You own a dog and love him, but you don't love the dog hair in your car. It's everywhere and it seems to weave itself in the carpet and upholstery. You need to clean out your car so your guests don't get dog hair on their nice clothing, but after vacuuming the car, it only looks a little better. Here are some ideas for getting rid of the hair and keeping it out for good.
Vacuuming should always be your first line of defense when cleaning out the car. Use a hose attachment with a rake or other toothy implement to help loosen the hairs so the vacuum can pick them up. Be sure to empty the bag or reservoir often as when it becomes full, it won't have much suction.
Over the years, many manufacturers have come up with ingenious solutions to picking up pet hair. The typical standby is the pet hair roller, which is, in essence, a tape roller that has a sticky side to pick up the hair. The negative side to this is that once the roller fills with hair, you have to remove that layer of tape to pick up more. You're eventually left with lots of sheets of used tape you have to throw away.
A number of manufacturers make hair pickup rollers that are supposed to be rinsed and reused. These are sticky, but on rinsing, loose their stickiness quickly. While the concept is good, in practice it's lacking.
Several manufacturers make pet hair removal devices such as the Doskocil/Petmate Hair Magnet. This works like a squeegee to rake the hair up from the carpet. You'll have to vacuum up the clumps, but it does a good job of getting most of the hair out of the carpet.
One interesting new product is the Pledge Pet Hair Fabric Sweeper that works by picking up the hair with a roller and depositing it in a chamber. It works very well, but the downside is that the rollers are disposable, so you'll have to purchase extras.
Now that you've gotten your car relatively dog-hair free, how do you keep it out? One way is to limit the amount of exposure your dog has in your car. That doesn't mean you can't take your pooch anywhere, but it does mean you have to take precautions. If you can, put a travel crate in the back of your car and have your dog ride in it. It will keep your dog out of mischief, and just as important, keep the collected hair down to a reasonable level.
Another idea is to put up a pet gate in your car or SUV and have floor mats there. (A blanket can do in a pinch). The hair will stay on the floor mat or blanket and you can readily remove them and clean them.
