Dog brushes by coat type: the £5 tools that do the work

Most dog brush guides are a list of five brush types with a paragraph each, followed by a “best overall” that happens to be the most expensive one. Nobody tells you the useful part: the brush matters less than the coat, and the coat is something you can read in about ten seconds.

So read the coat first. Then buy the cheapest tool that suits it.

The short answer

A slicker brush suits medium, long, wire and curly coats. A bristle brush or grooming glove suits short coats. An undercoat rake is for double coats. A pin brush is a finishing tool for long coats. A rubber curry is for short coats and bath time. Add a metal comb for any coat longer than a few centimetres.

That matches the American Kennel Club’s breakdown of brush types, which is the clearest published one I found. Wood Green, a UK charity, gives the same shape: slicker and pin brush for long coats, an undercoat rake as well for double coats, a mitt or soft brush for smooth ones.

Which brush, by coat

Coat	Examples	Brush	UK price (zooplus, October 2026)
Short and smooth	boxer, whippet, staffie	glove or soft brush	£3.29 glove, £4.29 brush
Double coat	border collie, labrador, husky	undercoat rake, then slicker	£4.59 rake, £4.99 slicker
Long and silky	spaniels, setters, yorkie	slicker, then wide comb	£4.99 slicker, £3.89 comb
Curly or non-shedding	cockapoo, poodle, cavapoo	slicker and metal comb	£4.99 slicker, £3.89 comb
Wiry	many terriers	comb, hand stripping	comb £3.89

I keep four dogs, so I have used most of that table on actual coats: a Border Collie, a Boxer and two crossbreeds. I will not pretend that makes this a lab test, because it is not one. What it gave me is a feel for how little the price tells you.

Short coats: do not overthink it

A boxer, a whippet, a Staffie. Short smooth coats shed, but they do not tangle, and what you are doing is lifting dead hair and spreading a little oil.

Wood Green’s advice for smooth coats is “a grooming mitt or soft brush once a week.” That is it. The zooplus Grooming Glove is £3.29, bobbled on one side to massage and velour on the other to lift loose fur. A TIAKI Universal Pet Brush is £4.29, with stainless pins capped in rounded plastic.

The AKC lists a rubber brush for short coats and warns its bristles “won’t penetrate through long or thick coats.” Believe that last part. A rubber curry on a Border Collie’s top coat is a very gentle way of doing nothing.

If you want a proper rubber curry, the FURminator Curry Comb is £7.89 and is useful in the bath, working shampoo down through the coat. It is a bath tool more than a brushing one.

Double coats: the rake earns its place

A double coat has a soft dense layer under a longer top layer. Border collies, labradors, huskies. When that undercoat dies it does not fall out neatly. It packs down against the skin, and the brush that skims the top never reaches it.

Wood Green says double-coated dogs also need an undercoat rake, “especially during heavy shedding.” The AKC says to match pin length to coat length.

The kooa Bamboo Undercoat Rake is £4.59. Its pins are 2.5 cm long and rotate as you pull, and zooplus lists it for medium and long coats. That is the thing to check before you buy one, because the AKC’s warning is to choose the pin length for your dog’s coat length.

Then there is the FURminator. The deShedding Tool for medium short-haired dogs is £21.49 at zooplus and aimed at dogs of 9 to 23 kg with coats up to 5 cm. Zooplus says to use it on a dry coat, once or twice a week, 10 to 20 minutes at a time. Ten to twenty minutes, once or twice a week, is a schedule rather than a quick pass, so treat it as a seasonal tool.

Is it worth it? On a heavy shedder, in spring and autumn, it can be. As the only brush in the house, it is a £21 answer to a question the £4.59 rake already handles. Buy the rake first. If you still have a hair-covered sofa in a month, then spend the money.

Long and silky coats: slicker first, comb last

Spaniels, setters, yorkies. The coat is fine, it tangles, and it tangles where you do not look: behind the ears, under the collar, the tummy, the thighs. Those are Wood Green’s four danger spots, and they are also where a dog tends to wriggle.

Their advice is a slicker brush and a pin brush for long coats, and for silky coats “frequent brushing with a slicker brush, and a final comb through with a wide-toothed comb.” The kooa Bamboo Slicker Brush is £4.99, listed for short, medium and long fur and singled out for silky coats that tangle easily.

The AKC says to use a light touch with slicker brushes, because “pressing down hard could cause your dog discomfort.” Slicker pins are fine and close together. Used hard, they scratch skin. Used lightly, they take out knots before they set.

I would skip the pin brush at first. The AKC calls pin brushes “commonly used” but “not the most versatile of brushes.” A slicker and a comb cover the job for £9, and you can add a pin brush later if the coat is long enough to want it.

Curly and non-shedding coats: the comb is the referee

A cockapoo, a poodle, a cavapoo. They shed very little, which is why people choose them, and that is also the trap. The dead hair does not fall out. It stays in the coat and felts.

Wood Green is blunt about the consequences. Curly-coated dogs may have matting that is “hard to spot from the surface,” and “tight knots pull on the skin, trap moisture and can even hide sores underneath.” Severe matting may mean the dog “might need to be shaved very short at their next groom.”

The fix is a slicker for the top and a metal comb (£3.89) to check you reached the skin. Run the comb through after you finish. If it snags, you missed something. Our puppy grooming kit guide goes through the technique and what a matted coat costs at the groomer.

For tangles already there, kooa also sells a double-sided dematter comb at £5.19. Work from the outer end of the mat towards the skin. A tight mat against the skin is a groomer’s job, not yours.

Wiry coats

Terriers and similar. Wood Green says “wiry coats still need routine combing” and that hand stripping, done “a couple of times a year,” takes training. There is no brush on that list because the coat does not want one. Comb, and book a groomer who strips by hand.

How often

It depends on the coat more than the breed.

• Smooth coats: once a week.
• Long coats: daily, to stop tangles turning into mats.
• Non-shedding coats: brush at home, plus a groomer every six to eight weeks.
• Double coats: more often in a heavy shed.

Keep sessions “short, calm and positive,” in Wood Green’s words, and stop while the dog is still comfortable. If you are starting with a puppy, one stroke and a treat is a session. The same applies to an older dog who has never been brushed: slower, with more breaks, and a soft tool before a sharp one. Brush before a bath, not after, because water tightens a mat.

For the bath itself, see the puppy shampoo guide. Over-bathing, Wood Green notes, can strip the natural oils from the coat.

Who should skip this

Skip the whole shopping list if you already pay a groomer every six weeks and your dog comes home clean. A slicker and a comb at home between visits will still help, but you do not need a drawer of tools.

Skip the de-shedder if your dog is curly, silky or wiry. It is a short-coat and double-coat tool.

Skip clipping at home. Do not shave a double-coated dog, either. Wood Green warns that it can “seriously damage their coat.”

Skip the premium brush if the dog hates being brushed. The problem then is training, not the tool, and a £25 brush on a dog that runs away is a very expensive door stop.

What to do next

Use the puppy grooming kit guide to work out what the groomer will charge if the coat mats, and the nail clipper guide for the other grooming job most owners avoid.

If you are buying for a new puppy, the puppy checklist shows what has to be in the house on day one and what can wait. A brush can wait a week.

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Brush types and coat guidance are from the American Kennel Club (“types of dog brushes for shedding”) and Wood Green’s “How to groom your dog” page, both read in October 2026. Prices and product details were checked on zooplus.co.uk product pages in October 2026 and move often; the grooming glove was listed as sold out on 21 October. Nothing here is veterinary advice — if your dog has sore, red or hairless patches under the coat, speak to your vet before you brush again.