The Fur Plan

Thick double coat · the sofa or the bed is covered

Double-coated dog hair on a fabric sofa (they always lie in the same spot)

Coats like this: Golden Retriever, German Shepherd, Siberian Husky, Border Collie, Australian Shepherd, Corgi, Pomeranian, Bernese Mountain Dog, Collie (rough), Cattle Dog, Samoyed, Malamute, Shiba Inu, Akita, Shetland Sheepdog, Newfoundland, Saint Bernard, Chow Chow. Thick double coats shed soft undercoat that comes out in clumps and drifts.

Change this first
Stop cleaning the whole sofa. Cover the one spot the dog uses.
Why

Your thick double coat sheds soft undercoat that comes out in clumps and drifts. A cover you can wash is easier to deal with than hair worked into upholstery, and because they use one spot, one cover catches a lot of it.

Today

Lift the loose hair off once and lay any washable fabric you own — a sheet, a towel, a spare blanket — over that spot. Check after three days whether the hair is collecting on it. Decide about buying a proper throw only if it works.

What you can stop doing

  • Going over the whole sofa every day. Shake or wash the cover when it looks furry and leave the rest.
  • Extra floor vacuuming for now. You named the sofa; fix that first, then see what's left.
What comes next
  • For hair already in fabric: a rubber glove, slightly damp, in short strokes toward you. Try it on a hidden corner first.
  • Brush with whatever you have for now — a damp rubber glove or even a damp hand lifts some loose coat — and see the buying section for what suits this coat, starting at a couple of times a week. Loose hair on the brush is hair that doesn't land in the house. If the skin looks pink afterwards, you're pressing too hard or going too often.
When shedding gets heavier

Most heavy-shedding coats let go in waves, often as the seasons turn. Brush more often while it lasts and go back to normal when the hair on the brush thins out. How heavy and how long varies by animal and by how much time they spend indoors, so go by what comes off the brush, not the calendar.

Only if you decide to buy something
A brush for this coat: a brush that reaches the undercoat — a rake, a slicker or a pin brush all work, used gently so the pins never scrape skinOnly if you don't have anything that reaches loose coat. Gentle; the pins should never scrape skin.
A washable throw, only if the test worksTight weave so hair sits on top, a colour near the coat, big enough for the spot and no bigger.

We don't sell products or earn commissions. These are things to look for; the shopping is yours.

The goal isn't zero hair. It's less cleaning that actually makes a difference.

If the shedding has suddenly got much heavier, or there are bald patches, red skin or a lot of scratching, that's a vet visit first, not a cleaning plan.

This page assumes you own no tools yet.Tell the planner what you already have and it rewrites the plan around it, and tells you if there's nothing to buy.Adjust this plan for my home