Dog + Dyson = Da Big Stinky

I adore my sweet dog.  She is 80 pounds of gentle playfulness - she sings, she sneezes on command and her Samoyed smile melts your heart.  She's also 80 pounds of beautiful white fur.  We keep her coat trimmed because she is an indoor dog, venturing outdoors only for a little R&R or to hang out with us when we're working around the yard.  But even trimmed, she sheds like nobody's business, as does the resident longhaired Mainecoon cat named - appropriately - Luci (short for Lucifer.)  Notice I'm not singing Luci's virtues...in fact, you can probably hear the crickets chirping in the deafening silence.

Little dog is not so little any more...

Anyhoo, I am the proud owner of a Dyson DC24, which slurps up everything it finds on our hard floors and area rugs.  (With the two resident beasts and the visits from "little dog" Sadie-the-grandpuppy, carpeting would be completely inbearable.)

Before the Dyson, I went through a series of cheap little stick vacs - not as powerful, but lightweight, easy to use and did an admirable job on the hard flooring.  When the most recent one died, and I finally broke over and got the vacuum of my dreams...or so I thought.

Let me preface this by saying I'm no stranger to the concept of cleaning the vacuum; in fact, I think the producers of Friends could have shot this vacuum-the-vacuum scene at my house.

The one major drawback to the Dyson is the difficulty in getting rid of the pet hair smell in between vacuumings - and it goes stale faster than an open bag of Lay's chips at the beach.  I thought it was just me, but after some Googling, I know I'm not alone in having problems with odor in my Dyson.  And when I say odor, I don't mean a little aroma - it's a hold-your-breath-or-you'll-gag kind of stench.  Vacuuming necessitates a second pass through the house with Febreeze or Oust spray, and even then I'm doing the "sniff sniff" test for hours afterward, certain I can still smell the telltale odor of pet hair.

After scouring the web for commiseration, tips and tricks, my next attempt to curb this problem involves a can of pressurized air to clean the cyclone chamber, and then a scented dryer sheet tucked into the dirt canister, after I take it apart and meticulously clean and wash all the filters and the plastic canister of course.    I love my dog, I love my Dyson, I love my dog, I love my Dyson...

Happy vacuuming,