Shedding – 8 Ways to Manage the Madness
Fur, fur, everywhere. If you have a dog, shedding is a given. If you have a long-haired, double-coated dog, shedding is a part of life. It’s on your clothes, in your food, and you even find it in your office. If you don’t find a way to handle it and laugh about it, you’ll quickly go mad. Here are our top 8 tips for not drowning in a sea of fluff.
Brush Your Dog
This one is a given, but don’t underestimate the power of brushing! I can definitely notice when I go too long between brushing sessions for Mauja and Atka. Not only does their fur feel clumpy, but the corners of my rooms collect fur bunnies much more quickly. If your dog has fur like a Great Pyrenees, I recommend brushing at least 2-3 times per week.
Feed a High-Quality Food
A healthy coat is less likely to shed all over the place. Make sure your dog’s diet consists of high-quality protein and is free from corn, wheat, soy, by-products, and anything artificial.
Essential Fatty Acids
Most high-quality foods have essential fatty acids included in the formula, but we always supplement with extra. In my opinion, the amount added to the food isn’t enough to control the dry skin issues we have and to help nourish a healthy coat. One of our favorites is the Salmon Oil from Only Natural Pet.
Control Itching
Have you ever watched your dog scratching away while the cloud of fur surrounds his body? Definitely reminiscent of Pig-Pen! Once you determine the cause of the itching, you’ll be able to devise a solution to minimize or eliminate it.
Become Best Friends With Your Vacuum
Mauja and Atka spend a lot of time in the living room so I vacuum that every single day. Our carpet is beige so the fur blends in a bit, but after a day or two, you can definitely notice fur clumps forming. Also, you might as well invest in a quality vacuum. I resisted it for a long time (who wants to spend that much on a vacuum?), but after killing three in less than a year, we finally took the plunge. I wish we would have done it sooner!
Use a Forced Air Dryer
If you’ve never tried one, you’re seriously missing out. I always wondered how the groomer was able to get so much dead fluff out, so I finally asked her. The secret was the use of a forced air dryer. While Mauja and Atka only get professionally groomed a few times a year, there is a DIY grooming place less than 10 minutes from us. For $15, we can use all of their equipment, which includes my favorite part, the forced air dryer. Nick’s favorite part is the fact that we don’t have to clean up the mess 😉
Invest in a Quality Brush
Our personal favorite is the Oster Grooming Rake – it does an amazing job of getting out the dead undercoat. The most important thing when looking for a quality brush is to ensure that it gets out the undercoat. So many “undercoat rakes” only brush the surface, so they never get through the outer coat.
Try a Supplement
A few months ago, we were given the opportunity to try Shed No More® from PL360. Shed No More is formulated with vitamins, minerals, and essential oils to support a healthy skin and coat. It comes in flavored, chewable tablets which made it super easy to give to the pups.
The directions state that it takes approximately 4-6 weeks to begin seeing results in your dog. After about 3 weeks, I definitely noticed an extra shine to Mauja and Atka’s coats. While I can’t say definitively that they were shedding less (although I do feel like I was vacuuming less), their coats looked much healthier than they had previously.
Want to try Shed No More for your dog? Enter the giveaway below for your chance to win!
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We have two Cocker Spaniels (and three cats) so the house is always covered in fur. I actually try to brush the dogs daily but with the younger (9 months old) it is more of a wrestling match. 🙂
Exactly how it is with Atka! One day, I hope we can manage daily brushings 😉
I have three rescued Treeing Walker Coonhounds, although one of my boys, Seiji, is definitely mixed with another breed(s) and has longer, thicker fur. The other two don’t shed TOO bad, but Seiji does. Between the three dogs and two cats at our house, I’m always sweeping and vacuuming up fur. I suspect Seiji adds more than the others combined, so I’d love to give this product a try with him. All three of my dogs were adopted from kill shelters and didn’t have the best start in life, with regard to nutrition and care. I do my best to keep them healthy and get them past their rough starts in life.
I’m sure they are living the life with you now. Thanks for giving them such a great home <3
Thankfully, all of our 6 dogs love “brush brush” time! It helps to keep down the shedding a little bit, but I’ve just come to realize basically everything around here is going to have dog hair on it. I love my dogs so much though, so I don’t mind.
I completely agree. I love Mauja and Atka too much to let a little (okay, a lot of fur) get in the way.
The shedding is the only reason we won’t get another Kuvasz. The more she gets brushed, the worse she sheds, so we limit brushing to once a week. Mom looks forward to a day where she can once again wear dark clothing, and not have fur tumbleweeds blowing around the house all the time. Too bad there isn’t a hairnet or something to keep the hair on the dogs!
That’s so interesting that she sheds more with increased brushing! I also think you have a great product idea – I’d definitely invest 😉
my dog definitely sheds a ton so a mixture of professional grooming and our own grooming seems to help
I always love when Mauja and Atka get a good professional groom. It definitely helps with the shedding!
Good tips regarding shedding. I had not heard of shedding supplements before.
I only recently heard of them as well. I’m interested to hear about others’ experiences with them.
Our doxie hardly sheds at all, but the rottie hound mix sheds a good amount!
Those short hairs always seem to get stuck in everything, too!
Everyone needed a good brushing this month and I was surprised that Zoey was the one with the most hair. It was insane and it took me two days to brush her out completely. All of our dogs love being brushed so I’m glad that she was tolerant of the attention.
We feed a raw diet, our dogs get fish oil at least 5 days a week, and now I brush them regularly. We also have to clean our floors every other day and sometimes daily.
That’s awesome that they all enjoy being brushed! Mauja and Atka tolerate it, but they can be little butts sometimes. Atka thinks brush time means play times sometimes… haha
The brushing and vacuum are the things that have saved us the most.
Agreed!
My dogs shed a bunch 🙂 I brush them out often, give them baths, vacuum daily and have them on a good diet to help control the fur.
I have two Malamutes, known for their shedding “abilities”. And somehow I thought they’d both shed simultaneously but… no. No such luck! When they shed, it’s actually easiest to first pull it out in clumps with just my hands. One pull and I get a handful and I’m not exaggerating. But I love my two dogs very much and oddly enough, Malamute fur does not smell at all. It quite amazing! (I’m currently collecting Sasha’s fur and have enough to comfortably stuff a 12″ pillow form — although that’s sort of gross and I won’t really do it. I have saved some of Marty’s fur, though, since it’s softer and cleaner and bought wool roving and the plan is to hand spin the two together. I’ve had that plan awhile… ?