Don't let dog hair Deebo your pipes
The trickiest part about having a short-haired dog
When people think of a bully, Deebo from the 1995 film “Friday” may come to mind. But over the past month, when I think of bullies, I look directly at my Hound mix strolling across the room — unassuming, cute, and previously wreaking havoc on my bathroom sink and tub.
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One of the biggest perks of having a short-haired dog is the complete indifference to paying for a groomer. All of her grooming has become second nature to me at this point.
I brush her teeth every morning after her first walk. (Because she’s so sensitive to dental dog bones, I have only strayed away from Nutri Vet Enzymatic Toothpaste once and never again.)
When she walks across my laminate floors, I know whether it’s time for a dog nail clipping.
Dog palm lotion (Burt’s Bees usually) is always in a nearby cabinet for the days when she hikes her paws up on my hip, and it feels like she’s scratching me.
Every time it rains, I use that as an opportunity to slather on the dog shampoo (Arm & Hammer Coconut Water dog shampoo is highly recommended) and let nature wash it off, then I dry her with the towel. A case of the Zoomies is a free air dryer for the next 20 to 30 minutes.
Every Sunday, before I clean my condo from top to bottom on “Sweeper Sundays,” I brush her.
And every month, I grab a beach towel and sunglasses to get ready for her to scurry across the room after cleaning her ears. (She shook her ears so hard one time that the ear cleaning solution went into my eyes. Lesson learned.)
Still, compared to other dogs, she’s pretty low maintenance. That is, until it’s time for me to take a shower or use the bathroom sink. The tricky thing about short-haired dogs is you don’t really see their fur until you bathe (or clean your home). Then, all that fur falls down like Chicago snow. And with a white-tiled floor, black fur can make my bathroom look dirty in no time. (This is one of many reasons Sweeper Sunday is a non-negotiable.)
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The problem is that sweeping, dusting and mopping aren’t the only things you need to do when getting a short-haired dog, whose fur is too thin and can easily go down your pipes. Investing in a collection of strainers, depending on your dog’s fur length and thickness, is an essential way to save your sink(s).
Some of these unclogging contraptions just don’t work for human hair (specifically thicker, coarser hair from black women and men like me). The hair doesn’t latch on the way it would with thinner hair types. And to make matters worse, the brushes at the tips of these supposed sink weasels can’t seem to keep ahold of short-haired dog fur either.