Why Your Dog Sheds So Much in September

It starts in the first week or two of September. You did nothing differently, and suddenly there is fur on the couch, fur on your jacket, fur drifting across the kitchen floor in little tumbleweeds.

This is normal, it happens every year, and it has a name.

Blowing coat, and what triggers it

Double-coated dogs carry two layers: a coarse outer coat that sheds water and a dense, soft undercoat that does the insulating. Twice a year they swap the undercoat out. In autumn they drop the light summer undercoat and grow the thick winter one. In spring they do the reverse.

The trigger is daylight, not temperature. As the days shorten after the summer solstice, the change starts. That is why it kicks off in early September even when it is still warm out, and why a dog who lives mostly indoors under artificial light can shed in a more constant, low-level way all year instead of in two clear bursts.

It usually runs two to four weeks at full intensity, then tapers.

Which dogs get it worst

Double-coated breeds: huskies, malamutes, german shepherds, golden retrievers, labs, bernese, corgis, australian shepherds, and the many mixes carrying that genetics. If you own one of these, you already knew.

Single-coated breeds like poodles, bichons and most terriers do not blow coat the same way. They shed steadily and much less dramatically.

Why the fix is upstream

Here is the part that changes how much work your autumn is.

The loose undercoat is already detached from the skin. It is sitting in the coat waiting to fall out. Every hair you pull out with a brush is a hair that never reaches your couch, your car seat or your clothes.

So the choice is not really between brushing and vacuuming. It is between five minutes of brushing outside, or twenty minutes of cleaning inside, several times a week, for a month. The brushing is less work and it is not close.

The brush is the whole thing

A regular pin or bristle brush moves across the top coat and barely touches the undercoat. That is why owners brush for ten minutes, see almost nothing come out, and conclude their dog is just a shedder.

What you need is something with fine, closely spaced teeth that reaches through the outer coat to the layer underneath. A proper deshedding comb pulls out startling amounts of fur from a dog you thought was already brushed.

How to do it:

• Outside, or in a room you are willing to clean. This is not a couch activity.
• Short sessions, five to ten minutes, three or four times a week during the peak. Better than one long session that leaves your dog fed up with the whole idea.
• Follow the direction the coat grows, in overlapping passes, and go gently over the hips, belly and behind the ears where the skin is thin.
• Stop before your dog does. A dog that starts dreading the brush turns a five minute job into a wrestling match for the rest of their life.

Our deshedding routine guide goes through the technique by coat type.

What to do about the fur already in the house

Some always gets through. For that, a reusable hair remover lifts fur off upholstery and clothing using static rather than adhesive, so there is nothing to run out of halfway through the couch. Our guide on getting pet hair off furniture, clothes and car seats goes surface by surface.

In the car, it is far easier to keep fur off the seats than to get it out of them. A seat cover that comes out and goes in the wash solves that permanently.

When shedding is not just the season

Seasonal shedding is heavy but even. Worth a vet's opinion instead of a brush if you see bald patches or thinning in specific spots, redness, scabbing or irritated skin, constant scratching or chewing, or a coat that has gone dull and brittle across the board. Those point at something other than the calendar.

The short version

It is daylight, not heat. It lasts a few weeks. Brushing outside with something that actually reaches the undercoat is less total effort than cleaning up after it, and it is the only part of this you control.

The rest of our grooming gear is in pet grooming.