You know what the holy grail of dog care is?
Combining petting and grooming into one action!
Dog grooming gloves come awfully close to achieving that goal.
Sure, grooming involves a lot more than just hair brushing. It includes nail clipping, hair trimming, teeth brushing, and bathing.
However, those activities are not nearly as frequent as is the case with brushing. And brushing a dog’s hair is quite important to keep its coat healthy and shiny.
Gloves can take care of that important aspect of dog care far better than your common pet brush. Find out why, and which factors to consider when buying yourself a dog grooming glove.
Dog Grooming Glove Buying Guide
No matter what kind of dog you have, short-haired, long-haired, or double-coated, you can find a grooming glove to do just as good brushing job as an expensive dog brush. They can even substitute specialized deshedding tools.
Indeed, grooming gloves for dogs have busted the door to the grooming market, and it will remain open for the foreseeable future.
Here are some factors to take into account when you are browsing for dog grooming gloves:
- Mitt-style grooming gloves. Designed exactly as your regular kitchen gloves to deal with your hot oven, except that the palm surface area is attached with nubs. They are not as flexible as a 5-fingered glove, but mitts do have one advantage. All loose hair is easily contained within your palm instead of slipping on the sides.
- Material – Quality dog grooming gloves use material that is BPA-free and made out of silicone. No matter what material a grooming glove is made of, it should be flexible, non-toxic, sturdy and offer enough breathing room for your hands. To that effect, you will find some combination of silicone and polyester mesh.
- Comfort level – Critical element of your dog hair removing glove. Gloves that are not comfortable will not be used as much. A good dog deshedding glove should be composed of a material that prevents your hands from sweating profusely, and have an adjustable way to keep them on. Usually, that is done via Velcro strap on the wrist.
- Easy to clean – Dog grooming gloves with a silicone mesh/studs are already much easier to clean, as they are far less sticky than rubber. However, make sure that they are rated as machine-washable. A good dog grooming mitt/glove can be used dry or wet for bathing purposes.
- Nub type –Most dog grooming gloves have nubs of the same height, but some will have elevated nubs on fingers to reach your dog’s skin even deeper. These nubs should be rounded and soft so as to offer the greatest comfort level while removing loose hair.
- Single or paired First thing to look when getting your money’s worth. Even if you don’t intend to use both gloves, getting a pair would net you a backup glove.
Benefits of Using a Dog Grooming Glove
Frequently brushing your dog is an activity that you should make a habit of for several important reasons:
- To prevent dog’s coat from matting.
- To remove dead hair.
- To reduce the formation of hairballs.
- To evenly distribute natural skin oils that keep your dog’s coat healthy and shiny.
- To make your dog look representable to other people, which influences how they interact with it.
It is even more important to brush your dog with greater frequency if it goes outdoors on a daily basis.
You would not only remove stray branches, grass, and dirt, but also feel up any injuries, bumps or ticks.
Compared to traditional grooming brushes, dog grooming gloves provide numerous advantages:
- By enveloping your hand, instead of using strange objects like brushes, you make it much easier to brush your dog whenever you want. It becomes as simple as petting.
- Dog grooming gloves allow you more dexterity and employing your somatosensory sense – touch.
- They keep your hands clean because they are safely ensconced inside the gloves. With traditional brushes, you get all sorts of dirt and loose hair on your hands and under fingernails.
- Unlike traditional brushes, dog grooming gloves are multi-purpose – for applying and massaging in shampoo when bathing.
You will also immediately notice that it is much easier to clean out a grooming glove compared to plucking hair and dirt out of brushes.
Lastly, dog grooming gloves are a one-stop deal for most of grooming needs; use it wet or dry, use it for sensitive areas without concern, and use them as an effective deshedding tool.
Our reviews of the best dog grooming gloves
Best grooming gloves for all types of dogs
What first stands out it that all of the nubs are taller than usual, which makes them a powerful deshedding weapon. Their overall build quality is similarly heavy-duty, suitable for professional dog and cat groomers.
You may have even seen them in a pet grooming salon.
H HANDSON approach hand sizes differently, by having preset sizes – five in total – from X-Large to Junior size.
Naturally, a professional gloves like these are machine washable and can easily be used for bathing, brushing, and deshedding. Yes, it works wonders on all kinds of animals, and is our favorite among our best cat grooming gloves picks.
Best grooming gloves for short haired dogs
Consider these as your best value for budget dog grooming gloves. They owe that label, outside of great reviews, to the following features:
- You get a pair of gloves instead of just one glove. This means you can use the other one as a backup. Also, you can opt for single option as well.
- The brushing area contains more studs than usual – 255 in total. Most other grooming gloves are not as dense, with less than 200 silicone nubs.
- Come with an adjustable Velcro strap, so one size fits all hands.
- The mesh material allows your hands to breathe for long sessions of brushing.
- They are machine washable.
Best deshedding glove for long-haired dogs
Like the Delomo pair, they can also be used dry or wet, and have a Velcro strap.
If you like that extra feature that you know you need for your dog breed, these finger-focused gloves would make a fine choice.
Best budget dog grooming gloves
- Innovative 3D mesh that prevents your hands from getting sweaty.
- Decent 180 silicone nubs of equal height on both finger and palm area.
- Easy to clean.
- Can be used wet or dry.
- A pair of gloves for next to nothing cost.
Dog Grooming Mitt
Fortunately for you, both Pet Thunder Mitt and the Doopa Gloves are exceedingly cheap, so you really have no excuse. Maybe you will prefer one for bathing and the other one for just brushing?
Or better yet, you might find that it is easier to collect and retain discarded hair with a mitt than let loose hair slip through your gloved fingers.
The reviews certainly indicate that that might be the case.
However, the nubs on these are rather short, so think twice before you decide they will be suitable for your dog.
Nonetheless, given the paltry price and a lifetime guarantee, it would be a mistake easily forgotten.
FAQs
When to start grooming your dog?
In order to make your dog comfortable, not only with home grooming, but also when you take it to a dog grooming salon, it would be best to start from an early age. Like with all mammals, early age is where the imprinting of behaviors and habits takes place. Needless to say, this would save you a lot of hassle later on.
How often should you groom your dog?
It depends on your dog breed.
For the sake of brevity, if your dog’s hair is longer than half an inch, you should brush it twice per week, at least.
If your dog has hair even longer than that, then daily brushing is required in order to prevent serious matting issues.
As far as bathing frequency goes, it depends on your dog’s activity level, but your good old olfactory sense will guide you well. If you have the means and the opportunity, take your dog to a grooming salon once per three months for a complete workover.
How to use a grooming glove?
The best thing about dog grooming gloves is that you already know how to use them if you have ever petted a dog.
All you have to look for is seeing when to discard the collected hair. As far as the brushing technique goes, use long, firm strokes, starting lightly and gently.
Are dog grooming gloves really superior to traditional brushes?
The short answer is: Yes.
With one exception – if your dog suffered from neglect so it has a thoroughly tangled hair that only a hair-clipper or a steel brush could untangle.
Dog grooming gloves provide more flexibility, are more comfortable to use, protect your hands, and can be easily used for bathing your dog as well.
When you look at the overwhelming majority of dog grooming glove reviews, you will see that this innovation in pet care is much appreciated across the board.
Conclusion
We can’t say for sure that you will never need a traditional brush after you get yourself a dog grooming glove, but what we can say it that you will appreciate how much easier and more comfortable it is to use a grooming glove, both for yourself and for your furry friend.
Due to higher competition now more than ever, the prices have gone steeply down, so we recommend you try out both mitts and traditional gloves. No one said that you have to pick and stay with one or the other.
There is a huge variety of dog breeds, so your particular one may benefit from one style over the other.
Whatever you decide, you can’t go wrong with H HANDSONs.
