Hair, hair, everywhere, and all the boarders did shrink

This has been a hairy year. I don't mean 'skidding through a snowy mountain pass' hairy but actually hairy. Dog hairy. I have to guess it's a combination of weather and, well, weather, that is causing dogs to leave large amounts of themselves with us after they leave.

Pippen, for example, has been here several times this summer and we can barely get rid of one batch of hair when she comes again and we have to start all over. We vacuum, we hose, we sweep, we think we've gotten it all, then a puff of breeze makes a little hair tumbleweed roll across the floor, and in our best Seinfeld imitation we say, "Pippen."


It just seems late to me for all this shedding. Why can't they have a week in spring and a week in fall when they drop all their hair. We're going to just finish the spring/summer shed and they'll start getting their coats ready for winter. When my parents got an Akita, the breeder told them they only blow coat twice a year. My mom says, "Yeah, twice a year: January to June and June to January."


One of our dogs, Comet, was a hairy black mix, and every few months we'd start to think he was looking like he'd gained weight. "Time to cut his food a little," we'd say. Then we'd give him a bath and brush out and he looked normal (and we would sheepishly increase his food again).

So the morals of the story are, brushing your dog regularly is a great idea. And use a scale before calling your dog fat.