Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Hair today, hair tomorrow

One of the pet peeves of many dog owners is dealing with dog hair. I don't know about you, but there is dog hair basically everywhere in my house, on me, on my clothes, and in my car.

All the dogs I’ve had have been prolific shedders. Phoebe has the longest and finest hair of any of my dogs and it really sticks on things. However, when you have two dogs in the house at the same time, this is when the hair really gets out of control.

In one place I worked, there was a chair in the meeting room that was designated as my chair because it was seen to have dog hairs on it. Once I was chatting to a stranger who asked if I had a cat because of all the hairs on my jacket. My mother insists I get the car cleaned on the inside before she will ride in it because if you open the windows, blowing hairs surround you.

I’m not sure how much of a difference regular brushing does in terms of reducing hair in the house. While I don’t pretend to regularly brush my dogs, sometimes I do, especially in the summer. Then at least the hairs can blow around outside. Every day the same quantity (lots!) of hair is removed. It never lessens. I’ve tried all kinds of brushes too, but their effectiveness is really dependent on the type of hair you are dealing with.

In the house, I could sweep and vacuum every day and there would still be big hair balls all over the place.

Needless to say, I’m a big fan of those tape roller things for clothes, the couch, etc. Someone could make a fortune if they could come up with an easy and inexpensive way to manage dog hair.

3 comments:

FleasGang said...

I hear ya! And isn't it alway inevitable that when you DO brush them, all of a sudden your face becomes itchy and you wind up scratching your nose with one hand while brushing with the other! Try stuffing your pillows with "used" dog fur or maybe a scarecrow if you live on a farm. Those are my two million dollar ideas :-)

The FleasGang

spotts said...

There is a way now, The FURminator can now be purchased for home use. I have a spot on my blog about it.

Wags said...

Hi Spotts:

Thanks for bringing up the FURminator. Debs and Jake are big fans of the FURminator, but I think Phoebe doesn't have the right kind of fur for it. Her fur is very fine and not much gets picked up. But maybe I'm not trying hard enough!