Talk to me about being house proud AND having a dog!

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We are pretty house proud. We have three young boys. We have a robot hoover that runs every night (hard floors). We have a cleaner once a week. I follow the TOMM method. We have a playroom to keep toys out of main living space. House is pretty much always clean and tidy (despite living in a house of 4 boys!)

So, we would love a dog! DP and I grew up with labradors and that is what we'd love but they shed lots of hair! Please talk to me about your tips for a clean house with a hairy dog!

Do you do anything to help dog smell?

Our dog will have to sleep in the laundry room which also bothers me. I'll have to continue to wash clothes in there but maybe I should dry them somewhere else? (We have a rack, no tumble dryer) as I don't want our clothes to smell like dog / get hair on them.

Do you wash dog bed regularly? can you recommend that are easy to wash frequently? Throws on sofas a good idea? (Dog won't be allowed on sofas but I imagine the hair will go everywhere)

Any other tips / things to consider? Thanks so much!

I have to disagree with some of the other posters. I have a large labrador- and yes they shed as though it was an Olympic sport. But my house isn’t a tip. It is clean and fresh. I vacuum the house every day and wash the floors every day too. Her bedding is changed frequently and she isn’t allowed upstairs. We have a boot room which is her bedroom - so no need for her to be in the laundry which is great.
My advice is don’t have carpets if you have a dog (I loathe carpets even if you don’t have a dog, but that is any issue). Other than that, go for it if you are at home during the day.

Having hard floors has helped not having that doggy smell I hope, but we are potentially nose blind!
Just remembered that previous owners of our house had a black lab and we continued to find hair until we had replaced all the carpets! Seriously it was everywhere and kept re-appearing!! We did not own our own dog at the time!

@BamboozledandBefuddled agreed. No way would she be getting a dog from our rescue. People have taken the crate situation way too far now. Dogs never used to be caged when I was growing up. Crates were introduced as a training tool to help toilet training. Now people are apparently buying dogs with the intention of putting them in a cage in the laundry room.

No advice as I’m in a similar situation of wanting a dog and being house proud.

There are options for us out there and hope we both find them . There are dogs that shed less and don’t smell as much. In terms of house work you’d just need to hoover more , have throws /blankets for the dog that you wash regularly. My mum is extremely house proud and has a westie. He does shed etc but DM has just kind of got over it.

Oh, and food. I cannot believe what a messy eater our girl is. I don't understand how she spreads it so far. I find it in the weirdest places.

I'm house proud and my DH is 10X more so. We have a greyhound. He's quiet and clean (hates getting his feet wet). His bedding does get doggy smelling if not washed regularly. My observation is that a lot of greyhound and whippet owners are fussy about their homes and I don't think the choice of dog is a coincidence but even then, some mess/evidence of dog is inevitable. For example, mine threw up this morning which obviously had to be cleared up.

I have 3 Ddogs. They're not allowed upstairs but get the whole downstairs apart from the kitchen and drawing room. Two of them sleep on sofas in the lounge. One has recently decided she prefers one of the dog beds in the dining room. They are all adored BUT my house is a bit of a mess. There is always hair on the floor/soft furnishings. Even once I've hoovered I'll find a hairball somewhere. I don't even know where it all comes from, and my girls are small! There's no way my girls would accept a robot hoover either (I've considered it).

I’d have a serious think if I was you, dogs create a lot more housework, muddy paws during the winter, hairs in places your wouldn’t believe possible, slobber, some are messy eaters, however careful you are something will get chewed, poo and pee occasionally even when trained, my old dog managed to contract Ecoli, the mess and smell was beyond horrific, dogs will get the odd upset stomach every now and again, they won’t care that you have a cream carpet. No well trained adult dog should be in a crate. Crates are for training only. All dogs smell, even more so when they are elderly. Dog farts stink.

Tips for keeping a clean house
Don’t have carpet anywhere
Train the dog not to go in bedrooms, use a child gate, dogs will not go into rooms they haven’t been allowed in as a pup
Be on the lookout for a dog about to vomit and put them outside, my girl goes to the back door if she feels sick. Look out for drooling and lots of gulping and swallowing.
Puppy pads don’t work, stupid sprays that attract a dog to a certain area to toilet don’t work, taking outside every half an hour works, reward with treats for poos and pees outside.
Never shout at a dog for peeing or pooing in the house, don’t have eye contact or say anything, put outside immediately
Don’t let your kids feed the dog their leftovers, leftovers can mean an upset stomach.
Plenty of toys and chewable bones, I’ve known a dog that ate his way through a sofa.
Puppy classes are great.
Do not bath your dog too often
Clean their teeth from the first day you get them, good teeth and gums prevents decay and vile breath when older
Do not get a breed that needs its anal glands squeezed often, they stink of rotten fish
Get a breed that is easy to train
Get insurance, vets are expensive
Hoover large breeds, mine loves it

I’m no expert but have had a lot of dogs, I’ve rescued dogs near the end of their lives and have been left in shelters for months without a home. I have had 4 pups who grew up into lovely dogs, one currently laying at my feet.

Labradors do not have to stink! We have one and we feed her decent food and never human food. This is often what makes them smell. We also have hard floors mostly downstairs and hoover every morning. She obviously does sometimes smell like a dog because she is, a dog....but she gets a bath now and again and a bit of a spray here and there. I say this as a completely non dog person who has been living with one for 3 years!

I'd get a whippet in your case. They're great dogs and they don't smell. A whippet will be great fun for your boys and apparently, they're able to chill out easily at home. And they're clean. My good friend who suffers from rather severe OCD and must have her home in absolutely tip-top shape at all times (she gets really stressed if it isn't) has a whippet which her sons absolutely adore. So does she! You'll hear more about her whippet than her actual kids.

I have a Lab cross and I walk and look after our local Labradors. Labs are my favourite breed. But they will increase your housework by quite a bit, even the best of them. Mine stinks but he is an intact male. The bitches are less smelly, for sure.

Check out whippets, OP.

I’m really house proud. We have a dog. The paw prints on the floor when they come in from the wet drives me mad. We do dry his paws at the door.

We have a breed that doesn’t shed (cockapoo) and he only really smells if he’s got really wet. We have him bathed/groomed once a month.

He sleeps in my daughters bed 🤦🏻‍♀️ She has anxiety.
He’s had diarrhoea on my carpet, been sick pretty much everywhere. Weed on my brand new sofa.
We ended up getting fake grass for the garden to reduce the sheer amount of mud that clings to them when it’s wet!

I would think very carefully. I do love my dog, but I’m not a dog person and if I knew how hard work it was going to be I wouldn’t have agreed to getting one

Bloody hell, such negatively
I have a chocolate lab, I have cream carpets and my house is spotless, he can wander wherever he likes
Just keep to a routine , because I like a clean house I don't find it hard

We have hardwood floors and a robohoover which I use most days.
Rookiedog is a despised mixed breed goldendoodle and doesn't smell too much. We have throws on the sofas which get stinky after a couple of days.

I’d lower your expectations or not get a dog, and I agree, no rescue would allow you to rehome a dog, but getting a puppy is a million times the work

I’d get a nice stuffed toy

@Maryhadalittlejam not negativity, just honesty, a lot of people get dogs without thinking of the impact it will have on their life and their home, shelters are full of thousands of unwanted dogs, some likely given up because they crapped on the carpet.

I have a poodle. Coat is clipped short. NO shedding!! NO dog hair everywhere. NOT stinky 😍

I guess it really depends on the life you lead too with your Lab or any dog. So, I can see where you're coming from maryhadalittlejam.
Our friend's lab up the road (a bitch) lives in a house full of cream carpets and wonderful smells. But they're also able to hose her down out front if her paws get muddy or if she goes in the river (which they tend to not let her do. She's kept on lead). She is regularly groomed.

My intact male is a bit smelly- not badly- but we don't bathe him often at all. We feed him very well. But he loves a river swim and he gets his river swim every single day. A bath for him is an enormous roll around the local meadow. Sometimes a hosedown (which he can't stand, ironically, being such a water baby). But actually, for an intact male who gets a bath only when really needed (infrequently), he's not nearly as smelly as you'd imagine. But still, there's a slight hum to him. I love his stinky smell.

We're going to have to start posting pictures, aren't we?

Oh yes and winter is much tougher OP! You still need to get out there in that mud and rain and it all comes back home with you. You can do it and do it cleanly, but it is undeniably a pain in the backside.

My next door neighbour has a Dogue de Bourdeaux and a pristene house. She spends a fair bit of time cleaning, but she and the family are good dog owners. Amazingly, the house doesn't even have the usual dog whiff. It is possible!

We have a lab, she is a stinky girl but this has worsened as she has aged (9.5yrs now) and she does honk at times (even though she is fed on the most expensive stuff ever for old lady dogs!)
She was crate trained as a puppy-very useful to teach Wait with, and this has always been in the utility room. She still sleeps in her crate-with the door open, as it’s her bed🤷‍♀️ She starts mithering around 9.30pm at the utility door as she’s wants to go to bed!
She never goes upstairs, as she didn’t as a baby, and when you do call her up she knows it’s shower time, so she just runs into the shower and waits bless her! Similarly, she never goes on the sofa. However, there is hair everywhere. And mud. And when she vomits, she moves around the downstairs so that she can vomit on every rug we possess! But part and parcel of being a dog owner! She is the loveliest of dogs. Unfortunately she does have arthritis now, so we can’t walk her very far-hence getting a puppy next week! We can’t wait!

I have a dog and have to hoover downstairs every day if I'm going to keep on top of the hair (she's not allowed upstairs) . She sleeps in the utility at night but I don't do laundry in there. Could she sleep in the kitchen at night?

We have a Shiba Inu, I vacuum everyday and I wash his bedding as often as mine (once a week), our flat doesn’t smell (the cleaner would tell us if it did and tell me off!).

Next door have a french bulldog and two basset hounds, their flat is always spotless and unless one of the dogs is wet you can’t smell them.

Oh, and wipe their paws before they come in! We have a dog towel hanging up with leads and things by the back door and we give her feet a dry if it's been raining.

Throws - not nice ones, £5 from IKEA ones. In bulk. Also a spare set of cushion covers.

Robot vac - twice a day ideally and regularly emptied

Daily grooming - we have spaniels so ideally they're regularly clipped as well. Lockdown has thrown a spanner in the works for us on this front and it shows.

A good diet- cuts down on the smell and shedding to some degree.

Prices pet odour candle / reed diffuser. Really seems to make a difference for us.

Labradors shred a lot of hair!

Perhaps a breed which doesn't malt as much. I don't just mean doodle breeds, might be better suited for you.