Your dog went on a walk through the woods and came home a matted mess, full of cockleburs, sticktights, and hitchhikers! Now what do you do? If your dog's coat is full of burrs, the most humane thing to do is to shave them off. Attempting to brush them out can be extremely painful to the dog and to you. As you touch your dog, you'll know when you hit a burr — it hurts! However, if the matting is not too extensive, there are a few tricks to getting those things out without too much pain.

Where to Start

First of all, get the dog into the tub. Be very careful about wetting him down because the pressure of the water hitting against those burrs can hurt. Try to shampoo around the burrs, but watch your fingers because they'll hurt you as well. Rinse the shampoo and add a glob of conditioner. This should lubricate the hair enough to let you comb the burrs out. Hold the hair away from the dog's skin and use a pat-pull motion to brush the burrs out with a slicker brush.

Other Methods

If you have a couple of pairs of needle-nosed pliers on hand, or even better, two pair of hemostats, you can hold onto the burr with one of them and separate the hair from the burr with the other one. This is good for the larger burrs, and it saves your fingers from getting pricked by the burrs. You can also crush the burr a bit with the pliers to make the little hooks in it let go more easily.

Be sure to check your dog's paws as well. Tiny burrs can get between paw pads and cause a lot of pain. Go over every inch of your dog's body to make sure that you have removed every single burr. Some weed seeds can embed themselves into your pet's skin and cause some real problems.