As dog owners, most of us have come to expect seeing hair around our houses, on furniture, on curtains, on our clothes, and in places that we can't even imagine how it could possibly even get there!  In most cases, we have come to accept the hair as just a small price to pay for having the love and companionship of our four-legged family members, but there are some things you can do to reduce the amounts of hair that they leave behind.  Brushing the dog's coat on a regular basis will help tremendously, but the type of brush, and the way to go about it vary depending on the type of coat the dog has.

Many people buy or adopt a short-haired dog thinking that just by it having short hair, the shedding problem will either be minimal, or non-existent... they shortly find out that this is not the case!  Owners of Labs, Great Danes, Chihuahuas, Rat Terriers, etc. are constantly expressing amazement at how much hair even the smallest of these short-haired dogs leave behind.  The fact is, even though the hair is short, it has a very short life-cycle, so that the new hair is constantly pushing out the old hair.  Often people will ask that these dogs be shaved down thinking it will help, but all you really get by doing so is smaller hair constantly being shed, and often the hair does not grow back as healthy looking as before.  The best way to combat the hair is to frequently brush it, and the best type of brush I have found for short-haired dogs is the curry style brush.

The best of the curry style that I have used is called the Zoom Groom, and has rubber nubs on one side that just whisk the hair away from the dogs body by rubbing it back and forth.  You can use it while the dog is wet or dry, and it will not rake or scratch the dogs skin like a lot of other types of brushes that claim to be perfect for shedding.  The other types and brands are good for different coat types, but shorter coats offer less protection for the skin so they need a gentler approach than a firmer type of brush.  It is best to do the brushing either outside, or on a non-carpeted surface to make clean-up easier, but this will reduce the hair left everywhere else greatly.  There are different and more effective ways for other coat types, which I will cover in the future, but for lack of space, will just cover the short-haired dogs for now.  Thanks for reading, and love your pets!