How To Detangle Matted Dog Fur
If your dog has long fur, you need to take good care of it to keep it looking healthy and prevent it from getting tangled up in mats. To do this, it's recommended to brush it every day. If you've been a bit lax or you've left your dog with someone who hasn't been brushing it correctly, you've got a problem on your hands, as removing mats from your dog's fur is not an easy task, as it may hurt your pet, and even require a full haircut. To help you out, this OneHowTo article will explain how to detangle matted dog fur.
Steps to follow:
If your dog's fur has been neglected for too long and the mats have become really tight, the best thing to do is cut the hair and wait for it to grow back. In the meantime, make sure you take proper care of your dog's fur so that it doesn't get matted again: brush it daily and wash with an appropriate shampoo.
If you tried to detangle really tight mats, you'd end up breaking the hair and hurting the dog by pulling its skin.
If you touch the mats with your fingers and see that they're not too hard or fixed in place, you can still save the fur. The first thing you need to do is start undoing the knots with your fingers. Don't use a comb at this point - all this will do is make the mats tighter.
After you've loosened the tangled fur, run a hot bath for your dog. Then, wash your pet all over using plenty of specially designed dog shampoo. Rinse off the shampoo with warm water and apply a conditioner - one that you use for your own hair - all over the dog's body, and leave it on for about five minutes. To stop the dog getting bored or agitated during this time, keep it entertained with a toy in the bathtub.
Once the five minutes are up, rinse the dog thoroughly with warm water, making sure there's no product left. Then start drying your dog's fur with a hairdryer, while combing it with a metal wide-tooth comb - the best kind to use for mats.
If this doesn't get rid of all the mats in your dog's fur, wait until the next time you give it a bath to repeat the exercise.
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