Dog hair tumbleweed

On moving to our new house we were really happy to hear it wouldn’t have carpets but a mixture of wooden and tiled floors. We’d already known about the fun event of dog’s trying to run on these surfaces and not finding grip, what we didn’t think about was the dog hair tumbleweeds. Labradors do not have long hair but they do shed one heck of a lot. As dog owners we’re all aware of the dog hair in our food that inevitably happens. What we were not prepared for though was the sheer amount Dillon and Barley seem to shed. I’m fairly convinced at this point they should be bald.

Every morning currently I am greeted with dog hair tumbleweeds, it’s a daily process of sweeping the house clean of tumbleweeds gives me the feeling that I am like the dung beetle in the kit kat advert pushing a bit of dung onto a stick and going nowhere fast. A friend suggested partially in jest putting the dogs in a bin bag and cutting holes for their legs - this seemed almost a good idea. Hairless Chinese dogs never seemed more interesting than since we moved into this house. I’ve also found myself pondering if shaving or hair removal cream works on dogs.

All of this tumbleweed dealings brings to mind the importance of dog grooming. Whilst some of the tumbleweeds is said in jest it does bring to light the essential nature of grooming your dog. Grooming is one of the fundamental bonding things you can do with a dog, through grooming you get to reinforce your position in the pack along with check out your dog for any lumps or bumps. If you make sure you do this from the start with a puppy they will find grooming a pleasure. One thing I also like to use with the dogs is a method of massage during the grooming. Dogs respond really well to massage if you combine it with grooming and stroking - a dog loves to be stroked and it’s all a good method of reinforcing the bond. One technique I’ve seen for dominate dogs is to during grooming stand above the dog legs either side of them, this enforces they are lower in the pack than you are. Grooming really is an important part of owning a dog and with our tumbleweed infestation ours certainly are going to have an increase in their grooming.