We were finally ready for a dog in our home. We researched different breeds to match our lifestyle. We both wanted a big dog with a gentle disposition, and, as we looked through the pictures of the different breeds, one caught our attention. Bernese Mountain Dogs are beautiful, big and sweet-natured. This was what our new “baby” was to be! After meeting with the breeder, and a bit of a wait, we brought home our little fella, Dante.
We were very happy to have a vinyl kitchen floor during potty training. Although he was quick to learn, he was after all a puppy. Vinyl floors are durable and very easy to keep clean. This was also a blessing because Dante had no idea how to wipe his feet during the rainy summer days.
We also learned that baby gates were not just for human babies. Because the rest of the house had mostly carpeting, we felt a gate was just what was needed. This saved on a lot of extra carpet cleaning, which is not my favorite chore.
For the first several months I wondered why everyone talked so much about this breed shedding so much. I hadn’t noticed much at all. Well, as our cute little fluff ball grew, and he gained about ten pounds a month, I began to notice a little change in that situation. Little by little there began to be little fluffy tumbleweeds in the corners of his domain. Soon the little fluffy fur balls were requiring daily broom attention. Eventually it became obvious that a vacuum was the only way to keep those floating clouds of fur from outrunning my broom. First I tried a little cleaning upright vacuum. Just charge it up and go! Only I found that I could empty the canister several times before I was done and the charge was gone before the fur was.
Well, if that little upright was not working out for me, I decided to move on to my old faithful canister vacuum that had disposable bags and an electric cord. It was great! There was no recharging mid-job, the bag could hold all the fur that puppy of ours could shed. I still had to make use of it daily, but it worked like a charm. Dante didn’t mind the noise, and didn’t chew the cord. He didn’t even seem to wonder where his fur was going. I didn’t mind his shedding since I had figured out an effective remedy for the flying fur. Somewhere in the back of my mind I may have thought “What was it they said about going through a vacuum every year or two?”
