Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy something through my links I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. All opinions are my own and honestly a little traumatized from the amount of fur I have dealt with in this house.
Let me tell you about the day I vacuumed my German Shepherd.
Not the floor after grooming her. The actual dog. With an actual vacuum attachment designed specifically for that purpose. And she just… stood there and let it happen. Looking slightly annoyed but ultimately unbothered, like a small furry queen who had decided to allow this.
If you had told me a year ago that I would be grooming my dog with a vacuum and that she would tolerate it, I would have laughed at you. This is the same dog who once ran from the room because I sneezed too loud. The same dog who treats the sound of a plastic bag like a level five threat. Standing still for a vacuum attachment was not something I had on my bingo card.
But here we are. And I need to tell you about it.
For context: I have two English Bulldogs and a German Shepherd. The Bulldogs shed a normal amount. The Shepherd sheds enough to re-stuff a couch cushion on a weekly basis. This is not an exaggeration.
The Grooming Situation Before This
…and the grooming vac I used!
Here is what grooming my Shepherd used to look like. I would take her outside, brush her, watch a small fur tornado form around us, come back inside, and then spend the next twenty minutes vacuuming the trail of fur that somehow followed us back through the door anyway. The fur was in the air. It was on my clothes. It was on the dogs who weren’t even being groomed. It was a whole event.
And grooming appointments — don’t get me started. I love a professional groomer, I really do, but taking three dogs to a grooming salon on any kind of regular schedule requires a level of logistical coordination I do not currently have. We’re talking scheduling, transporting, paying, the whole thing. For three dogs. Multiple times a year.
So I was brushing her myself and then cleaning up afterward and it felt like I was just moving the fur from one place to another rather than actually removing it from my life. Which, I came to realize, is exactly what I was doing.
How I Found the Grooming Vac and Was Immediately Suspicious
I found it the way I find most things — at ten thirty at night, falling down an Amazon rabbit hole, telling myself I was just looking.
A grooming vacuum. The concept is that you groom your dog and the vacuum captures the fur directly instead of letting it fly everywhere. The brush or attachment connects to a hose that connects to the machine, and the fur goes straight into a bin. In theory, elegant. In practice, I assumed it would either terrify my dogs or just not work that well.
I ordered it anyway because I was desperate and it had good reviews and also it was ten thirty at night and my judgment was compromised.
The kit that showed up — the PG100 Plus specifically — comes with eight tools. Eight. An electric clipper, a grooming brush, a deshedding brush, a crevice tool, a cleaning brush, a pet paw trimmer, and a nail grinder. Which, honestly, the nail grinder alone is notable because dog nail maintenance is its own whole stressful chapter in the dog mom experience and I will get to that.
Introducing Three Dogs to a Vacuum Attachment (A Comedy in Three Acts)
Act one: The Bulldogs.
I turned the machine on and both Bulldogs looked up from the couch, assessed the situation, determined it was not food and not a threat, and went back to sleep. That was it. That was their entire reaction. I could have vacuumed them directly and I think they would have just accepted it as part of the day. They are very easy and I appreciate them for it.
Act two: The German Shepherd, session one.
She let me brush her with the attachment but kept turning around to look at the machine with the expression of someone who is pretty sure something suspicious is happening but can’t prove it yet. She tolerated the whole session but was very pointed about letting me know she was doing me a favor.
Act three: The German Shepherd, by session four.
Completely over it. Stands there. Lets it happen. Occasionally sighs in a way that feels performative. We have reached an understanding.
The adjustment period is real but it goes faster than you’d think. The key is keeping the first few sessions short and letting them sniff the machine while it’s off first. Basic stuff but it actually works.
The nail grinder was a separate adjustment process entirely and I won’t sugarcoat it — the first attempt was chaotic. But we got there. And not having to make a separate trip to the groomer just for nail trims is genuinely worth the two weeks of convincing it took.
What Actually Happens When You Use It
The first time I used the deshedding attachment on my Shepherd and then opened the bin I genuinely stopped and looked at it for a moment. The amount of fur in there was significant. Not ‘oh that’s a lot’ significant — I mean I showed my husband and his exact words were ‘that came out of the dog?’
It came out of the dog. It was going to come out of the dog regardless. The difference is that it came out of the dog directly into a sealed bin instead of into the air, onto the floor, into my lungs, and distributed evenly across every soft surface in our home.
That is the part that changed things for me. It is not that the shedding stopped — the shedding did not stop, the shedding will never stop, I have made peace with that. It’s that the shedding now has somewhere to go that is not my house.
The 2L bin is large enough to get through a full grooming session on my Shepherd without stopping to empty it. If you’ve ever dealt with a smaller grooming vacuum where you’re stopping every five minutes to clear a clog or empty a tiny container, you understand why bin size matters. The suction is 12,000Pa which is strong enough that I don’t feel like I’m working against the machine — it pulls the loose fur out during brushing rather than just catching what falls.
I also use the electric clipper for paw fur trimming, which used to require either a very steady hand with scissors or a grooming appointment. The paw trimmer attachment makes it actually manageable at home. My Bulldogs get this done every few weeks now and it takes maybe ten minutes total for both of them.
The Honest Part Where I Tell You What It Doesn’t Do
It is not a replacement for your regular vacuum. I want to be clear about that because I think it’s easy to assume that grooming the dog with a vacuum means your floors are covered. They’re not. You still need to vacuum the floors. But here’s what changes — you need to do it less. Because you’re capturing fur at the source during grooming, significantly less of it ends up on your floors to begin with.
Nervous dogs need time. My Shepherd needed four sessions before she was fully comfortable. If your dog is anxious or reactive, don’t expect them to love it on day one. Give it a few weeks of short sessions.
And the nail grinder — it works, but dogs have opinions about nail grinding and those opinions are mostly negative until they’re not. Budget some adjustment time there too.
My honest summary: it does not solve the fact that I have three dogs and one of them is a German Shepherd. Nothing will solve that. What it does is make the fur situation manageable instead of constant, and at this point manageable is everything.
So Would I Buy It Again
Yes. Already have — I bought a second one to keep downstairs so I’m not lugging it between floors. Make of that what you will.
If you have a heavy shedder and you’re spending more time cleaning up after grooming than actually grooming, this is the thing that breaks that cycle. The whole point is to stop the fur before it becomes a whole-house problem and it does that job well.
If you want to check it out, I’ll link it below. The PG100 Plus is the one I use — it’s the version with all eight tools including the nail grinder and paw trimmer, which is worth having if you’re trying to do as much grooming at home as possible.
And if you’ve tried a grooming vacuum and have thoughts — good, bad, ‘my dog absolutely lost it and we never recovered’ — drop it in the comments. I want to hear everything.
P.S. — I keep my full Amazon dog supply list updated with everything I recommend. If you found this post helpful, that list is your next stop. →Amazon Pet Must Haves
— Jessica 🐾
This post contains affiliate links. Read my full disclosure policy here.