Either way, I began to notice that during our near 100 temperatures last week that Brooklyn's hair has started to come out.
Step #1: PRE-BATH BRUSHINGS
As with any proper grooming, you need to prep the coat. While I have many shedding rake tools, I love to use the fine cat brush for getting the cotton-like undercoat out prior to the bath. I find that a shedding blade can almost take out too much hair in an uneven fashion. The parts of a Malamute that are prone to matting and tangling are their chest, underbelly and hind quarters. A cat brush separates the top coat nicely while grabbing the loose undercoat. After about a half-hour of cat brushing, she is ready to embark on her trip to the doggy wash.
Step #2: BATH TIME AND BLOW OUT
My long time groomer has gone MIA and I really have a hard time just sending Brooklyn to a new groomer who I can trust to spend the proper time on her coat without being scared of her. There's really nothing to be scared of, she's a big lovable ball of fur. So, until I find my groomer, I've decided to do the grooming duties myself.
I headed down to my local self doggy wash where I can let Brooklyn shake off all the water she wants. As the ratio typically is, I bath her twice to every one appointment with my groomer so I am definitely no stranger to giving her a bath, brush and blow out.
You see, when Brooklyn gets a bath, she's not the only who that gets soaked. I get completely drenched with every vigorous shake of hers and I am dripping but it's a part of the process. As you shampoo the coat, you'll see the drain load up with undercoat hairs, keep clearing the drain to let water pass through efficiently.
After the bath of shampoo and conditioner treatment after, a blow dryer that has sufficient power needs to be used in order to not only dry a Malamute coat, but to also blow out loose hairs of the undercoat. They are ready to shed anyways and a powerful blow dryer works great. You will find that most self doggy washes have these blowers and some even have ones with two settings. Having gotten Brooklyn used to high powered blowers since she was young, she loves the blow out part and sometimes even eggs me on to play with her during the dry session.
This first serious blowout will take about an hour plus for the coat to get dried and for a lot of the hair to blow out. You'll see hair floating everywhere....I mean it...everywhere but it will eventually settle down into a corner in which you can easily scoop up the piles of "cotton" for easy trash.
Step #3: AFTER CARE
Now that the bath and blow out are complete - the first one that is - it's time to do upkeep at home to further continue to help your Malamute through the shedding process. I cat brush Brooklyn at least every other day and this ensures that she remains mat free and looking great. Plus, her skin will be allowed to populate a great new undercoat once the colder season hits.
Approximately 2-3 weeks after the initial blow out, I'll repeat the same process again. This should definitely help get the rest of the undercoat out and she will be good for the rest of the warmer months. This attention to grooming ensures that your Malamute will never be shedding in clumps. They'll feel great with this type of attention and you'll feel great giving your buddy the best care!
