I have two maremma sheep dogs and they shed like crazy especially at this time of year. I have tried everything from top to bottom as far as brushes go.
The First brush that i really found that worked well for me was the furminator. This brush really did help to take a lot of shedding hair off of my two dogs making it a little less difficult to deal with the shedding. However after only 2 years of having this brush it broke.
I really didn't want to spend the amount of money that a furminator demands so i went shopping around for others. I tried many brushes and finally found one that actually worked better for me then the furminator. The link to it is right here. if you want to give it a shot
http://www.ebay.com/itm/222050409853 if not i would recommend the furminator. I would highly recommend the brush that i posted though as it is much cheaper and showed even better results.
Hope my response helps as shedding is definitely not a fun topic.