My Dog is Shedding Like Crazy!
Do you have one of those dogs? The kind with the double coat? What do you do when your dog is shedding like crazy? Do you spend a lot of money for grooming? For de-furmination? Do you launder your dog? Comb or brush?
Twelve years with an Australian shepherd and we never did learn to effectively groom her. Honestly, the major shedding all over the house was my biggest complaint with the Aussie. Two thick coats of long-ish fur, shedding all year, but really blowing out the coat in February/March, then again in October. And with the black and white tri, there was no carpet color to mask that fur. I chose our current carpet hoping it would do a halfway decent job. As many things as I do well, housework is not one of them.
Australian Shepherds Shed Like Crazy
Then we adopted TWO big Aussie mixes, both with more fur than the original dog. What was I thinking?!? I tried looking at other breeds, but there just weren’t any low-shed dogs which would fit our family. And really? Look at these two:
So we adopted Flash and Patches, then moved to Tulsa a couple of years later, still frustrated with the shedding and hair all over the house. Buying new brushes, trying whatever looked like it would work.
Defurminator
One of the nice things about moving is meeting new people. In Tulsa I made friends with a woman who told me about de-furminating. She took her dog twice annually for grooming and swore by it, so I scheduled my dogs for de-furminating.
A hundred dollars later, I was convinced that de-furminating was a miracle gift from God, as the Aussies were at LEAST a third lighter, masses of hair having been removed. It was AMAZING. I was also convinced that I couldn’t afford this miracle twice a year, no matter how wonderful it was.
So I searched. I dug. I researched. How do I de-furminate in the comfort of my own home? Or my back porch? Even using tools I found online, there was shampoo and conditioner involved, and the process was a little more involved than I liked.
Removing Undercoat at Home
So I dug some more. And I came up with an undercoat brush. A small, simple tool which cost me five bucks at WalMart in the pet section.
Y’all this little tool has been a life saver. I’m convinced it’s even gone so far as to turn my marriage around. Seriously. If you have a double coated dog – say an Australian shepherd or a Corgi – you know what I’m talking about. HAIR EVERYWHERE. When your dog is shedding, there’s no sanity.
For this post, I did a search for undercoat brush and came up with a TON of brushes, otherwise known as an undercoat rake. How on earth did I go so long not knowing about this brush?!? And many places online, it really is five dollars, including WalMart and here.
Did you watch the video above? The de-furmination of the Akita? The undercoat rake is a lot like that. Piles and piles of hair come free in less than thirty seconds. I kid you not.
Where Do You Brush Your Dogs?
I usually brush the dogs outside. Flash doesn’t like the brushing, but Patches will keep coming back for more. I don’t try and tackle mats with this brush. I simply brush their back, chest, sides and hind legs with the brush. I try and brush them once a week while I’m outside, so I keep the brush by the back door. When spring and fall roll around and I’m filling kitchen trash bags with hair, I try and brush every day for about a week. It’s amazing how much hair a 50 pound dog generates. It’s amazing how easy it is to get the loose undercoat out with the undercoat rake. Seriously.
Giveaway
Obviously this is a recycled post, since my babies have been over the Rainbow Bridge a few weeks. But this is the time of year when dogs begin to blow their coats, so I thought you’d like to know about the undercoat rake, if you didn’t already know. And I thought you’d like to know about the latest giveaway from Jones Natural Chews! You still have plenty of time to take advantage of it, to tweet daily and boost your chances of winning. Simply click this sentence, leave a comment on the post which will open, then click the giveaway box and click I Commented! Clicking all the other stuff in that box is just gravy, y’all.
Now go give your dog a Jones Natural Chew. Treat your dog to happiness.
Spreading the good chews …
Flea
