Connor is a double-coated Labrador Retriever, or mostly Lab anyway. Regardless, the dog sheds at an unbelievable rate. I say that I could knit whole other dogs from what he sheds. We’ve had a few weeks of very hot weather, after a relatively cool spring and early summer, so now Connor’s decided that projectile shedding will rid him of his heavy coat.
I try and brush him at least once a week just to keep the shedding in check, and I try to do it on a breezy day, or else this happens.
After trying any number of shedding blades, brushes, rubber sponges, and other instruments, I now use a magical tool called a Furminator. It gets the crinkled undercoat that helps keep the dog warm in the winter, as well as the oily Labrador top hairs that keep him waterproof.
I am not exactly sure how this works, but it does! It doesn’t snag or tear at Connor’s hair or skin, so he tolerates it for whole minutes at a time. It’s really been a huge help in keeping his shedding down to a dull roar. I can’t recommend this enough.
I received one of these Furminators a few years ago from the local paper’s pet reporter to review, but nothing for this endorsement.
Holy guacamole. We used to have a retriever/chow mix who would produce nearly this much fur. We shaved him bald every spring as a humanitarian gesture.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure about shaving him!
DeleteProjectile shedding is now my new favorite thing to say. So funny, after reading your previous post on Baltimore, I remembered my first trip there 17 years ago. I thought your town had the worst cup of coffee in the world. I would buy a cup, and discard it, thinking it was bad. When I got back to my city, I realized I was merely expecting a baby, and the "problem" was me. Still associate bitter coffee with Baltimore!
ReplyDeleteThat's a great story! Come on back to Baltimore for a great cuppa coffee!
DeleteLove reading about Connor--it puts my Lucky's traits into perspective. We adopted him from the Humane Society a couple of years ago and he appears to be mostly Cardigan corgi with some yellow lab mixed in. My piles of fur can beat your piles of fur! Lucky is not afraid of thunder or loud noises, and is fine being left alone, but he is still terrified of my husband (the world's nicest guy).
ReplyDeleteIt baffles me how I could do this almost every day and still get this much hair, and still have Connor looking all fluffy and furry!
DeleteI have heard of the Furminator! Wow I have a Himalayan with a LOT of fur, have not seen anything like your cotton candy back yard from Connor!
ReplyDeletexoxo
Karena
2013 Design Series
They have a Furminator for cats, too!
DeleteWhen I was recently brushing my cats and ended up with a huge ball of fur, I asked myself, Hmmm, I wonder if there's something I can do with this, like felt it? So I googled "felting cat fur" and sure enough, I found some weirdo (a term of endearment in my mind) who felted her cat fur into "pearls" and made a necklace out of them. Apparently, I have too much time on my hands because I immediately starting making my own kitty "pearls." It's really easy and quite oddly, freakishly fun at the same time. I haven't tried dying them with Kool-Aid yet but it's only a matter of time I'm sure. And laugh if you will but I found the found the fur pearl necklace on etsy for $120...and, yes, it was sold! So apparently turning your pet hair into pearls is like turning straw into gold.
ReplyDeleteOh, dear god! That's pretty funny. A friend had her white Akita's fur spun into yarn and then knit up a hat with it. The hat was a rather dingy grey-white. Not appealing at all.
DeleteThe Furminator is a miracle! Phoenix, our oldest, is a shedding machine and when he was in Oxford, we would take him to Port Meadow and after a brushing, it looked like a medium-sized white dog had exploded! Now, when we do in the back yard, the birds immediately start to pick it up and I would imagine that numerous nests in my area are nearly solid dog hair.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what it looks like! A dog explosion!
DeleteHoly cow! We have 2 non-shedding poodles, so I've never seen such shedding. We have rabbits in our yard that would love it, I'm sure.
ReplyDeleteNext dog? Non-shedding for sure.
DeleteThis may be getting a bit off topic but after reading about cat fur pearls I was reminded of an episode of The Johnny Carson Show that I watched back in the early eighties. One of Johnny's guests that evening was a woman who made sculptures out of dryer lint!! Nothing surprises me.
ReplyDeleteThat's crazy! But I hear that there's a company that uses it for insulation for houses.
DeleteWhat a great tool you found! I have black Labs, and they also produce pounds of hair every Summer. Definitely will look for this product.
ReplyDeleteConnor looks great, so all that brushing must agree with him!
Laura... this tool is AMAZING. It will shock you how much hair comes off the dog. I always thought my shedding blade was miraculous, but this takes it to a whole new level!
DeleteWow. All that fur came off just from brushing? I am constantly vacuuming up black clumps of fur all over the house from my two rotties, yet I can't get hardly anything with the stupid grooming brushes I've tried. Is this furminator thingy just a brush, or is it some kind of trimmer? I even made my husband try to VACUUM my dogs once with a grooming attachment I bought for the Dyson. Yes, vacuuming Rottweilers -- my husband didn't think it was a good idea, either. ;-)
ReplyDeleteWhen you've purchased any number of shedding tools that don't work, the $50 price tag will put you off buying this one, but it's totally and completely worth it.!
Delete"projectile shedding" I will use that one! too funny + but connor looks happy. xxpeggybraswelldesign.com
ReplyDeleteThis morning, I found several clumps of hair that had spontaneously thrown themselves off of Connor!
DeleteConnor is so sweet! I agree with you about the Furminator. We have a 10-year old lab/shepherd mix, and we finally bought one of these. At first I was a bit put off by the price (around $50). For a dog brush? But after using it most of this summer, we realize it was worth every penny, and we wonder how we ever lived without it.
ReplyDeleteCan't agree more, ben!
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ReplyDeleteFor cats, I recommend the "mitt" - it sorta looks like an oven mitt that has rubber tines on the palm section. You just pet the cat from head to tail while wearing the mitt, and then peel off the mat of fur that's caught in the tines. I've groomed a whole other cat off mine!
ReplyDelete