<p>Does anyone have suggestions to help with my dog’s shedding? The dog hair is everywhere and it’s driving me nuts. She is a rescue dog, a retriever/lab mix, but there seems to be some setter in there also. Her hair is silky and not terribly thick. She has no bald patches and does not scratch excessively.</p>
<p>Diet supplements? Grooming tools? She has a somewhat delicate stomach (meaning she throws up if I change her food) but I am willing to try about anything. I borrowed a Furminator from a friend but that seemed to pull out just a little fine fluff. I’ve tried vacuuming her and she seemed to like it but my attachment tool doesn’t allow a very good job. It seems the more we brush the more she sheds.</p>
<p>I have asked our vet about it and he just laughed. According to him I have a healthy, happy, wonderful dog and if I have to vacuum twice a day so be it. </p>
<p>A similar dog and I live with tumbleweeds of hair rolling across my wood floors. The furminator was a waste of money for us and I think it removed too much undercoat which then cause my dog to get a skin infection from bug bites (Florida). We stopped using the furminator and no more problems. They need that undercoat for protection. As for clean up, I use the swifter on the wood floors. Good luck.</p>
<p>I have had Newfs for close to thirty years. Long, thick double coat, sheds year round. Floats through the air, ends up in places you’d never expect. The standing joke is who is the first to find the dog hair on the supper plate.</p>
<p>Newf hair makes tumbleweeds look like dust bunnies. I’ve given up. On the bare floors, it’s everywhere. Standard operating procedure is grab a ball as you walk by. It tends to congregate, based on air flow at floor level. Dog doesn’t go in the one carpeted first floor room, and second floor access is verboten, but it’s picked up on the soles of feet, socks, and slippers, and finds it way there anyway. </p>
<p>Ours can be brushed daily, and still yield a brown paper bag full of hair, enough to make 3 lap dogs. </p>
<p>I’ve given up on vacuums. Tried them all. Shop vacs, commercial quality units do the best on the bare floors, but a powerhead unit is a necessity on the carpet. The stuff clings tenaciously. The length of the hair causes it to wind around the powerhead brush, typically the head has to be disassembled and the wrapped hair cut off every month. </p>
<p>The saving grace is that there people who do spin yarn and will knit using Newf hair. If I had collected all the hair through the years and sold it, I would never have had to worry about covering tuition bills.</p>
<p>After 19 years with no mammal pets, we got a black lab puppy in March. It’s been an adjustment but, we finally don’t mind the furballs. They chase the dust bunnies. ;)</p>
<p>All kidding aside, we use the swiffer and vacuum on the floors. We don’t touch the dog’s coat. </p>
<p>One thing that makes our situation bearable is that puppy is only allowed in the kitchen, laundry room, and family room. He’s not allowed in any other room or on any furniture. This allows us to keep his shedding on the floor in 3 rooms and easier to clean up.</p>
<p>Thank you all. I’m feeling better. Dog is only allowed in the hardwood kitchen and hardwood/area rug family room but I’ve noticed the hair all over the house. Bundles tumble around when the heat or AC kick on. It collects in certain places, like against the bottom of the kitchen appliances. And now I know this is all NORMAL. </p>
<p>I like the idea of people picking up handfuls when they walk by.</p>
<p>Try this:[url=<a href=“Page Not Found | FURminator®”>http://www.furminator.com/]FURminator[/url</a>]
I have heard from my sis who has a black lab that is works great! I have dust bunnies all OVER my house, on couches, etc. from our Treeing Walker Coonhound and am getting one today at PETCO.</p>
<p>This conversation makes me miss our dear, sweet lab, may she rest in peace. She was the best dog! I developed the philosophy that the goods (her affection towards my kids, her companionship, her wonderful greetings after a long hard day, etc, etc.) outweighed the bads (hair, hair and more hair on my hardwood floors and carpet!!)! My guess is that it would go unnoticed by most guests to your home because the dog would be the focus of their attention rather than your housekeeping skills! Enjoy!</p>
<p>We also have a lab/golden retriever mix. He sheds year-round and we’ve come to accept the hair tumbleweeds blowing across the hardwood floors. We got rid of most rugs and we buy khaki colored throw rugs for a couple of areas in the house (he’s light yellow so the hair blends in with the khaki throw rugs). When these throw rugs get too hairy, we throw them out and buy new ones. It’s too difficult to get the hair off of them because the hair kind of imbeds itself and wraps around the rug fibers. </p>
<p>A broom, a swifter, and weekly mopping with murphy’s oil/soap is what we use on our hardwood floors to combat the shedding. Once in a while, we’ll have the vet give him a good bath but that only seems to help for a week or two. We love him so we just deal with the hair. Oh, we also brush him (outside of course) with a brush that cuts through his coat. When we do this, the front yard looks as if it’s covered in snow. The birds come and use the hair for their nests.</p>
<p>lab here and lots of tumbleweeds on our wood floors.
We took the approach of getting lots of beige in the house too but I’m tired of it and recently got some red rugs - and just maintain them more. Got thin ones cause ours is also a chewer and he was eating holes through some of our thicker throw rugs. Plus it’s less likely that the hairs will get twisted in the tufts. We just love him so much though and tolerate it.<br>
The swifter is a good idea for quick cleanups.</p>
<p>I put a brush in the garage on a shelf by the door where we take our lab in and out (and a metal comb to clean out the brush). Every time we come in, I grab it and step outside the garage and give her a 15 second brush. That helps keep my sweeping of her inside living area down to once a week (or when company is coming ). </p>
<p>She lives in a large mud room/pantry area that has a dutch door opening into the kitchen, so she doesn’t have the run of the house. It is a big space, specifically designed when we built the house with a dog in mind. Plenty of room for her bed, crate, toys, etc. So I don’t have to sweep the whole house, although her fur does escape her area under the doors.</p>
<p>I am also shopping for a good price on a Roomba 537 (specially designed for pet hair with a bigger receptacle for the hair and easier to clean brushes).</p>
<p>What I found works well with the spring and fall fur blow outs is a horse grooming tool used when the horses shed their winter coat. Probably won’t work year round, but for getting a lot of hair our efficiently it worked really well.</p>
). </p>