Thick double coat · tufts along the floor
Double-coated dog hair in tufts on carpet
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.
Your thick double coat sheds soft undercoat that comes out in clumps and drifts. It drifts with foot traffic and air and collects along skirting boards and under furniture. Most of it falls where they spend the most time, so that's the cheapest place to test whether a small daily habit beats a big weekly one.
Without a vacuum, carpet is the hard case. Go over the area around where they sleep with a damp rubber glove — hair rolls up and lifts — every couple of days, and lay something washable where they actually lie so less reaches the carpet. See after a week.
What you can stop doing
- Sweeping the whole house daily. Keep the daily pass to the sleeping zone and do the rest when it needs it.
What comes next
- 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
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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.