Merle “Duding it up” on the couch, and our shop vac
So Ridgeback hair…well it’s kind of a demonic beast. You know this blog is titled “The Stubborn Hound” Right? Yeah well Ridgebacks aren’t just stubborn in personality at times, their hair is insanely stubborn too. It’s sharp, it lodges (more like weaves) itself into fabrics and absolutely refuses to leave no matter how nicely you ask (beg), no matter how hard you try to dislodge it. If you don’t believe me, know that a recent post about how to remove Ridgeback hair from fabric, posed in a Ridgeback Facebook group I belong to, lead to about 95 different responses most of which ended with…”but in the end, I just gave up and decided to buy a new couch.”
I am not sure exactly what made me decide to do this, but we happened to have purchased a wet/dry shop vac a few years back for cleaning our cars and such, and I decided a few months ago to bring it into the house and use it in my war against the dog hair on the couch. To my surprise, it worked. It worked AMAZINGLY well. Why hadn’t I thought of this? Sure I had tried the regular vacuum. Gone through thousands of pet rollers, and even thought I had found the best tool yet (a rubber lint remover…still a second best). But why hadn’t I thought to bring in the shop vac and give it a try?
Well I’ll tell ya, if you don’t own one and you own a dog with long or stubborn hair YOU MUST purchase one. Why do I love the shop vac so? First, it removes all of the hair. (Full disclosure, we do have a good microfiber couch that is fairly decent at repelling hair but nevertheless, it’s still no match for the ridgies.) Second, it’s WORLDS easier to clean than a regular vacuum. Ours just easily pops into two parts, you unscrew the filter, hose it down and let it dry for half a day and you are good to go again. Yes, just that simple.
Sure, some people might say…hey just don’t let the dogs on the couch. Then again, they probably aren’t ridgeback owners. Ridgebacks and couches are likes moths to a flame. But if you are a pro-snuggle with dogs on the couch kind of person you might consider this small investment (for your couch and your sanity).
Our model is a Craftsman 5 peak, 4 gallon, and we found ours at KMART. It was a good deal when we got it (not sure how much we paid), but it looks like you can pick one up online for about $80 bucks here.
Good luck, Happy Cleaning, and even Happier Snuggling.
The Stubborn Hound 
Well put, you might as well tell the sun not to rise as tell a Ridgeback to keep off the couch. I wisely purchased second hand leather couches so they’re fairly easy to clean. The real issue is my car, so I will definitely take the shop vac to that bad boy soon. Thanks for the tip.