Salmon Body oil, coconut oil or egg will help as well.