Poodle, Labrador Retriever, Pitbull, Great Pyrenees, Shih Tzu, Husky, Pug. They all need it. The coat, the skin, the bond between you and your dog — it all benefits from a few minutes of brushing on a regular basis, and Sunday is a good day to do it.
Most owners I talk to think brushing is a cosmetic thing. It is not. It is maintenance. It is the difference between a healthy coat and a coat that traps moisture, bacteria, and dead skin against the body. It is the difference between a dog that is comfortable being touched all over and a dog that flinches when you reach for the paw. And honestly, it is one of the cheapest, easiest things you can do for your dog that pays off for years.
Here is what brushing actually does, why your dog is on the list no matter what breed they are, and what the Sunday habit can do for the two of you.
The Coat Is Doing a Job, and It Needs Help
A dog’s coat is not decorative. It is a working system that regulates body temperature, protects the skin from sun and abrasion, repels water to a degree, and traps or releases air as needed for insulation. The coat is constantly turning over. Old hairs fall out, new ones come in, skin cells shed and get carried away on the hair. In an outdoor dog, the wind and weather handle a lot of that turnover. In a house dog, it just sits in the coat until you remove it.
When the old hair does not come out, three things happen. The coat gets dull, because the new growth is buried under dead hair. The skin gets itchy, because the natural oils cannot distribute evenly through a coat full of dead undercoat. And the dog starts scratching, which creates small hot spots, which turn into vet visits. None of that is dramatic. It is just the slow build of “I have not been brushed in a while.”
Poodle, Shih Tzu, Bichon, and any curly or long-coated breed — the hair keeps growing, so the matting problem compounds weekly. Husky, Great Pyrenees, and any double-coated breed — the undercoat is a heat trap in summer and a felt layer in winter if it is not removed regularly. Lab, Pitbull, Pug, and any short-coated breed — the hair turnover is constant year-round, and the loose hair ends up on your furniture instead of in a brush.
Your dog is on one of those lists. Pick the one that matches the coat, brush accordingly.
The Skin Underneath Is the Real Point
I see a lot of skin issues in the van. Dry, flaky, red, irritated skin. Most of them are not allergies and most of them are not a skin condition. They are just under-stimulated skin. The dog has not been brushed. The natural oils are not being distributed. The dead skin is sitting on the body, blocking pores and follicles, and the immune system is reacting to a low-grade irritant it would not have if the coat had been maintained.
Brushing is the cheapest skin care there is. Five to ten minutes a week, the right tool for the coat, and most of the flakes and the redness clear up on their own. I am not a vet, and there are real skin conditions out there that need medical treatment. But for the dog that is just uncomfortable, brushing is the first thing I would try before spending money on a vet visit for a shampoo.
The Bonding Part Nobody Talks About
This is the part I care about the most, and it is the part most owners do not think about. Brushing your dog is one of the few weekly rituals where you are physically close, in tune with your dog, with no other goal. You are not feeding them, you are not walking them, you are not telling them to do something. You are just sitting together, and your hands are on them, and they are learning that your hands are safe.
Dogs that get brushed regularly are easier to handle at the vet. They are easier to handle at the groomer. They are easier to handle when something goes wrong and someone needs to look at their paw or their ear. They have learned the body-tolerance skill that comes from being touched all over, every week, by someone they trust. That is not a small thing. That is a dog that is okay with being handled.
Sunday is a good day for it because it is consistent. Pick a time. After breakfast, before the family chaos of Monday morning, ten minutes with a brush. The dog will learn the rhythm. They will start bringing you the brush, or lining up at the same spot on the couch. The ritual becomes a thing the two of you have, and over a year or two it is the thing your dog waits for all week.
So What Brush Is Right?
This is the part that trips people up, and it is the entire reason I am writing two posts about this. The answer depends on the coat, and the wrong tool can do more harm than not brushing at all. A slicker brush on a Pitbull will scratch the skin. A rubber curry on a Poodle will mat the coat worse. A de-shedding blade on a Husky at the wrong time of year will damage the topcoat.
I am going to break down the tools and the technique for each coat type in a separate post later this month. For now, the only thing I want you to walk away with is this: pick a Sunday, pick a brush that matches your dog’s coat, and spend ten minutes. The brush, the time, the dog, and you. That is the whole point.
The Wrap
Every dog needs it. Yours is on the list. Poodle, Lab, Pitbull, Great Pyrenees, Shih Tzu, Husky, Pug, and every other breed in the world — the coat turns over, the skin needs stimulation, and the dog needs the weekly handling. None of that is optional.
Pick a Sunday. Pick a brush. Spend ten minutes. Do it next week, and the week after that, and the week after that. The first three weeks are the hardest because the dog is learning the routine and you are learning the coat. By week four, it is just what you do.
A Note from the Groomer
I brush every dog that comes into the van. Not because they need a full groom every time, but because the brushing is the part of the appointment that builds trust with the dog and tells me what is going on with the coat. A dog that lets me brush them is a dog I can finish the groom on. A dog that flinches when I touch the back legs is a dog I need to be careful with.
How to Reach Me
If you want help getting your dog’s coat on a routine that works at home, the best way to get started is through the New Client Form. Use the note section to tell me about your dog’s coat and what you are using now. I will tell you what to keep and what to switch out.
Current clients with a brush question can drop it in the live stream chat and I will answer it on air. Pop into the stream at the link below and ask away.
Want to see a real brushing session in real time? Head over to vroomgrooms.com and click the Live button. We stream real appointments every week on Twitch at DogGroomerNicole. Real grooming, real dogs, real community. We do not stage the dogs. We do not fake the results. If a dog is having a rough day, you will see that too. That is the whole point.
Serving Northwest Ohio: Bowling Green, Grand Rapids, Haskins, Holland, Maumee, Monclova, Northwood, Oregon, Perrysburg, Rossford, Swanton, Sylvania, Toledo, Walbridge, Waterville, and Whitehouse. Mobile Dog Grooming. We come to you. No hook ups needed!
Stay fresh and furry,
Nicole / Vroom Grooms LLC
About the Author
Nicole is the owner and certified groomer behind Vroom Grooms LLC, a mobile dog grooming service serving Northwest Ohio. She specializes in double-coated breeds, anxious dogs, and clients who want honest, transparent grooming without the salon chaos. You can catch her live on Twitch at DogGroomerNIcole, where she streams real grooms and talks shop about the grooming world.
This post was drafted with help from Nagini 🐍, her digital assistant, who keeps the blog running, handles the tech side of the website, and makes sure Nicole spends more time with dogs and less time wrestling with WordPress.