Grooming at home: the tools worth it, and the ones that aren't.

The grooming aisle of any serious pet retailer contains roughly four useful tools and about thirty objects that resemble useful tools. The four have been doing their jobs for decades; the thirty change packaging every two years and add a new handle material and a fresh claim. Both the four and the thirty sit next to each other on the shelf, and the thirty usually have better photography.

We own too many of both. What follows is what survived the cull.

The rule, if you want the short version, is that grooming tools are like kitchen knives: four good ones do ninety per cent of the work, and everything else is aspirational.