As just about every groomer knows, almost all dogs shed. No one expects the sleek pitbull or greyhound they fell in love with at the shelter to leave unruly piles of fur around their house, but after a few months, the fur does add up! If you’re getting fed up with watching your dog’s every move with one hand on the vacuum cleaner, you might be interested in learning how to effectively and easily deshed your dog.

Desheding will not only make for a happy pet owner — your dog will appreciate the process as well, since deshedding removes loose fur so that your dog can blossom into their comfy new coat with ease. Here are 5 of the easiest ways to deshed a dog to allow you to keep both you and your canine companion happy and free of fur.

Brush regularly

The simplest and easiest way to prevent excessive shedding is to establish a regular brushing routine. Depending on the breed, your dog may be shedding a little bit every day or in huge quantities a few times per year. When your dog is shedding, it's essential to give them scheduled brushing sessions in order to clear out all the dead fur that builds up under the coat. These could be daily to weekly, depending on the breed and time of year.

Before you begin, make sure to research the proper type of brush that’s most effective for your breed. Most dogs with short coats can be pampered with any standard dog brush, but certain longer-haired breeds will require specialized brushes that allow you to comb through their undercoats without damaging their longer hairs or their skin. 

When brushing, try to be as gentle as you would be with your own hair — dogs feel the pain of knots being roughly combed out just the same as we do! Also make sure you are moving in the same direction that the hair grows — out and away from the body — in order to avoid irritating your pup’s sensitive skin. 

Bathe regularly

Bathing is another practice that most dog owners already follow religiously, but this can be an essential step to deshedding your dog. By smoothing and cleaning the fur, a hearty washing can allow old, dead fur trapped by a dog’s skin to slip out more easily. Just be careful to research the right frequency for your dog — overbathing can lead to dry skin for certain breeds. 

Use a dedicated deshedding shampoo and conditioner set

To get the best results from bathing, use a specially formulated deshedding shampoo and conditioner set. These products help smooth out fur and coax old hair trapped underneath to the surface. Deshedding shampoos and conditioners can work wonders, especially for long-haired breeds that trap their shedded hairs underneath layers of long fur.

Brush after baths

Although most dogs will not be comfortable taking baths every time you want to brush them, brushing for deshedding is radically more effective just after your dog has come out of the bath. Bathing smoothes longer fur against the skin and calms quarrelsome tangles. That means that shedded hair trapped against the skin can be accessed much more easily with a brush. For best results, try brushing your dog before and after a bath. 

Use a dog dryer

For short-haired dogs, you can often achieve an effective deshedding with only steps one through four. But for double coated or fluffy doggies, there is nothing that beats the performance of a high velocity dog dryer. These fancy-sounding contraptions are ultra high-powered versions of the blow dryers you use every day, the difference being that they rely more on air speed than heat to dry out the hair and fur. Beyond just banishing the salty smell of wet dog, specialized dog dryers blow away most of the shedded fur that is left on a dog’s body, in what is known as a high velocity deshedding treatment, sometimes enabling even the furriest dogs to go three weeks without leaving hair trails around your house.

Keeping your home fur free is a never-ending battle that can never be completely won. But if you want to dramatically decrease the fur levels on your floors — and keep your dog more comfortable in the process! — then use these five deshedding techniques to learn how professional dog groomers deshed their dogs.