The best way elimate messy dog hair

[emmysourgolden]

I've spent the day cleaning floors and besides having sore knees and wrists I'm wondering if there is an easier way to stay ahead of all the dog hair. Since getting our golden, Emmy, we deliberately went back to hard wood floors thinking clean up would be easier but frankly I notice it more and am getting exhausted from cleaning it. How do you all clean it? Any tips???
Thanks,
Sara

[goldenjack]

"I've spent the day cleaning floors and besides having sore knees and wrists I'm wondering if there is an easier way to stay ahead of all the dog hair."

--I seem to remember a rather lengthly discussion on this subject at least once or twice here. I think it's over in the grooming forum.
But anyway, take the dog outside (in your backyard). Spray the dog lightly with a little water from a plastic spray bottle. Comb the dogs hair in a frontwards, then backwards direction, to get the most hair out. Do this at least on a weekly basis for the remainder of the dogs life. BTW...the water helps to keep the hair from flying all over the place and keeps it on the comb.

"Since getting our golden, Emmy, we deliberately went back to hard wood floors thinking clean up would be easier but frankly I notice it more and am getting exhausted from cleaning it."

--Welcome to the GR club. Hair's to you! <img border=0 src="http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/laugh.gif" />Happy New Year!!! <img src = "http://www.topgoldenretrieversites.net/smiles/newyears/happy.gif">

[lotagoldens]

Answer: SHOP VAC.!
I have had the absolute best luck with powerful shop vacuums. Sweeping just seemed to move the hair around, and even though our two vacuum cleaners are of good quality (a Royal and a Kirby) they just didn't seem to get all of the hair. I now have a shop vac in my grooming room (I use a force air dryer to groom my guys which forces golden "fluff" into every crevice!) one in my kennel building, and a little portable one in the house. The little portable one even comes in handy for removing Golden fuzz from black pants!
Lotagoldens :dogbark

[honeyhunter]

I just bought a swiffer....works GReat!

[SweetDaisyDew]

I don't have one yet...but I have recently concluded the only sensible way to to deal with the excess dog hair in my life is with a hand-held vac.

I feel dumb, HH....what's a swiffer?

[JennyG999]

Roomba!

It is the robotic vacuum, and I set it before heading out for work, and it actually does a pretty good job. (But I do realize I will have to do this about every other day!) :)

[ardeagold]

I absolutely agree with all of the above! :\

Jenny....where does all that fur go in the little Roomba? That's what I can't figure out about those things!! :204

[honeyhunter]

Oh.... don't tell me you've never seen the swiffer comercials??? The dry cloths work by electrostatic charge....it pulls the hair and dust right to the cloths like magic! They are sooooo cool. 3 dogs and 2 long haired cats......got hair??? I've got plenty to go around! LOL I've got a little sign in my kitchen that says no outfit is complete without cat hair! :b I've pretty much just learned to live with it!!!

[JennyG999]

ardeagold - There is a small canister that collects the hair. I was super-skeptical at first, but I saw the videw and thought we should give it a shot.

It even has a little rotating brush that sticks out from the unit (on a rubber "blade" so it doesn't harm anything) that spins to reach beyond the edge of the tool.

I tried it the other day, and it worked great (we have tile floors.) That was going without any sort of vacuuming for a week (shame on me) and it still did great. It still isn't the same as a regular vacuum, but I am pretty impressed!

[twolegs16goldenpawz]

I use the swifter and a vacuum daily it seems to keep it down I also take mine to the groomer every 3 months to help cut down on the shedding and brush them daily
let me tell you it helps while I was gone my dad did not brush them and he didn't vacuum and I had hair up the wazoo it looked like I had little Tumble Weeds rolling across my floors :jump2 and to top it all off Storm is blowing her coat now that the pups are gone so she is shedding BIG time.

[TrooperandMike]

In preparing to get our Golden, I heard horror stories of shedding and hair overtaking the house... it was the one thing that kept me from getting a GOlden immediately.

I might add that I am an obsessive compulsive neat freak

We swiffer the hardwood at a minimum of once a week and vaccum twice a week - and brush Troop (outside!) once a week at a minimum - the best thing is to stay ahead of the game - one missed "session" of any of these and we are overwhelmed again.

But thank God for Swiffers! :029

[suzysues]

I just moved some furniture around in my bedroom and I could have made another dog out of the hair!! Obviously this is not all from Abbey as she is only a pup, but I have always had dogs that shed. I vac everything, even floors, sweeping just makes them fly. And I damp dust for the same reason. I have noticed more dust since we had Abbey.

[SteveR]

After my Siberian Husky passed on I swore that I would never get another because of all the hair. It was incredible. We got a cocker that never sheds and never had another hair problem. Then in a moment or moments of sheer lunacy I decided to get a Golden. Not as bad as the husky but a close second. My wife vacuums, swiffers, sweeps and I comb and brush him almost daily and it's still makes little difference. We just chalk it off as a small price to pay for all he gives back and wouldn't trade hime for the world.

[Bittersweet]

Yep, you get lots of hair when you have goldens in the house! But I actually have more hair coming from my cat...but even with the fur that fly's around this house, its still a 'smaller' mess to clean up than trying to clean up after my kids...(and hubby for that matter! LOL)....We have tried to tell our friends over and over that goldens are the best family dog out there (this is when they have asked us about getting a dog and what kind they should get) but they are all wussies when it comes to the 'long hair' and shedding! I just laugh because if you could see some of their homes, you would be asking "why are they worried about pet hair when they live like this and their house looks like it does!!!!!" Oh well, I just figure it takes a special kind of person to own a golden, and having to deal with all the shedding is a way to deter "not suitable golden owners" from owning one! Hehehehe!

[Me and Gracie]

On my hardwood floors I use a hand held vac (with a strap I put around my neck and shoulder) and vacuum cleaner attachments. I use three attachments - two of the extension wands and the wide attachment with bristles. It saves my knees and picks up everything.

I'll use a swiffer if it's just dog hair, but I usually have little bits of leaves or grass or some other outdoor debris Gracie picks up in her fur. The swiffer just pushes this around and I have to get out the dust pan.

The drawback is that my handheld vacs (Dirt Devil and Oreck) use bags. Golden hair fills up the bag pretty quick. I need to find one that just empties out.

[SteveR]

Tile floors and hardwood are pretty easy to clean. Before we got Sinbad we bought new wine colored carpeting for the stairs, the runner and an area rug to match. What a pain to get them clean looking. An older lady next door to us said to go to the 99 cent store and buy the bags of cheap sponges. With a damp but very wrung out sponge, wipe the hair into a pile as you are vacuuming. You can't believe the difference and you don't have to go over the carpet a thousand times to pick up the hair. What usually takes a half hour and ends up looking like you barely did anything takes about ten minutes and the rugs looked brand new.

[SweetDaisyDew]

You know, this sounds crazy but I find myself brushing the carpet with my shoes. The bottom of my tennis shoes especially -- they are great fur trappers/gatherers !! I do this when I'm talking on the phone, when I'm walking through a room. It's probably good leg exercise too !!

[Touchka]

You can buy rubbery spongy pads which do exactly the same thing. I, like you, use my feet in trainers.

[KatysPal]

Has anyone who's ever watched daytime TV in the US caved in and bought a <a href="http://www.asseenontv.com/prod-pages/OneSweepBroom.html?gid=" target="_new">OneSweep Broom</a>?

People at home & garden shows I've attended buy them two at a time, happily, and I can't tell if they're just suckers or not. [Though I typically feel comfortable scoffing at the 'test floors' they demonstrate these things on--whose tile is that smooth?--pet hair in carpet is pet hair in carpet, no matter how you slice it.

It looks like exactly what I want to get the hair off the area rugs before vacuuming. I mostly have hardwood floors, for which I too Swiffer®, but if I don't scrub up the hair first, my vacuum can't pick it up. Awful.

Anne S

[Trimmer2]

Does anyone vacuum their dog to help with shedding? I know one probably should brush once or twice a week but, how about "Dust Buster" which doesn't have a lot of suction to pull the skin and make it uncomfortable...

[monomer]

Well little Sidney's only 5 months old and doesn't really have much to shed just yet... but our last dog, an American Eskimo, was a very, VERY furry dog. What we did was make sure he was getting enough protein, B-vitamins, zinc, and Omega 3 and 6 oils... this really brought the year 'round shedding down to a bare minimum. But there was a time when we did vacuum him regularly. We purchased a flexible brush attachment for our wet/dry vac... it was made just for the purpose of vacuuming a dog. I had to put canister part of the vac in another room and 'snake' the hose through the door... the noise of the vacuum motor being in the same room with Kimo was just too distracting. Kimo just loved the cool suction of the vacuum and it really worked to get all the loose hair off of him. But then we discovered the 'magic' of proper nutritional supplementation and the dramatic effect it could have on year 'round shedding and it really made the 'vacuum the dog' ritual unnecessary. I assume this knowledge will also apply to Golden Retrievers... with little Sidney, we should soon see.

[ozzysmom]

the onesweep broom (on previous page) is the best thing since sliced bread- unbelievable!! the only thing that works for me- even better than the oreck vaccumm--

[ChicagoCanine]

We got a new bagless vacuum that works on the hardwood floors as well as on carpets and it's worked great on the dog hair so far!

[missinbeau]

ChicagoCanine_ I used to have a bagless vac it worked well but after awhile every time I used it it smelled like dog dander, so I used to take it out to the garage and blow it out with an air compresser the hose too. Even though I replaced the Hepa filter and washed the beater bar out. So I gave up and went back to bags. By the way I'm from Tinley Park, ever get out this way? :woofpup

[Ernie's Buddy]

i would agree with the shop vac. Industrial strength and Ernie likes it used on him too. :dogbark

[wwp]

Coba loves to be vacuumed as soon as i plug in my builtin he's there waiting and wagging and I get the dirty looks when i try and stop. It certainly helps reduce the shedding in the house