Fur-strating
Posted: January 4, 2013 Filed under: fur, Uncategorized | Tags: alaskan malamute, blowing coat, fur, puppy, winter 72 CommentsAs I mentioned in a previous post, I’m currently blowing my winter coat. On the one paw this is great because my fur is EVERYWHERE and our red hallway carpet is now Misaki-coloured:-)
But the downside is that it’s a bit itchy and uncomfortable.
This is the first time I’ve blown my coat, so it’s been an interesting experience for us all. Mummy and daddy had read about it before they got me and watched some youtube videos, but until it actually started to happen, they didn’t quite appreciate how MUCH fur I would loose.
It’s funny because around August/September time when my winter coat started to really grow in, lots of people commented that I had ‘filled out’. Mummy and daddy kept trying to explain that it was my coat more than anything but no one believed them. Now I’m loosing it, everyone thinks I’ve lost weight. Typical!
Clowie has some excellent information on her bloggy about ‘blowing coat’. But just to quickly explain, we mallies, like other dogs bred to live in cold climates, have double coats. This consists of a woolly undercoat and longer guard hairs. Roughly twice a year (unless you are Clowie!) we ‘blow’ the undercoat so that it sheds completely. This can last up to three weeks from start to finish. The good news is that this does only happen once or twice a year. The remainder of the time, we are relatively shed free. But it does depend on the climate.
The other day, Jet‘s mummy wrote a great post about having dogs, and said that vacuum cleaners and lint rollers were invented to pick up dog fur. Right now, Mummy couldn’t agree with this more! I’m not so pleased about that though as I think the Misaki-coloured carpet looks great!!
taking a break from another brushing session
the Misadventures of Misaki 
Oh I’d luff to touch yooz fluffy furs. my own furs is boring tho it sheds like constantly and every time someone touches me I look a mess no matter how much I get brushed before. *sigh* Hope you stop itching soon mate (is that a furminater brush? I have a similar but much cheaper model myself)
Bol mine’s a cheap version too! But seems to do the job:-)
I agree everything should be Misaki coloured!!
Dalton, I couldn’t agree with you more!!
I’ll never forget the first time it happened to Beary. I knew he was going to blow his coat, but I wasn’t prepared for the extent of it – I thought he had cancer or something 😦 Some days I would brush him and the pile of hair that came out was almost as big as his. Bella used to get very concerned! I now joke that there’s so much fur in our house we could have build a puppy workshops 🙂
Isn’t the amount incredible!
Mummy is trying to keep the fur to maybe stuff cushions or look into getting it spun, but I love your idea!!
Hope your not going to turn into one of those Chinese Crested dogs..BOL 🙂 xx00xx
Mollie and Alfie
BOL maybe!
Poor things! Hope it’s over soon for everyone’s sake 😉
I hope so too! Daddy keeps laughing at me and says I’m going bald:-(
Rotter!
Misaki the whole house we say. Actually I got ferminated the other day and the peeps pulled our loads of my furs. Not on. My furs & I should be allowed to keep them. Have a fabulous Friday.
Best wishes Molly
I totally agree Molly!
I tried to eat some of mine to re-absorb them but they didn’t taste too good BOL
Misaki colouring is beautiful 😉 just saying humans x
I hope mummy agrees with you! Then she won’t get the horrible hoover out again:-)
Hope your itchies get better, shedding season for Norbert is really extreme too hair everywhere. Its the price you pay to look gorgeous Happy new year
urban hounds
Hehehehe! I guess that’s true!
Next time your parents complain about hair all over the place, remind them of me. I shed ALL YEAR LONG!! Mom owns every product ever invented to clean dog hair, and she says she has too many black clothes to have a white dog. She is slowly changing her wardrobe and now wants to know how she can buy up stock in Swiffer Dusters….
Love and licks,
Cupcake
Hehehe I love that you’re turning your house and your mum’s clothes into a lovely Cuppycake shade:-)
Oh its the blowing of the coat.Look at all that fur! Poe must have that as well.Ashe has a undercoat and a top coat, so 2 coats (thanks to his pomeranian side) I never knew this, but it all makes sense now!I knew dogs with two coats shed more of course but didn’t know this occurred as well, good to know!
Yep, that’s probably it:-) I didn’t realise so many other dog breeds blow their coats too
We go through A LOT of shedding with Dakota and then we have Cody too…double the fur but to us, it’s worth it!
I think it was Jet’s mum who said that fur adds protein to food BOL:-)
Bol with the weather being so strange this year my mum has been tearing her fur out with the confusion my coat is showing! Tell your mum to comb the carpet…vacuums never seem to pick up all mine and I don’t like the noise anyway 😛
Good plan! I will let her know!
Wow Misaki! There’s enough fur there to make another Misaki! My Mom can’t get all my hair off our red carpet either with the vacuum monster. She tries but it just doesn’t work…..I like leaving my mark EVERYWHERE! Tee Hee
Kitty Hugs, Sammy
I don’t blame you sammy!
Aww Misaki you are the coolest dog ever! Even if you do she’d like a crazy person! (: I hop everything gets better soon in that house of yours! ~ nerdwithtaste.wordpress.com
Aww thank you xx
My sister sheds 24/7/365, does not blow her coat but the breed is known for being huge shedders. Mom had a husky that used to do the coat blowing thing. Fur is just a part of our lives so we deal with it. Nothing is the same without some fur on it mom always says!
I like your mum’s way of thinking!
My staff said that they remember about the times with the Huskies as they had the “Mount Furry” in the house after brushing. But for me a Miskai-Carpet looks very comfy ;o) Maybe your mom could knit a nice Misaki-Sweater?
I think a misaki scarf of sweater sounds like fun! Only thing is she can’t knit BOL
Misaki ……You are such a beauty 🙂 xxx tons of love xx Cat
Aww thanks Cat xxxx
You are soooooooo lovely xxx and i can look at you everyday on video 🙂 xo i am the lucky one xo
have you considered shaving? or waxing?
I’m so glad Doggy doesn’t shed.
I hope the itchiness passes soon, although I’m kinda hurt, you saw people attacking me on a blog of three cats and said nothing, you, Easy and Mollie, not nice, not nice.
BOL Leo, we know you can take care of yourself 🙂
I have a Lhasa Apso who seems to shed all year round. I sweep up the biggest clumps of fuzz but he never seems to have any less hair. LOL
I love Lhasa Apsos, they are sooo cute!
Has your Mommy tried vacuuming yous? My hairy slobbery sister Sam used to blow her coat and Mommy would take the soft brush tool to her and she LOVED it! Then she would get brushed. Mommy always said she gots enough fur off Sam to makes a new dog!
kisses
Nellie
I’m just about OK with the hoover, but I don’t like it to come too close and really not sure about being hoovered!! But I saw a video on RA Husky’s blog of him being hoovered and he seemed to enjoy it too…
Now that we are some place warmer. I expect Torrey will start blowing her coat too. Last year mom took her to a groomer and she got a haircut and a special treatment to loosen the hair. Seemed to work pretty good. I can shed pretty good too, for being little and not too hairy.
The bath I had the other day really helped, but there’s still loads left to shed BOL
We doggies sure do like to make our mark:-)
My hoomans want to blow their coat so other peeps can ask if They lost a lot of weight.
Great plan! Mine should do that too!
We don’t blow our coats but we will in order to get a bone like the one in the photo. Good luck Misaki!
Bella and DiDi
Hehehe! I’m still working my way through it, but it is rather yummy:-)
thats all right speedy is floofing too
Glad I’m not alone!!
My Mom Person would love it if I blew coat twice a year! We Labbies just blow it all the time! It doesn’t bother me one way or the other. I just get a lot of brushing. And the Mom Person vacuums me a lot. I really like that!
Daddy thought about hoovering me, but there was no way I was letting him!! You are super brave to let them suck up your furs!
It actually feels really good! You should try it!!
My Shiner doesn’t have long fur so I don’t have this problem too much. Although her short furs are kind of spiky and itchy when they get on furniture or blankets. I used to have 2 shelties and they are very furry! We used to have fur everywhere!
yep, we doggies like to leave our mark hehehe:-)
That is some might fine looking Misaki furs. We think all that furs would make a nice bed for you. You must be really good when you get brushed. I won’t let Mumsy brush me but she can run her fingers through my furs all she wants to. Hugs and nose kisses
I never used to let mummy brush me, only daddy. but I’ve been brushed so much the past week or so I’ve got used to it and I let mummy brush me now.
You are so good to let your mumsy finger comb you:-)
Hey Misaki, Jet here.
Thanks for the mention, very kind of you. Thanks for explaining the process to us as well. We shed a good bit twice a year, too, however, we also shed a ton the rest of the year! Uh… Mom has another crazy suggestion… since this is the first time, perhaps you can have a sample of your fur placed in a ziploc bag for memories. Also, believe it or not, there are knitters who spin K9 fur into yarn… and… believe it or not… scientists have found that our gorgeous fur helps clean oil spills…
Hey Jet, funnily enough mummy has been saving my furs as my nanny suggested she get them spun into wool – great minds!. But so far she hasn’t found anyone to do it so will have to keep looking.
Didn’t know that about the oil spills, will have to look into it – thanks!
Yup, it’s happening….Rocco is losing weight aka blowing his coat!
Hope he’s is making your house a lovely shade of Rocco:-)
Hi Misaki~ Sherri-Ellen here…just wanted to say even when ‘blowing’ your coat you are one gorgeous dog!!!! I used to have a Siberian Husky/Shepherd mix who would blow his coat!!! I was not dog savvy at all & thought there was something really wrong with Bogart Sam!!! Took him to the Vet & the yallayed my fears of illness!!!!
I think the Misaki coated rug is lovely…..lol….I used to keep Bogart Sam’s fur & stuff pillows with it….
I hope the itching stops soon….is there any sort of dog cream that would help??? (I still don’t know alot about Sibes & Mallies..)
Sherri-Ellen & Nylablue (who loves dogs & hates other cats..)
Hey Sherri-Ellen & Nylablue! Thanks for stopping by:-)
Not surprised you were worried, it is pretty extreme!
The itching is just because of the loose furs, so the more I’m brushed the less I scratch. Hopefully it’s nearly over now:-)
Eeeoww Misaki~ Nylablue here…..me iz glad da itchin iz not so itchy!!! Me can’t imagine (VBP) blowin me coat!!!!
Me doez shed n a few timez it waz pretty bad! Mum had to get a Furminator type brush to sort fingz out. Me hated dat brush!!!!!
So now Mum brushez me ebery nite befur bed. She gabe dat ucky brush away to one of our fur-endz n me did a *happy dance* I can tell you!!!
You haz such pretty face markin’s; just like me!!!
Lub Nylablue….
Nope, we Airedales do gets some shed, butts not that much. Ma had an Old English Sheepdog who would ‘blow her coat’ though. She remembers it well! Furs all overs!
Ma just saw it as takin’ a little of Panda (that was her name) with her every where she went! Your Moms will get use to it!
Kisses,
Ruby
That is such a sweet way of looking at it. And there sure is a lot of me everywhere BOL
Hey Sweet Girl, But but but…it’s still JANUARY! It’s still COLD!! Don’t you need your extra furs till springtime??? Did Mommy buy you a sweater or something so you don’t FREEZE???
If I loose much more she might have to lol. Though tbh it’s not that cold here atm
You’re losing a lot of hair! You sure you got some hair left in the end? 😉
I hope so! I am getting a bit worried though!
You could make a Misaki puppy doll with all that fur! My mums family have three German Shepherds and she said when they all lose their fur at the same time it’s like a fur all invasion has taken over the WHOLE house! Good work with the carpet! =^.^=
This sounds like quite an ordeal, Misaki! I hope the itchiness will not last too long. It is a very good thing that your mom and dad are helping you shed all those furs. And I bet they secretly like the Misaki colored carpet too 🙂