The Right Grooming Tools: Part Three, the Rubber Brush

Every pet needs a rubber grooming tool.
Rubber grooming tools grab up all the hair that brushes leave behind. Brushes stimulate the skin and cause hair follicles to release hair, but they don’t remove all the hair they loosen. If brush bristles were close together enough to grab and remove all the dead hair, the brush would never get through your pet’s coat. To provide the most comfort for pets, bristles on brushes are well separated.

The old fashioned way to remove hair after brushing was with dampened hands. Today most pet owners find that rubber brushes and rubber mittens do a much better job removing hair than dampened hands. Among the advantages to using a rubber grooming tool are that cats will be less inclined to develop hairballs, and the house, furniture, dog bedding, and car will be cleaner.

One of the best rubber brushes is made by Kong, the company famous for its tough pet toys. Kong makes a rubber brush for dogs called the Zoom Groom that is as cute as it is handy. The Zoom Groom is engineered to fit easily in a hand and provide just the right amount of grabbing and pulling power. It is brightly colored, strong, and flexible.

Mittens with rubber nubs on the palm are also used to pick up loose hairs. The nubs are not long enough to stimulate the skin as the rubber brush does. Mittens are more difficult to clean than rubber brushes and some mittens are slow to dry when washed. In contrast, rubber brushes clean quickly and dry quickly.

Most pets appreciate being groomed with a rubber grooming tool, but using it too aggressively pulls hair so that pets dislike the experience. Grooming gently does the best job and makes pets the happiest, especially with cats, puppies, and highly sensitive dogs.