I am a 45 year old mom who has been rescueinf dogs since the age of 15. My youngest son wanted a Siberian Husky and he hardly asks for anything so I got him the Husky. His name is Zeus and he is going on 2 years old. We all love and adore Zues but the hair all over my house is about to drive me insane. I could really use some help on how to minimize the amount of hair that Zues shedds. PLEASE HELP!!

We are having a similar problem here...Ami used to stay mostly outside, I didn't have a second dog and I was healthy so things were manageable. This fall, dogs are plural, mostly inside and I've been mobility challenged. And husband had had it with fur on his clothes, on his food and on his electronics. So...

Air purifier, high velocity dog dryer/blower and roomba. All tho be purchased this month.

Theresa I have three dogs here, live by myself so the hair isn't a problem - when the weather's good, I open both doors and let the wind blow it out. (( sorta seriously ))

The best advise I've seen is to give him a good brushing every week (or more as needed - especially when he's blowing coat in the spring and fall) If you can get rid of a lot of it outside then you'll naturally have less of it inside.

Counterintuitive - bathing is not a good option, Huskies tend to dry out from too many baths and when their skin dries out they tend to lose hair ...

I’ve read several things about fish as their food source and that this will help with the hair. I am wondering is there any truth to this and if so what type of food is the best to feed them for shedding issues

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aljones wrote:

Theresa I have three dogs here, live by myself so the hair isn't a problem - when the weather's good, I open both doors and let the wind blow it out. (( sorta seriously ))

The best advise I've seen is to give him a good brushing every week (or more as needed - especially when he's blowing coat in the spring and fall) If you can get rid of a lot of it outside then you'll naturally have less of it inside.

Counterintuitive - bathing is not a good option, Huskies tend to dry out from too many baths and when their skin dries out they tend to lose hair ...

I brush him every day really good but still the hair is overwhelming. Our vet had told us not to bathe him a lot actually he said about 2 times per year as they are an extremely clean breed but I had read somewhere about the food you need to feed them is fish. Currently I feed all of my furrbabies Science Diet. I would like to know if there is any truth to the fish type food as to help with shedding and if it is true is is read fish that I need to cook for him or is it a food that has fish as the first ingredient or is it a complete farse

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I get myself in trouble quite regularly here ... but here goes.

Even though you were being a great mother when you fulfilled your sons desire for a Husky you overlooked the first rule of selecting a "furever" pet.  Do your requirements meet the dogs.  

As an example, for a person with allergies a GSD is one of the worst dogs.  If you have a desire for a dog that sheds very little then these seem to fit that bill.

Maybe you didn't realize how much a Husky can shed when they blow their coat ... it's joked that we can build another Husky from all the hair.  When I rescued my first Husky I didn't know much about them but with a black lab (they shed!) and a Husky with a white undercoat, I found myself with a grey floor ... no kidding.  But then, I'm a bachelor and was living in a small trailer and was able to keep the hair under control.  Oh, I still had grey shirts (they were supposed to be black) but I was tolerant of the dogs I had.

Now, not being too facetious - and I'm seriously not - you seem to either have the choice of learning to live with the hair or find another home for your son and his dog - cause I know you'd never break his heart by making him give up his familiar.

I'm sorry, but with all the reading I've done and all the comments made here, I don't think there's a really practical way to eliminate the Huskies hair in the house unless you keep him outside ... an option but one I don't think anyone will be happy with.  Kids like their dogs and Huskies like to be with their people and will let everyone within a couple of miles know when they're unhappy (I'm not kidding, the howl of an unhappy husky can be heard for well over a mile!)

I'd really like to be the bearer of good news - but I don't see this going well.  Please keep us informed about what you find, maybe you're the person who can find out how to keep the hair down and I know there's a lot of folks (myself included) who'd love to know.

There is no cure all for hair. Huskies have a lot of it and it is going to come out in the house to an extent year round. They do slack off usually in winter and summer but when they blow coat usually in spring and fall there's nothing you can do but survive.

Food can help but it won't make it go away. Unless you are feeding for a specific medical issue science diet is a poor food that is mostly corn. Huskies often have issues with grain foods. So look for something that is mostly meat and grain free. You can look for a food that has fish as the protein or you can add fish oil as a supplement. If adding a fish oil supplement be sure to add vitamin e also as fish oil depletes vitamin e.

Hi Theresa Stevens!

I second what a everybody has mentioned here...this is what works for me, and while the hair on my clothes is inevitable here's what works for me and I've noticed a significant decrease in Echo's shedding...

• RAW diet with herring oil supplement
  
• Robot vacuum cleaner (GAME CHANGER!)
  
• Bath only when needed (I use the smell test...if he's starting to smell...time to bath...this is like maybe once every 4+ months? and we're out at the dog park and he's rolling around and wrestling with other dogs twice a day!)
  
• I don't brush my dog (unless he's doing his bi-annual molt...I find brushing him just irritates his skin and loosens up more hair and I find he sheds even more after brushing him...so I do this sparingly...maybe once every 6-8 weeks? sometimes even longer)
  
• use a good shampoo/soap.  One that is all natural, organic and moisturizes is best.  May seem counterintuitive, but I use a bar soap for canines that actually has a lot of oil products in it (coconut oil, shea butter, extra virgin olive oil, castor oil, hempseed oil, pumpkin seed oil and avocado oil).  Among other ingredients all this stuff cleans while moisturizes as well as reduces itching and promotes hair growth.  I find the bar soap is also a much better form of soap for your dog while bathing because you don't over apply.  It goes on very evenly instead of pouring a glob into your hand and smearing it in bulk in one section and then you're trying to distribute it which never works with all this thick fur and you end up using half a bottle on him just to coat him =P.
  
• Plucking! I have so many different brushes, but nothing beats literally just using two fingers and quickly and repeatedly going over your dog while outside and just do a general plucking.  I get a lot of his fur out this way probably even more than a brush.  
  
• Wipes.   I dont do this very often anymore in the winter here because he's so clean.  But in the summer after rolling around outside in the grass and dirt, I always have a couple of wet face cloths by the door and I just run them over his entire body to get rid of a lot of the dirty and grime that he picked up outside (more so for my OCD than anything), but I find it acts like a secondary brushing and gets some of the loose hair out.  Rinsing these cloths afterwards under the sink yields a lot of hair in the strainer...and i find there is significantly less hair in the house this way.
  

That's all I got.  But let's be honest, despite all our attempts, I'm still plucking stray hairs out of my mouth from time to time

Good Luck!

Hi Theresa,

I am a pretty fastidious housekeeper and I finally managed to reach a livable level of fur...(with one shepherd/husky mix in the house)...

1. Every morning I get out the vacuum and pull out its long straight tube part (no attachment connected at the end). I plug the vacuum into my most centrally-located outlet. I walk around, waving the tube end at the floor where I see fur, and it is very satisfying to see the tufts get sucked in. You don't even have to get that close or bend over...if the tube end goes within 2-3 inches, the fur still wafts right into the tube. It is about a 5-minute chore to do the whole first floor like that. ( Our dog dislikes going upstairs, so first floor is all I have to do. ) *We have hardwood floors, not carpet.*

2. Husband or daughter brush him each night when he's lying on his dogbed in the living room. They collect all the fur and stick it in a bag (why we are collecting it, I have no idea...but it is an impressive big soft mound now! ). Sometimes I get OCD and pluck out a few hanging tufts every time he goes by...this is probably not a healthy habit...

3. Lintrollers in everybody's closet


I have the "fur management" rather than "fur prevention" philosophy...

I did hear that good nutrition helps them to shed less! But have not found the magic diet yet, that's for sure.  

I'm going to suggest that this is now a dead topic. Theresa posted her messages on 01/13 and hasn't been back since then so anything addressed to her probably, isn't going to help her.

While I admit my post was very direct and probably seen as non-diplomatic, as you all know that's the way I am - with no apologies for being abrupt when I think it's needed.

On that note though several people have posted helpful and supportive messages, some of which specifically, directly and sometimes concisely offer suggestions for what we all know is a Husky Thing.

Ya dun good, even if she isn't going to derive the benefit, maybe some other newby will.

Sorry, know aljones said it was a dead topic, but I couldn't resist and I've also been off of here for awhile. There is an answer for all husky owners and it's called Furminator, Amazon has it for a decent price, look it up on YouTube to get information, comb them outside, pretty much takes care of all the loose hair and undercoat, cuts down on brushing

I think it's fair to say most people here are not fond of the terminator for huskies as it cuts the hair.

Really? I don't find that to happen at all

If you use a furminator too much you will eventually notice damage to the hair. Most groomers that I have talked to say they will never use them on a longer haired dog as they will cut and scrape at the longer hairs as they drag through and over time can and will cause curling of the guard hairs and just damage in general, kinda like when you run a scissor blade over the slick balloon ribbon to make it curl. Dogs with shorter coats don't tend to show damage as much as it isn't scraping the hair as long. So a sleeker haired husky might not show as much, but the longer wooly coats and the fluffy more show style coats you can tell when they've been overworked with a furminator.

I'll keep that in mind, thanks for the info on that, l just got it last year and only used it once when they were shedding terribly, didn't use it for every time brushing, but thank you