Shedding dogs and hardwood floors

A few days ago, my dog Gandalf became a full-time outdoor doggy. It was time. I’m not really sure what we were thinking when we got him to be an indoor dog. He’s a beagleman, half beagle and half doberman. The way he turned out is basically like a giant beagle. His coloring is quite similar to the beagles in the picture. He’s just.. much larger.

The main problem that we’ve had is his shedding. I’m not sure how he’s avoided going completely bald . Gandalf can simply walk by and you can see little white hairs drifting down to the floor. It’s even worse when he stands up and shakes himself after a good, long nap. Hair goes everywhere.

It’d be bad enough if we had carpet, but we don’t; we have hardwood floors. To keep the floors clear of white hair, one would probably have to sweep them every 20 minutes or so (and no, I’m not exaggerating!)

As to be expected after having my dog be primarily an inside dog for a few years, I wasn’t overly keen about making him an outdoor-only dog. It being nearly October, I was worried about him being cold. I’m happy to say though that I’m not too worried about it now. Yesterday the wife and I (yup, I’m married…) went and bought a dog-house for him. Him being a bit weird about many things (he’s terrified of most sounds, for example), I was concerned that he’d 1) take quite a while to get used to the idea of a dog house or 2) simply not use it at all. We got home with the dog-house and unloaded it into the backyard. I wanted to try and get him to warm up to it, so I came into the house (ours, not his ) and grabbed a few doggy treats, with the intent of luring him into it and getting him to see what it was all about. Luckily enough, by the time I’d grabbed the treats and gone back outside, he was already in the house, laying down. Coolness!

Since yesterday afternoon when we set it up the house for him, he’s spent a huge amount of time in it. Last night rained quite a bit, which would explain why he spent most of the evening in the house; however, today it’s been pretty nice outside, warm and sunny. Even with the nice weather, he’s still spent most of the day in his house, so I’m taking it as a sign of him really digging it.

I’ll probably be bringing him inside a few times during the winter if the temperature gets low enough, but I think he’ll be just fine. He actually seems happier now that he’s outside. Now all I have to do is go through the house and search out the hidden armies of doghair. I’m almost scared to look under some of the furniture that hasn’t been moved in a while…