eluke81 wrote:

save the hair - there are places on the internet that you can send the hair to and they will make knitted gifts out of your dogs hair! pretty cool I thought........ its like gathering wool from a sheep

Do you remember the name? I have a 32 gallon trash can full of nothing but Nanook's undercoat from his recent shed.

Here are a few places I see on the internet - not sure who is still doing it though.......... good luck, post what you have made if you do it please!! Also, there are alot of books to teach you to do it yourself if you are into knitting or crafts like that. I'm not good at that stuff..........

http://www.customdoghairspinning.com/

http://wrapcandy.com/hobbies-and-crafts/Use-Your-Dogs-Hair.php

http://www.roverscomb.com


http://www.mtfiberfolk.com/

Also, I think you need to be careful with a husky's undercoat........... my girl always kinda yiped if hers got pulled - it gets tangled easily and is connected to their skin......... I always just used a brush like I would on my long hair - or a roller pin type comb thing.....- never tried a furminator though....

once I got all the loose hair out - i would brush her long top fur back and forth and in circles - like a massage with treats so she loved to get brushed after a while - and would lay there all night if I kept it up

Are slicker brushes okay to use on huskies? I've never used one on Sheba before.

Sheba&Kennedy wrote:

Are slicker brushes okay to use on huskies? I've never used one on Sheba before.

I wouldn't see why not I use them on mine.

Dog hair yarn is called cheingora - it can command a high price in the right crowd. Scandinavian countries used to use cheingora exclusively until the Spaniards introduced sheep. It's super warm (since the undercoat is hollow it insulates better than wool). Some dogs are better suited for it than others, particularly due to the staple length (length of the fibers). It's a pretty simple process to wash it, and card it it to prepare it for spinning.

If you aren't into the spinning approach you could always felt the dog hairs. Using a wet felting technique would work better.

We use an undercoat rake, a slicker brush, and a brush like this:

Melissa911 wrote:

Ok so i'm going to get a undercoat rake. I found this one on Amazon that has a lot of reviews. Thoughts? would this be a good one to use?

http://www.amazon.com/Oster-Professional-Grooming-Undercoat-Coarse/dp/B00061MWJ0/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1358654072&sr=1-1&keywords=undercoat+rake

I was just going to reccomend this to you! I bought the same one last week! Yes, it's expensive at $23... BUT, it works wonders. I used it on Juneau the other day and it was creating fur! It worked that well! It's got a little 'weight' to it for a brush, but it's pretty sturdy. It's all metal. I was going to get an $8 one from Amazon, but the reviews said the plastic neck handle broke. I would rather spend $23 once as opposed to spending $8 then $23 for a better one. lol

Juneau has a long coat, but it's sleek (pressed against her body closer). Works very well with her. Haku has a very thick "show coat" and long fur (very fluffy), but it didn't work very well on some parts of his body.

VintageJeans wrote:

Melissa911 wrote:

Ok so i'm going to get a undercoat rake. I found this one on Amazon that has a lot of reviews. Thoughts? would this be a good one to use?

http://www.amazon.com/Oster-Professional-Grooming-Undercoat-Coarse/dp/B00061MWJ0/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1358654072&sr=1-1&keywords=undercoat+rake

I was just going to reccomend this to you! I bought the same one last week! Yes, it's expensive at $23... BUT, it works wonders. I used it on Juneau the other day and it was creating fur! It worked that well! It's got a little 'weight' to it for a brush, but it's pretty sturdy. It's all metal. I was going to get an $8 one from Amazon, but the reviews said the plastic neck handle broke. I would rather spend $23 once as opposed to spending $8 then $23 for a better one. lol

Juneau has a long coat, but it's sleek (pressed against her body closer). Works very well with her. Haku has a very thick "show coat" and long fur (very fluffy), but it didn't work very well on some parts of his body.

Awesome!! I'm definitely going to purchase it now.

Melissa911 wrote:

VintageJeans wrote:

Melissa911 wrote:

Ok so i'm going to get a undercoat rake. I found this one on Amazon that has a lot of reviews. Thoughts? would this be a good one to use?

http://www.amazon.com/Oster-Professional-Grooming-Undercoat-Coarse/dp/B00061MWJ0/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1358654072&sr=1-1&keywords=undercoat+rake

I was just going to reccomend this to you! I bought the same one last week! Yes, it's expensive at $23... BUT, it works wonders. I used it on Juneau the other day and it was creating fur! It worked that well! It's got a little 'weight' to it for a brush, but it's pretty sturdy. It's all metal. I was going to get an $8 one from Amazon, but the reviews said the plastic neck handle broke. I would rather spend $23 once as opposed to spending $8 then $23 for a better one. lol

Juneau has a long coat, but it's sleek (pressed against her body closer). Works very well with her. Haku has a very thick "show coat" and long fur (very fluffy), but it didn't work very well on some parts of his body.

Awesome!! I'm definitely going to purchase it now.

Great! I hope it really works out for you. It has definitely cut down on the hair in the house a little bit (although it has only been a few days). It worked really well on her back legs, tail, and her lower back! My bf got mad at me for all of the fur in the yard, so I had to go pick it up. There's a certain method to brushing with it. Don't brush too rough, it is a breeze to use.

I use the generic furminator (FurGo) and am pretty apathetic about it. On one hand, it does a pretty good job of removing fur, but on the otherhand, I'm not sure its all fur that was meant to come out. It does the job pretty quickly.

My favored alternative is using a shedding blade followed by a slicker brush, takes a little longer to use, but its worth it. The shedding blade seems causes my dog to start snowing dead fur. I feel bad for anyone in a mile radius.