The Cleaning Delema of My Never Ending Shedding Dog {Review and Giveaway}

Meet Max.  He is our lovable, feisty, full of energy, German Shepherd.  And he sheds 365 days a year.

This post is sponsored by e-cloth, but the review and opinions are purely my own.

Does your dog or cat shed?  Of course it does - most all breeds of dogs and cats shed.  And if your dog (or even cat) is like mine, he sheds pretty much year round and not just in the spring time.  Now don't get me wrong, I love our dog.  Max has been with us for almost 7 years and we hope that we are blessed with many, many more years to come.  But when I can walk into a room and see clumps of dog hair on the floor - well, it kind of grosses me out.

The never ending sweeping and vacuuming daily to clean up the dog hair though is tiring and during the spring and fall (yes, he is shedding now when you would think he would be getting his winter coat), I have to sweep the floors twice a day.  But is isn't just the dog hair that seems to fall in layers on my clean floors, but also the dander (especially in the winter when the heat is on and the air in the house is dry) and dirt.

Sure monthly baths or trips to the groomers would help, but that can get expensive and let's face it, giving him a bath outside during the winter when it is below freezing is not going to happen.  Yes, I know I could give him a bath in the tub.  Been there, done that.  But when your dog is 90 pounds and hates water, well, let's just say he will win that battle and I get soaked plus a war zone in my bathroom afterwards is a huge turn off.   On a side note, he does go to a groomer twice a year, once in the winter for a skin soothing/oatmeal bath to help with dry skin and late spring when he loses his winter coat.

It was when I was looking for something that was easy to use, could be used indoors (especially important during the winter months), wouldn't irritate his skin and could be used daily to help control the amount of dog hair that ends up on the floor that I was contacted by  e-cloth to do a review of their pet care line.  Now I had been contacted by e-cloth to do a review of their kitchen cleaning products (see this post) and was very impressed by how effective the product worked, so I gave the Grooming Mitt a shot.

The mitt is double sided,  One side - the creamy side- is used for getting loose hair and and dirt or debris in the hair.

The other side - the dark side- is used for removing surface hair and adding a shine to the coat.

I was curious how well the grooming mitt was going to work since the brush that we currently use to comb out dog is pretty much a horse brush since it helps to get the loose undercoat out.  But I have noticed too that when we use the horse brush, it also tends to irritate his already sensitive, dry skin and cause more dander.

The mitt was so easy to use, in fact, my 5 year old daughter used it to brush the dog, and the size was a perfect fit for my large dog. Now typically when he is brushed, he hates to be still, but using the mitt seemed more like I was petting him instead of brushing him.  And the amount of fur that came off in just a few strokes was impressive.

I then tried the other side of the mitt that is used for getting the dirt out.  While it is hard to see dirt, I did notice that it did help to get some of the smaller pieces of fur and dander that was already on the outer layer of fur.  I am curious to try this side of the mitt during the spring and dryer months of the year when his coat gets really dirty.

I do note that after using the mitt to brush my dog for only a few days, the amount of dog hair that has to be swept up has been reduced, which is a good thing.  I am hopeful that using the mitt every day will help control shedding.

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