DOG HAIR is going to be the death of me!

[adorabelle]

I have two adult labs.  They shed like crazy! I have hair alllll over my house all the time it feels like.  I have to sweep my floors every day and vacuum my rug. I use a Furminator to brush them, but it seems like it may make it worse? How do you deal with dog hair?

[ollyoxenfree]

Just posting to sympathize. We have a husky mix. Every day I sweep up the equivalent of a chihuahua-sized dog. I've been threatening to save it all, felt it into miniature replica, and replace the original.

I've considered trying out a Roomba - one of the robotic vacuum units - but I honestly don't think it could keep up with the volume of hair this dog produces. The husky hair is so fluffy. It might work for labs though.

[cyclamen]

We have the same problem only we have two cats that shed constantly and one is a gigantic fluffy longhair.  I hate my cats.  I used to love them so much.  I honestly have no solution for you - only sympathy.  I do try to have fabrics that don't attrect the fur and we sweep and vacuum daily.  Ugh.

[Ruthiegirl]

As much as I miss my dog, I must admit our house is much, much cleaner since he died.  No advice, just empathy.  I vacuumed a lot when we had animals.  And even more in the summer when they were shedding like mad.  

[MEcatlady17]

Originally Posted by ollyoxenfree 

Just posting to sympathize. We have a husky mix. Every day I sweep up the equivalent of a chihuahua-sized dog. I've been threatening to save it all, felt it into miniature replica, and replace the original.

No solutions really.  I am a huge animal lover, volunteered for a cat shelter helping with adoptions and rescues...but my dog and 4 cats make such a mess and now that I have a child it is so much more frustrating to deal with.  While I could never get rid of them and do not feel it is responsible to acquire pets without the commitment of keeping them forever (barring extraordinary situations) and have always judged people who dispose of their pets when they have kids- I can understand and empathize with the workload it creates when trying to keep a clean home and pet hair out of and off from the baby/children and their stuff.  I cannot imagine my life without pets, but when these pets get old and pass away I will never have so many at once again.

I bought a $40 little shop vac that works awesome on the hardwood floors.  I don't have to sweep anymore and deal with hair that just static clings to the floor or flies around like tumble weeds.  I swear my cats are out to get me and compete with who can tear more of their hair out at night-  in the AM I find clumps of cat fur everywhere from their wrestling matches and I swear I could have put it together to create a whole new family of cats.  For real, it is amazing that they are not bald. 

I try to keep them all groomed but I don't get to it like I should.  The anti shed shampoo for the dog only works for a couple weeks...

[nd_deadhead]

What do they eat? If you brush them regularly, they shouldn't be shedding that much.

I had a 110-lb lab (not overweight, just huge), and now I have a 33-lb Cardigan Welsh Corgi. The Corgi sheds at least as much as the lab, so I definitely sympathize! But if I brush the Corgi once a week (or more), the shedding around the house is minimal.

[bignerpie]

Buy the animal hair Dyson, and vacuum 4 times a day. 

I have two German Shepherds, and as soon as I'm done vacuuming, there's another carpet of hair on the floor. We've already decided that after these are gone, it may be a long time before we get another dog. I love them to death, but they are sooo much work.

[insidevoice]

We had to put our lab to sleep recently, and it wasn't until a couple weeks after that I realized exactly how much mess/dirt/fur she had caused in our home.  We still have two very small (both well under 10 lb) dogs but they don't shed much.

The only thing that ever worked at all in terms of minimizing fur in the house was a LOT of grooming outside. Labs have that double coat, and it is a challenge to keep it off the furniture etc.  With my teeny dogs, weekly or biweekly baths help a lot, but their shedding is minimal compared to a big lab. 

[Orionsmama]

oh the misery. I feel your pain. our dog is a mutt with tons of hair. vacuuming is my second job. one tip though that keeps the vacuum smelling nice, put a dryer sheet in the vent where the air goes out of the vacuum. Yummy fresh smell as opposed to doggy smell.

[BubblingBrooks]

Excessive shedding is a symptom of a diet full of grains. Its not natural.
We switched our cats to Taste of the Wild, and they not only cut way back
on the amount that they eat, the amount of shedding went down by at least 75%.
Don't let the price of TOW scare you if you look at trying it.
The $35 bag of cat food, lasts our 2 cats about 10 weeks.

[cat13]

Posting to sympathize. I have two 20-pound long hair cats and I have cat hair all over everything. Maybe I should experiment with switching up their food.

[ollyoxenfree]

In our case, I don't think the shedding is a symptom of anything other than being a husky. I've owned them before and they shed a lot in the summer. He's also on a special diet for GI problems. Now that we have that nicely under control, I don't want to upset anything. I can live with sweeping and vacuuming a lot easier than I can live with the consequences of a bad gut (stinky, messy.... it ain't pretty). 

For the OP, diet changes may help though. It might be worth a try. 

[MEcatlady17]

  Diet helps a lot if your pets are eating a more commercial or low grade diet (which are high in grains and corn that aren't digested well), but won't necessarily solve the whole problem.  My cats are on a grain free diet and my dog has a very sensitive tummy and can only tolerate California Naturals which is essentially 3 main ingredients and low in grain...and STILL they shed.  I can tell when my sickly rescue kitty is not feeling well though because she begins to shed like crazy and it is the first indication that she isn't eating enough and is dehydrated. 

That kind of shedding is very different than the little bit of shedding that accumulates into a messy furry house when not vacuumed regularly.

I know my main issue is lack of grooming.  If I could groom all my pets as frequently as they needed it would definitely cut down the shedding.  My cats mostly just leave fur where they sleep and then when they wrestle it pulls out in clumps. The dog is lucky to be bathed and brushed a few times a year at this point. He didn't she much at all until we had a baby...stress...lack of grooming...messy house...more stress for me.  Vicious cycle!  Naturally it seems like investing the time on the front end (grooming) would cut down on time on the back end (vacuuming and de-fuzzing).  Somehow I never manage to groom him enough to stop the shedding completely.  I definitely hold myself to blame for a lot of the shedding issues.  I just don't have the same time and energy to clean as often and attend to the grooming like I did pre-baby. :(  Now I feel guilty! Poor fur babies.

[cat13]

I hear you on the guilt over lack of grooming.  Every time I brush my guys out, I'm always amazed how beautiful they look and promise that I'll do it more often... and then don't.