pet hair....aarrgghhh!

[ladylashes]

Hi everyone

Just looking for some general advice and wondering if there's anything obvious I have missed with regards to dealing with pet hair!

I have a large golden retriever and two semi-longhaired white cats. I love them to bits but I am pulling my hair out at the amount of hair they produce all year round! It's the only thing I would change about them.

I have a fab hoover, Miele Cat and Dog, which I have to use on a daily basis on the carpets, floors and sofas. However, the pet hair is also on clean washing straight out of the machine, every surface in the house and the bedding (I end up hoovering the bedding on our beds with the hoover attachment). This is despite my goldie not going upstairs.

It just seems that no matter how much de-furring I do, it's never enough, and the following day it's right back to the original situation. At least with other cleaning you get some nice time when it's done before you need to do it again . The only saving grace is that we're moving to a property in a few weeks with hard floors throughout - brilliant!!

I may have to accept that all of the hair is just a negative element of animal ownership, but does anyone have any tips please?

Thanks!

I have no tips but feel for you OP. I was going to suggest the Miele but you already have it.

This is why I got a Labradoodle . I'm far too lazy to hoover every day!

I feel your pain. We have a retriever. I hover twice a day we now have flooring downstairs because I couldn't cope with the hair all over the carpet.
Stairs have to be hoovered daily now because hair gets trodden upstairs on our socks.
Not a lot you can do I'm afraid just keep on hoovering.

All part and parcel of it I am afraid. We joke that someone will get the prize of a dog hair in their tea. You can use an undercoat rake on your retriever. Or send him off to have his undercoat stripped out by a groomer.

Tip from a groomer friend of mine was to put a pair of washing up gloves on and give them a good stroke, pulls any loose undercoat out.

Thanks for the advice! We already de-furr him as much as possible, and furminate the cats but it never seems to make much difference. Will try the washing up gloves trick though!

And now, the WORST THING POSSIBLE has happened. My Miele is broken!!! I've ordered a part this afternoon but with Christmas who knows when it will arrive. The house will look horrendous by that time! Aaaarrgggghhhh

Have you tried a zoom groom - my scruffy lurcher loves it and it seems to get short and long coat out and is comfortable on legs and head as well as body...

Oooh mistlethrush no I haven't, will look into it though. I love pet gadgets! Thanks

This one

My best tip is to use window squeegees on carpets to get the woven-in hairs out. Brilliant.

Other than that, no dogs upstairs, and colour coordinate your clothes with your pets.

I had to put my old girl to sleep a couple of months ago and I was in floods of tears when I eventually had to hoover down the back of her sofa. I will miss those big clumps of wispy black hair :(

Window squeegees...brilliant!

I'm so sorry to hear about your lovely girl

I am still very sad but I can wear light coloured clother because I only have a cream coloured dog now. Every cloud ...

I would have her back in an instant. There's something missing from every meal now. Plus, she was the bestest specialest pinty cuddler ever.

*pointy!

OFGS ignore me. I stopped at 2 Kahluas and I don't know why I bothered!

Don't be silly! I can't imagine the pain of losing a dog (mine is my first) . It makes me cry just imagining it x

That's the reason I keep my Springers fur really short. That and he's a mud magnet too. I'm sure he was a pig in a former life :)

Don't think your cats would be too happy at being shaved though

When it was really hot a few years ago I trimmed one cat's fur with clippers. She was suffering in the heat as she has long, thick fur. I thought it would be easy but she looked HORRENDOUS. Long bits, bald bits. My DP nearly died laughing when he saw her, as did everyone else who saw her! I have photos somewhere!

We have a Miele and everything has to go in the dryer for at least ten mins to get hairs off otherwise clothes a clean but covered. I have heard furminators are good.

We have a dyson animal which is a pretty good vaccum but a white (spotty) dog and dark wood floors are not a good mix. We do have stair gates so she's not upstairs thank goodness and she's shorthaired like a dalmatian but I need to vacuum nearly every day, drives me mad!

Not many tips cos I'm in the same boat.
I must be a glutton for punishment as mine are all Hairy Marys, at least the little ones don't shed nearly as much as the bigger breed. But their silky hair seems float on the breeze & end up in drinks, stuck to the window glass etc.
I have a rubber brush, from Morrisons, that's quite good at loosening up the hair on sofas & carpets before I Hoover, similar idea to the window squeegee.
From bitter experience over the years I've drifted into buying dog colour co-ordinated furnishings & clothes ( not too bad as my lot are mostly cream or grey) & consoling myself that they must put years of extra wear on stuff.