Shedding!!!

My husky/hound mix Katy sheds so much I don't know what to do. I have taken her to the vet and she is in perfect health. This happens twice a year, and I'm pretty sure she is just shedding her undercoat. You can literally pull out clumps of fur on her back by her tail. That's the only place it's that bad. But she'll lay on the couch and when she gets up there's twice as much fur as there was before. I just got done vacuuming the couch and she started to lay on it and when she got up fur covered the cushion. I have taken her to the groomer and they did a shedless treatment on her. That helped some, but not alot. Grrr... I'm glad she's healthy but what in the world can I do if anything to not have so much fur all over the house?

i read that there is a special comb that thins the undercoat out..i saw a great ad on it and it looked WONDERFUL..i will look around and see if i can find it. The shedding was suppose to be cut down considerably. The ad had a large dog with hair on the ground up to it's elbows, but you would never know it by looking at the dog..anybody else know what i am talking about?

When I took her to my groomer I saw how much fur they had pulled out from her. The whole place is probably 20x20 (where fur can get on the ground) and she had inches covering the whole floor. I don't know if they use this same tool that you're talking about, but they said they could have kept going on pulling out fur. They had been combing her for about 20 minutes and they said anymore could have irritated her skin, so I said that was fine that they quit. Never seen a dog shed as much as Katy, and it's weird because my longer haired dog Jasmine doesn't shed hardly at all. This is Katy...

lawrence shedder posted about it in the dog grooming forum, think its called something else in the US

wow..you wouldn't think she would! She is a pretty gurl...i am glad she got to go the beauty parlor for her thinning. Hope it helps at home now. We had two ducks that use to run up the collie type dog my mom had. They would each grap a beak full of the tufts of hair and run away to their hidden nests. Guess they had a "plan".

http://www.chazhound.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2549&highlight=BRUSH

Here is the link to the post that Bonster was talking about.

And here is the link to the brush

http://www.lawrence-petcare.co.uk/products.htm

I've seen those here in the stores. I'll give that a try because it's getting ridiculous. And to be off subject, have you ever wanted to have a camera ready at hand and you don't? Well the dogs were just laying together cuddled and when I moved to get a camera they all jumped... hate when that happens.

I think some dogs just naturally shed more than others. We have come to the conclusion that if we are going to have dogs that the sweeper just has to be run once or twice a day. Our dogs do not get on the furniture. The cat does but only has certain pieces of furniture he lays on. So we have to make sure that we do not sit there if going out. Then we have one of those brushes (lint brush) that we run over the furniture all the time. If we didn't have animals we would probably have so much free time to do things we would either be bored or be at each others throats!LOL!!!

Kevin

See more or less the shedding doesn't bother me so much as my boyfriend and his friends. They all grew up with either no dogs or dogs that didn't shed. Well I didn't grow up with dogs but cats-boy did they shed. I vacuum 3 times a day, and the couches get lent brushed everytime Katy gets off of the couch. I tried (sort of lol) to not let the dogs on the couch, but they tear up the beds that I buy them and they don't really like the floor all that much. So I said screw it and let them get on the furniture.

Oh, boy... the good old shedding thing. I've dealt with MAJOR undercoats that shed HUGELY (my golden and lab who have passed away). You really can keep it in check, but you must have due diligience inbetween your professional groomings. I use a thing that looks like a rake -- small metal "pins" in a brush/rake thing that I drag ACROSS the grain of the fur. Pulls out all the undercoat. You need to do this for a bit every day during heavy shedding periods. Once you're not getting as much out, I was able to go to a weekly regimen. By waiting until your groomings, so much has built back up and it hurts your puppy to do too much at one grooming. I take it you live in a climate with 4 seasons? The temperature shifting back and forth in the fall and spring really bring on the shedding. I'll try to find a link to show you this undercoat tool...

http://www.epetpals.com/cgi-bin/commerce.exe?search=action&keywords="shedding_tools"

Here is a link to show you the kind of rake I'm talking about. The one's I'm talking about are the Safari long or short tooth undercoat rake. Looking at your puppy now, she should probably have the short-toothed. But you may need to graduate to a long tooth one if her husky undercoat really comes through as she gets older.

Like I said before, during heaving shedding, I would do it every day until you get a manageable coat. Then once a week at least after that (year round!). Hope that helps!
p.s. I'm blessed my lab Hunter, now, has a very smooth coat that sheds very little (compared to my last two!). But I'm feeding him a premium food now (the others were on Pedigree). I think a better food helps this problem, too.

ETA: And the trick is to go AGAINST the grain of the fur! Then you can follow up after getting the most out with a smooth swipe with the grain to lay the fur back down.

Thanks Eli. I hope she doesn't get the husky coat, she's almost 2 years old. I'll look into that tool.