Irish Water Spaniel grooming: fix frizz from wrong brush

A groomer-recommended tool causing frizz on an Irish Water Spaniel is a frustratingly common problem — that dense, tightly curled coat is one of the most misunderstood in dogdom, and the wrong brush drags through the curl pattern rather than working with it. The right grooming tools depend entirely on coat type: a slicker brush that's perfect for a Spaniel is useless for a double-coated Husky, and the wrong deshedder can actually damage a coat. Tell me — what tool did your groomer suggest, what does your dog's coat look like right now (tight ringlets, looser waves, any length changes recently?), and are you mainly trying to manage the curl pattern, detangle, or keep on top of general maintenance between grooms?

That's exactly what a slicker brush does to an Irish Water Spaniel coat — it separates and fluffs the individual hairs instead of keeping the curls grouped together, and once you've done it a few times the frizz compounds. The underarm and behind-the-ear matting is almost universal on IWS dogs because those are high-friction points where the curls lock together fast. Before I point you to the right tool, a couple of quick questions: are you brushing the coat when it's dry, damp, or do you use any leave-in product after bathing? And how long are the curls currently — roughly finger-length, shorter, or longer?

Yes, brushing dry is making it significantly worse — dry curls snap apart and frizz instead of releasing knots cleanly. Here's what I'd recommend: get the Chris Christensen Butter Comb, specifically the medium/coarse combination (it has wider-set teeth on one end and slightly closer on the other). It's a wide-tooth metal comb designed precisely for textured, curled coats — the rounded tips glide through without breaking the curl structure the way a slicker's pins do. Use it on a lightly damp coat, or mist with a diluted conditioner spray first. Start at the ends near those problem areas under the armpits, work up toward the skin in short passes, and you'll detangle without destroying the ringlet shape. It's widely available on Amazon UK and it's what a lot of IWS and Portuguese Water Dog owners swear by. Ditch the slicker entirely for maintenance — keep it only if you ever need to finish after clipping.

Absolutely — the after-bath routine matters as much as the tool. Squeeze the coat gently with a towel rather than rubbing, which is what causes frizz to start. Then let it air dry as much as possible without touching it — if you need to speed things up, use a diffuser on a hairdryer on low heat held at distance, not a direct blast. Once it's about 80% dry and the curl pattern has started to set, that's the moment to go through with the Butter Comb if you need to — you'll be working with the curl rather than against it. A light spritz of a diluted dog conditioner or a dedicated curl-enhancing dog spray before combing helps too. Your IWS coat should get back to defined ringlets within two or three washes once you've stopped using the slicker.

Good luck with it — you should see a real difference quickly once the slicker is out of the picture. The Butter Comb will last years on that coat and works brilliantly on the tricky spots. If the frizz is still stubborn after a few washes, it may just need time to recover its natural curl pattern, but most IWS coats bounce back well once they're being handled correctly.