How to remove burrs from a dog's coat

Search before you pull. The AKC's article on burrs says the trouble starts when they lodge under the tail, in the armpits, on the ear flaps and between the toes, all places a quick look misses. Run your hands over the whole dog in good light, feet included, and count what you find. Then put on gloves, since some burrs are prickly, and spread a towel under the dog to catch the pieces before they reach the carpet.

The kit is short: a wide-toothed metal comb, a detangling spray or a little cooking oil, and a pair of pliers for the big burrs. The same AKC article prefers a little canola oil to a chemical product as the lubricant in a dense coat. Have treats ready and plan short sessions. A dog with ten burrs in its legs copes better with three short sessions than with one long one in which every pull hurts a little more.

Three plants account for most of the hitchhikers. Common burdock, an introduced plant, makes round burs whose hooked bracts, in UMass Extension's words, stick to fabric and fur. Devil's beggar-ticks, a native plant that Go Botany lists as widespread in Massachusetts, has seeds with two barbed awns that attach to clothing or fur, and grows on disturbed ground, shores and wetland margins. Showy tick-trefoil drops flat seed segments that cling to clothing along forest edges and meadows.

That describes a lot of Cape Ann walking: trail edges, overgrown field margins and the weedy shoulders of trailhead lots, whether the walk starts at Ravenswood Park or on the paths into Dogtown Common. Foxtails are a different problem. The AKC explains that these barbed grass seed heads grow across North America, are most hazardous once dry, roughly May through December, and can work into the skin, ears, eyes or nose. Take off only the ones lying on the surface of the coat.

A burr the comb cannot get under has become a mat, and that is studio work. Dematting at Dogtown is $15 per 20 minutes, added to a bath from $55 or a full service from $75 by size, and the groomer looks at the coat at check-in and tells you plainly when a short clip is kinder than an hour of pulling. Grooming needs no evaluation, and a daycare dog can be groomed during its day at 210 Eastern Ave.

Your vet takes the ones that hurt or hide: a burr or seed between the toes, a dog shaking its head after a field walk, a squinting eye, sudden sneezing, or a red, swollen spot that keeps being licked. Gloucester keeps a list of local and emergency veterinary offices on the city website. Burr season overlaps tick season on Cape Ann, which runs from April to November, so make every burr search a tick check as well.