Best grooming tool for Newfoundlands

Stopping use of a deshedding blade on a Newfoundland is absolutely the right call — those blades can chew through the guard hairs on a heavy double coat and leave it looking stripped and dull. The good news is there's a much better approach for a dog like yours. Before I point you in the right direction, can you tell me a bit more? Is your Newf's coat on the drier or oilier side, and what's the main thing you're trying to stay on top of — the bulk shedding, tangles around the ears and legs, or just general maintenance between baths?

That broken, rough top coat is the classic sign the blade was cutting through guard hairs rather than pulling out loose undercoat. At 5 his coat is at its densest, so you need something that can get deep into that undercoat without touching the guard hairs at all. What you want is a proper undercoat rake — specifically one with rotating teeth, so it glides through rather than drags. Can I ask: are you mostly grooming him dry between baths, or do you ever brush him out wet after a bath with conditioner?

Perfect — that's actually ideal for what I'm going to suggest. My clear recommendation for a Newfoundland coat is the Chris Christensen Butter Comb — it's a wide-tooth finishing comb — paired with the Furminator Grooming Rake for the undercoat work. But if I had to pick just one tool to replace your deshedding blade right now, it's the Safari by Coastal De-Shedding Rake with rotating teeth. The pins spin as they move through the coat, so they collect loose undercoat without snagging or cutting the guard hairs. For a dog as thick-coated as a Newf it's genuinely transformative compared to a fixed blade. Use it dry before his bath to pull out the bulk of the dead undercoat, and you'll notice the top coat stays intact and glossy. It's widely available on Amazon UK and reasonably priced for the quality.

For the feathering — legs, tail, ears — you want to switch to a wide-tooth metal comb rather than the rake. The rake is too aggressive for those finer, longer areas and can pull. A comb like the Mikki Professional Grooming Comb (the one with both wide and medium tooth spacing) lets you work through tangles without breaking the feathering. Start at the ends and work up toward the skin in sections. The rake handles the body and neck, the comb handles everything else — between those two tools you've got a full Newf grooming kit and you won't need the blade again.

You're welcome — and well done for catching the coat damage early. A Newfoundland's guard coat takes a long time to recover once it's been stripped, so stopping now means it should come back properly over the next couple of months. Stick with the rotating rake for undercoat, comb for feathering, and his coat should be in great shape.