I've heard there's a grooming process that removes the undercoat to minimize shedding. My dog is shedding like crazy and I would be willing to pay to have her groomed to get rid of all this hair.
Any experience with this?
The furminator is the best invention for dog owners. Get yourself one of those brushes. You will be amazed by the amount of hair you brush off.
Pretty easy to do it yourself. You just need an undercoat rake also known as a deshedding tool. You can find them at any pet store (or cheaper at walmart). I used it all the time on my maine coon cat and currently use it on my dog who sheds like crazy.
It's called the Furminator. Many groomers are authorized to do the process. You can also buy Furminator products at the store (we got ours at Petco). We do a combo of having it done at the groomer and using the products at home. We have a German Shepherd who sheds like crazy and it does help.
One of our cats is a double-coated breed, and we use a shedding tool on her all the time around this time of year. It's amazing how much of the fine undercoat is loose at any given time - on a daily basis, we can remove a softball-sized ball of fur. She seems to enjoy it!
However, you wouldn't want to use a shedding tool on a single-coated breed. Just a regular brush would work fine. Also, if you wash the dog first (since most dogs don't mind a bath too much), that will help remove a lot of the loose fur, and you'll have less work to do with the shedding brush.
I've also used the deshedding tool. It looks a bit like a garden claw only the prongs are larger and rounded. If you want a groomer to do this I imagine any professional groomer would have this tool.
I have a rottie who sheds a lot. I use this type brush.
http://www.petsmart.com/supplies-training/brushes-combs-b...
The one I have has a hair release that pushes all the hair to the top of the bristles and you can just brush the hair away with your fingers.
