Category: Animal House
Hey,
I just got home with my guide dog, and for some reason while I was at guide dog school, I never noticed how much she would shed. Now that I'm home, my mom is really having a cow about it. I'm grooming her everyday like I'm supposed to do. I use the zoom groom and the furminator. What can I do about the shedding? I'm hoping when she loses herundercoat, things might get better. My mom says that there is fur all over the house, and that I'm not willing to help out with it. I need help!
My Lab sheds a lot too. Maybe take her to Petsmart or a place so she can get groomed. Also some vacumes work better picking up hair then others but they are kind of expensive.
dogs shed, that's all there is too it! you can brush and brush but specially if it's hot outside they are going to shed!
Yeah, I know this, and I'm in Tennessee, and so, it's hot. We have one of those rumbas or however those are spelled. It's one of those robotic things. LoL. I'm tired, and can't think straight. I think after she loses her undercoat, she'll be a little better. Thanks for the suggestions.
rumbas? what are they? and yes, time to get the hoover out, and some dogs even tollerate a low powered hoover being used on them. though i wouldn't do this first of course, but have heard of people doing it.
They are vacuums that are robot vacs. They have this laser eye or whatever, and they move around the room on their own. We have four of them at our house, and they work very well.
four robot vacs? why can't you vacume yourself?
LOL, my parents have them. For one thing, they get more dirt, and 2, they are easier on the back of course. my mom has a daycare in the home, and so, it's important to keep the place clean. That's why we have them. I might get one for my apartment because of the fact that they are very accurate, and I don't have to worry about missing spots or things like that.
but can you really rely on a machine to pick up dirt as affectivly as a sighted person with a vacume can? if the machine misses bits, then it's surely not so affective? i've looked at the rummba on the net, and it makes some amazing claims.
I live by the "don't knock it until you've tried it" philosophy ...
I'd love one of those vacuums when i move out from under my parents' roof.
they are good, I used to have one but after a year of major yuse the battery pack went out, I hadn't thought of it till now but I need to look in to another!
Like post 3 said, dogs shed, and some more than others. It's something you and anyone that you're living with is going to have to deal with. Vacuum and clean regularly. There's not much else I can suggest. Your dog might be blowing its coat in which case shedding is going to be a lot worse than usual.
Yes, it seems that no matter how much you groom, a dog seems to shed. We're told that a dog has 2 coats a year, and so should shed twice a year, but it seems that dogs kept indoors, and in countries where temperature and weather changes all the time, the dog's coat never has time to settle, so will continuously shed. It maybe that you could look at alternative grooming equipment, unless you're using what the school advised. I was always told for example that a zoom groom will actually strip a dog's coat so isn't a good idea. I use a brush, and a metal narrow toothed comb here, and techniques taught by the school, and yet still find the dog always sheds. not only that, we're taught to whipe them over after being groomed with a damp shamoir leather, yet once you do this to gloss the coat, you can feel hairs dropping again. so all we can do is our best, and as long as those we live with if at all, see we're doing what we can, the rest is up to them to deal with.
Yes, that vacuum is very good. It's true, "don't knoce it until you've tried it." Seriously! It's amazing how precise that big boy is. I call all of them big fellow. It's weird I know. I'll be coming down the stairs, and it's coming toward me, and I say" scuse me big fellow," like it's a person. I know I'm weird, but seriously, I used it the other day, and it got up the hair in my livingroom. I used my zoom groom and my furminator this morning, but I'm going to also start using the brush that the school gave me. I don't see how a little rubber thing can strip a dog's coat though. I'll have to look into that one. I know the frminator can if it's not used properly. It can actually cut the dog's skin, so I try to be careful.
That's interesting BlackBird. I'd always heard that the zoom groom is great for loosening the undercoat and getting hair out that way, especially for labs. It didn't seem like it was supposed to have problems like the furminator. I know if you're not careful with that tool you could potentially hurt your dog.
I believe there are differing opinions, and different members of the dog care teams in our guide dog schools here will advise different things. I just know that every person I've ever known here has been taught one way to groom. which is as follows.
1. run your fingers through the dog's coat in reverse, from tail to head, loossening hair, but also checking the dog's skin for any lumps and bumps.
2. You then brush the dog in the same manner from tail to head, removing a lot of the loose hair.
3. Comb using a metal comb from head to tail, the type of comb depends a little on the style of coat. my dog has a lab coat, and so I use a narrow toothed comb I think called a medium comb, but not sure.
4. brush the do from head to tail, or in the way the hair lies on different parts of the body, thus taking the rest of the loose hair.
5. We then whipe the dog over with a damp shamoir leather, to just shine the coat.
I've been advised that should I see other products I think are maybe useful and want to use, that I should seak advice on whether they're a decent product or not. and to be honest, the only alternative I've ever used was on a dog that didn't like bein groomed much, so I bought a mitten, that had little rubber bumps on the palm side, so I could simply stroke the dog, and thus remove lots of loose hair while making the dog feel good.
Guess the thing is, that we just seak advice from either our dog schools, or grooming professionals if we aren't able to keep on top of the dog's shedding. and hope they have answers to help.
While I don't have a guide dog, I have a regular pet. Mine is a beagle and he's an outside dog. I have to say that other than my mother and I having the occasional, oops, stepped on his droppings in the yard incidents, the other thing is the hair. Our enclosed patio just has hair covering the floor. Course, I'm not real good at sweeping, which I need to do more. However, it's a neverending thing it seems.
I've also heard the stuff about shedding twice a year, but my dog just sheds and sheds and sheds. We did buy this new grooming brush that I absolutely love, although I try not to use it that often, because as someone here mentioned about stripping their coat too much, that's what I'm afradi will happen. But it works great. I used it during the bath because hair just goes all over. Then I use it after. And he absolutely loves it. He's a complete brush whore. I could brush him all day and he'd let me.
But the point of my post was to ask about this zoom groomer and the robot vac. Where do you get these? And how expensive are they? I was thinking of the robot for my sister. She's got a chihuahua and a boxer-lab mix. I was over at their house yesterday and I happneed to be wearing socks. Man, there was so much hair that imbedded itself in my socks, I was amazed! And gorssed out too. Lol.
So any suggestions on where to get that stuff would be appreicated. I'd really like to look into it.
Bookbug
The zoom groom is a little rubberish brush. it costs about 6-8 dollars. I imagine you can get them from a pet store. i bought mine from amazon.com. It doesn't hurt my dog. I also use a furminator as well and it works fine too. I too was taught the five steps used above blackbird and I do them, but with the zoom groom, step one is not necessary since the zoom groom is done in circles, or it can be done that way anyway.
Step 1 is one of the most important, as it ensures that you regularly check your whole dog for any possible signs of ill health.
you might consider taking your dog into a groomer. I was having major shedding issues with my dog. I took her into petsmart. they washed, conditioned, and did a high velocity blow dry on her. they brushed and blow dried over and over until they removed her under coat. they told me it would take care of 90 percent of the shedding. and after having it done, i'd have to say they were right. i still have to brush her, but the shedding isn't such a problem now.
Hi, all,
Love the Roomba, and find it quite useful in a college dorm room and my fiancee finds it useful for touch ups in between regular vacuumings--is that a word <grin>--in his home. Anyway, the Roomba is nifty.
Dogs are gonna shed, they just are. Some of my family aren't big fans of it either, but they have had to get over it, really as one can only do so much.
I read from another handler once that putting a little water on the zoom groom will take out more fur, and I do this, and agree with it. You can give fish oil, or flax seed oil if giving fish oil to your dog tends to make them sick. There are plenty of solutions marketed for shed-control, but I don't hold much stock in their usefulness. Used Mrs. Alan's shed-stop for a while, or at least I think it was called that, but didn't seem to do much good.
I have also heard that dogs kept inside shed constantly as well, like an above poster stated.
HTH,
Shanda
The Roomba vacuum is made by a company called Irobot. You can go to their home page at
http://store.irobot.com/home/index.jsp
They're kinda pricy depending on how much money you have or are willing to spend. I saw roombas priced from $130 to $600 on their site. You could also try searching other places to see if you can find them slightly cheaper. You can also find them in stores like Costco.
What is a shamoir?
I spelt it wrong, it's a chamois so appologies. however, the real ones, are like a soft suede leather from the chamois antelope, however they're now made from sheepskin. However you can get cheap imitation cloths which are perfectly adequate.