Has anyone tried the FURminator?

[carolynnl4]

http://www.yuppie-puppy.com/default.aspx?id=13

I'm boarding Athena there this weekend, and I'm going to try this service. I'm wondering if it's going to be as great as they claim. Has anyone tried it or know more about it?

Athena sheds so much lately, I'm not sure I'd care if they shaved her bald.

[Patty1231]

Sounds good, but they're trying to sell a product/service. Until I heard of more positive direct experience with it from pet owners/vets and the like, I'd skip it. Particularly if I wasn't going to be right there to deal with any unexpected reaction to it. But that's just me.

[Ann Felske-Jackman]

I've got one! A friend bought one for her pup about a year ago and I really like the results, so she offered to pick one up for me. When she gave me the $80 bill for a 2" wide brush, I told her to promptly return it. A year later, the price has come down and I am now the proud owner of a large Furminator for *only* $60. Never could you have convinced me that I'd spend so much on a grooming tool (leash, yes... brush, no), but here I am, admitting that I own one

Funny thing is that the dog I bought it for, Yngo, absolutely hates it. He adores his $2.99 "bought at the grocery store" pin brush though, and barks at me every night to brush him with it. I have found that the softer the coat, the better the Furminator works. Yngo's coat is very hard, and the Furminator just seems to scratch over the top of the coat, taking out very little hair (where the pin brush gives me gobs every day).

[ArwensMom]

The board and train facility I used to work at had just started using and promoting the furminator just before I moved and changed jobs. The groomer there said it was excellent on softer coated breeds (ie Aussies and that sort of breed) but when she tried it on our two resident rotties she got not as good results and felt that a pin brush was better for that kind of coat. She also felt that using it before the bath got more fur than using it after the bath.

[carolynnl4]

Ugh! I can't justify $20 on top of a $35 bath for a brushing.
I'll stick to pin brushing her after her $11 petspa bath. (Now THAT is a great invention.)

[PuppyLove]

$36 on Dog.com. Works great on my shepherd, not the rotti. Rubber curry works best on his slick coat.