[WhiteDogHouse]

We are a bit partial to white dogs. We have three big babies: 11yr old male pyrenees/shepherd cross, 3yr old jindo/shepherd cross, and 6month terrorist/shepherd cross. All loved - All spoiled. As you can imagine, we keep the vacuum out - it never reaches the closet unless company is over. We vacuum in the AM and PM, otherwise we have a hair-a-thon! I am presently trying to find a recipe for THE BEST dog biscuit recipe. Anyone have one?

 

[Apdfranklin]

Welcome to the board. Very glad you found this board. It looks like you have your hands full not only with some big dogs but with a lot of dog hair.

Hope you enjoy our very fast growing community!

 

[chunli27]

Ooh what type of vacuum do you have? Anyone recommend a good one that won't cost me my arm? I have dogs and a cat sooo...it gets a little furry and my vacuums always break on me. =)

 

[WhiteDogHouse]

Hair

Well, I have bought expensive ones and cheap ones, and I would have to say, The medium priced $60 - $70 ones at Walmart are the best. I have one now that says it does well with pet hair, and so far its been great. Although we do dump the canister after we use it and make extra efforts to keep everything cleaned out. I also bought one of those ferminators and it helps to. I don't use it as much as they recommend, but I will say, it really helps get the hair out. One of my dogs doesn't like it, but he thinks I'm evil when I brush him. With my cat, I usually wet down a papertowel and wipe off the furniture and that helps alot.

 

[rannmiller]

Haha, oh pet hair! I bought a Kirby vacuum ($1,740) and it has been worth every penny so far! I have three dogs and a cat. Another thing that helps keep pet hair under control is a good, high-quality diet. It makes them not shed nearly as much, if at all. I pet sat for some people who had had their dogs on raw food their whole lives, they had a lab/pit mix and a boder collie/aussie mix. I thought especially the border mix would shed like crazy but I don't even think she shed when I pet her. Their breath was neutral, they didn't have that "doggy" smell and they were very well behaved, good dogs. That made me a believer! What kind of food are your dogs on?

 

[WhiteDogHouse]

They're on Avoderm kibble and canned Blue Buffalo. I really like both of the products. The Avoderm has avocado which really helps their coats. I also put a capsule of fish oil on their food at night. Their coats are absolutely beautiful. I have some pics in the photo area. Do you feed your dogs the raw diet too?

 

[rannmiller]

Oooh that is good stuff you're feeding them. I saw the pics, those are some cute pups you have. I can't figured out the picture thing on here...

Yeah, I try to feed raw as much as possible (especially since my dogs love it so much and they don't poop as much on it, and when they do poop it's compact, hard, and decomposes after about 3 days). However, since times are rough and meat prices are rising daily, I am a broke college student, and my freezer is overly full as it is, I do have to feed kibble too. Wellness Core has been my favorite one so far. I know everyone on this site dislikes Nutro Natural Choice, but I also feed that. My dog's coats do really well on that if I can't feed them just raw.

The other day a guy asked how old my lab/pit mix is:
"7 or 8"
"Months?"
"No, years"
"Oh man, really? I totally thought she was still a puppy, her coat is so soft and she's so happy and active!"

It makes me so sad when I see people who feed low quality food, their dogs are younger than mine, yet they look like they're on the verge of death and their owners think this is perfectly normal.

 

[WhiteDogHouse]

It is tough with the economy the way it is. I had heard that you can't feed kibble with a raw diet because they can get salmonella poisoning if you combine, or at least feed raw chicken. I know a lot of people really love the raw diet, especially with all the canine deaths associated with canned food. Yeah, I'm not wild about Nutro, but they do sell alot of it. What I would like to find out is what kind of shampoo groomers use. I recently had my big guys clipped down. He was always soft, but after he got back from the groomers, he was like a fluffy stuffed animal- really soft. Maybe its the same thing as the split ends on people. I know I haven't found an over the counter shampoo that works that well.

 

[rannmiller]

You should ask your groomer what shampoo they use, they're usually very willing to tell you.

 

[WhiteDogHouse]

What was I thinking. You're right probably not a secret!!