It's not worth using on a show dog. It can really cut the top coat, and if you have a very thickly-furred dog, it doesn't work and does far too much damage to the top coat before it even contacts the undercoat. For instance, it is worthless on my two males-- a Samoyed and a Belgian Sheepdog, so they have a lot of very thick, long hair with massive undercoats. It's OK on my female Belgian, who carries far less coat.

HOWEVER, even on dogs where it seems to work well, I didn't notice an appreciable difference when compared to an undercoat rake. If you have access to good grooming tools and know how to line-comb correctly, you probably don't need one. You certainly don't need one if you have a dog force-dryer or cattle dryer, as that will blow out the undercoat with little to no effort on your part.

I know a lot of pro groomers use them because they do pull out undercoat quickly. It's imperative that the groomer know not to use it on anything with hair longer than, say, a GSD or a Husky or it will destroy the top coat. I've also seen some dogs with really nasty skin irritation after someone has used the rake on them. If you have to apply pressure toward the dog, you're either not using it correctly or the coat won't allow you to use it. You also shouldn't need to use it more often than, say, once per month or you really risk irritating the dog and damaging the coat.

For me, it's not worth the money; but others are very happy with it. I think it's grossly overpriced, and you certainly don't need the shampoo/conditioner they 'recommend' for it either.

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