Autumn is my busiest season for one specific reason: everything in the field is trying to attach itself to your dog.
Burrs
Burrs are seed heads with hooks, and they are designed by evolution to grab on to passing fur. They work extremely well.
The problem with a burr is not the burr. It is what happens next. A burr works its way inward, and as the dog moves, the hair around it wraps and tangles. A burr left in place becomes a mat, and a mat left in place becomes a shave.
Check the usual spots after every walk: paws and between the toes, behind the ears, the armpits, the groin, and the base of the tail. Those are where coats are dense and where dogs cannot reach to groom themselves.
Foxtails
Foxtails are the ones that actually worry me.
A foxtail is a barbed seed head, and the barbs all point one direction. That means it moves forward easily and cannot come back out. It will travel into skin, up a nostril, or down an ear canal, and it does not stop on its own.
Signs to watch for: sudden violent sneezing, pawing at an ear, shaking the head, a lump that appeared out of nowhere, or a dog licking obsessively at one spot. Those are vet signs, not groomer signs. A foxtail that has migrated needs to come out by a professional, and waiting makes it worse and more expensive.
How to Remove What You Can See
Do not yank. Pulling a burr straight out drags the hooks through the coat and takes hair with it, and on a tight one it hurts.
Work it loose instead. Hold the coat below the burr so you are not pulling on skin, and tease the hair out of it a few strands at a time. A metal comb helps. If it is set in hard, a little conditioner worked in can loosen it enough to comb out.
If it will not come and your dog is objecting, stop. Cutting it out is better than hurting them, and that is a job for clippers, not scissors near skin.
Prevention
A shorter trim on the paws, the ears, and the feathering going into fall genuinely reduces how much you bring home. It is one of the few times I actively recommend going shorter than the owner originally wanted.
And a brush-out after every walk takes two minutes and saves an hour later. 🍂
About the Author
Nicole is the owner and certified groomer behind Vroom Grooms LLC, a mobile dog grooming service serving Northwest Ohio. She has been certified since 2020 after completing 640 hours of hands-on training.
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.
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