Purple and Paws Or so the shirt I ordered from FarFetched Apparel a few weeks ago says.
Hey, it sounds better than “dog hair everywhere” which is a mantra for most dog owners, I’m sure.
Before I adopted Socks, my family owned two other dogs, Misty and Patch. Misty was a mutt with tan fur and she definitely shedded, but not too much. Patch was a Jack Russell and while the occasional white hair would pop up on our clothes and furniture, we never found clumps everywhere like in the picture above.
Then Socks came into our lives. He is a Border Collie/Aussie mix. Both of those breeds have thick coats. He has a double coat. This means he sheds a lot. And twice a year, everywhere in the house he sits, he leaves piles of black and white fur.
I love him so much but I’m not a fan of all the hair.
Here are some of the ways I deal with living with a double-coated dog:
-Brush Him Every Other Day
If you REALLY hate hair, you could brush your dog every day, but who has time for that? I break out the brush every other day and a quick session in the morning definitely helps.
-Clean a Lot
I like having my house clean but I’m not a fan of cleaning. Still, I know that Socks’ hair is all over the place so I do my best to vacuum three days a week and use the Swiffer twice a week. If I spot a big ball of hair on the floor, I grab it with a tissue or napkin.
-Open Your Car Windows
Socks goes to doggy day camp every week, which means my car is usually flooded with his hair the day I take him. One way I deal with that is by rolling all the windows down when I drop him off and pick him up. Yes, sometimes a dog hair or two will fly in my face but most of his hair goes right past me and out the windows.
-Brush Him Outside
This is a tip that took me a long time to figure out. I would brush Socks inside and then get frustrated when clumps of hair would roll out of the bag or off the brush. I was just making extra work for myself. Now I brush Socks in the backyard and any extra hair that I don’t catch goes into the grass. Perfect!
Do you have any tips for living with a dog that sheds a lot? Please share them if you do!