If you are drawn to the adorable looks and conveniently small size of a Puggle and want a dog with a short coat that you don’t have to maintain, you may be considering launching into Puggle ownership.
If you don’t like a lot of hair in your house, you may want to think twice about the Puggle. Here’s what you need to know about Puggle shedding.
Do Puggles shed a lot? Puggles won’t leave as much hair in your home or on your clothes as some breeds, like Huskies, but they do shed a fair amount. Shedding is intensified in the spring but is moderate year-round. Luckily, Puggles shed short hair that is relatively easy to clean.
Understanding your particular Puggle’s shedding habits will depend on how much your Puggle takes after their pug or beagle parents.
Here’s what you need to understand about how much pugs and beagles shed and what to expect from your Puggle shedding, as well as some tips for dealing with all of this hair.
Puggle Shedding Habits
In order to understand how much your Puggle will shed, it can be helpful to appreciate how much shedding can be expected from each of the parent breeds. By understanding how much the parent breed’s shed, you can gauge your Puggle’s coat and get a good idea of how much shedding you can expect.
Pug shedding habits
Puggles have a short, glossy coat with you may assume does not shed profusely, based on his appearance. In fact, this short coat does shed quite a bit. This is part of how the coat maintains its glossy and attractive appearance. The AKC judges pug shedding much closer to the frequent side than infrequent. Pug owners find that shedding is more intense in the spring and fall.
Beagle shedding habits
Beagles have a dense double coat that is short and smooth. They don’t shed as frequently as the pug, but they do shed quite heavily during the spring. They also shed somewhat throughout the year.
Puggle shedding habits
Based on the shedding tendencies of both of their parents, you can expect your Puggle to shed anywhere from moderately to quite a lot. Shedding is nearly guaranteed to be increased in the spring and may increase somewhat in the fall as well.
Throughout the year your Puggle will need to be brushed regularly in order to keep as much dead hair as possible from falling onto you or your furniture. Regardless of how much your brush you Puggle, cleaning up after your Puggle’s coat will certainly be part of your cleaning routine.
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Tips for managing Puggle shedding
Thankfully, the hair that Puggles shed is not as difficult to deal with as some other hair. The short, glossy hairs are not prone to sticking to things like the wooly undercoat of some breeds. The hair also isn’t so short as to stick between the fibers of fabric and be difficult to pick up.
Rather, they tend to lay on surfaces. You’re likely to find most of your Puggle’s hair on the floor or on the cushions of your couch.
Cleaning Puggle hair off of yourself
You can usually brush Puggle hair off of you easily, and it will come off easily with a lint roller. As long as you keep up on brushing your Puggle regularly, they are unlikely to shed profusely on you. Most hair will be dropped on the floor.
Cleaning hair off of your furniture
Puggle hair is not particularly difficult to remove from your furniture. You can use a lint roller, but it might get expensive to repeatedly clean off surfaces your Puggle uses a lot.
A reusable hair lifting sponge can remove hair from your couch, upholstery, drapes, bedding, and any other furniture. It is used dry but can be washed and used over and over again.
Vacuum attachments can also be useful for getting Puggle hair off of your furniture, especially deep in the cracks where it can be difficult to get a hair removal sponge or lint roller.
This vacuum is highly recommended for keeping furniture and floors pet hair free.
Cleaning hair off of your floor
The majority of the hair that your Puggle will leave about your house will be on the floor. This is where your dog is likely to shake, scratch, and move around boisterously and therefore drop hair.
Because the hair doesn’t tend to stick easily to things, it will easily be brushed off of other surfaces and end up on the floor. Hair is more likely to end up on your furniture, draperies, etc. when you pick it up on your feet or socks and track it places.
The best way to clean Puggle hair off of your floor is to vacuum regularly. Vacuuming is the best way to catch the hair instead of just pushing it around, as brooms tend to do.
If you don’t like the idea of having to vacuum every day or a couple times a day in order to keep pet hair off of your floor and furniture, you may want to invest in an automatic vacuum. These tend to work very well on the light, easy to pick up Puggle hair.
Are Puggles hypoallergenic?
There is no such thing as a truly hypoallergenic dog. People who are allergic to dogs are allergic to dander and saliva. The dander and saliva end up in the coat and cause allergies. Dogs who are touted as being hypoallergenic don’t shed or are hairless, so less hair drops to the ground and spreads dander and saliva into the environment.
Therefore, allergy sufferers may be able to live with a dog who does not drop hair without suffering as significant or any symptoms. Extended exposure to the dog’s coat or being licked will still trigger a reaction, regardless of the breed.
With this in mind, it is clear that the Puggle is not one of the more hypoallergenic dog breeds that you can find. Because Puggles shed frequently and relatively profusely, they will shed a lot of dander and saliva throughout your home and very likely cause an allergic reaction. Puggles have going for them that they are at least small, and so drop less hair than a larger dog.
Frequent bathing can help reduce allergies, but Pugglesvshould not be bathed too frequently, as too much bathing can dry out their coat. Instead, wipe your Puggle down with a damp cloth or a cleansing towelette made for dogs several times a day to eliminate allergens on their skin continuously.
Grooming Needs of a Puggle
Puggles do not have complex grooming needs and their grooming routine shouldn’t take up too much time, but there are some particular considerations for the Puggle that you should be aware of.
Coat
The Puggle’s short, sleek coats are easy to care for. They do not need to be trimmed and should never be shaved. Daily brushing will reduce your Puggle’s shedding, but dogs don’t need to be brushed more than once a week or so and washed about once a month.
Wrinkles
If your Puggle has inherited the adorable wrinkles of their pug ancestry, it is important to provide special care for those areas. The hair between the wrinkles can rub and irritate the skin, and dirt and oil tend to build up within the wrinkles.
Use a damp cloth or a wet wipe made for dogs to wipe in between your Puggle’s wrinkles and watch for irritation. Applying wrinkle balm (this stuff is awesome) helps keep soothe and prevent irritation in these areas.
Nails
Puggles tend to have hard, black nails that need to be trimmed relatively frequently. It is best to use a Dremel tool rather than clippers so that you do not split the nail or accidentally hit the quick. Nails should be trimmed so that they barely make contact or make no contact at all with the ground as the dog walks.
Teeth
The short face of a pug means that lots of teeth are fit into a relatively small space so that they often don’t line up properly. If your Puggle has a short snout, the same is likely true for them.
Taking care of your short-snouted Puggle’s teeth is especially important since they do not naturally get clean while your dog chews as easily as teeth that line up properly.
You should brush your dog’s teeth regularly, so it is important to train them to accept having their teeth brushed as puppies. Since Puggles tend to be so food motivated, a toothpaste that tastes very good to your dog can be a wonderful training aid.
Ears
The flopped ears of a Puggle tends to trap moisture that can lead to ear infections. It is very important that you clean your Puggle’s ears regularly and that you bring them to the vet for treatment at the first sign of an ear infection.
This ear cleaner is my favorite! It can be used regularly to clean ears and prevent painful infections.
It is also important to avoid getting water in the ears when you give your Puggle a bath, as water can easily get trapped and instigate an ear infection
Related Questions
What are Puggle coats like?
A Puggle’s coat is short but not extremely short. The hair is glossy and soft, neither harsh nor wooly. The hair often has a change in color within each hair follicle, such as is commonly seen in beagles.
Puggles come in a wide range of colors and they may show beagle markings or have no markings at all.
What can I do to make my Puggle shed less?
Unfortunately, there is really nothing that you can do to make your Puggle shed less. A diet rich in healthy oils like omega-3 and 6 can protect your dog’s coat and help it to grow strong and lustrous.
Regular brushing can shed hair where it is convenient for you instead of all over your house, but there’s nothing that you can do to reduce overall shedding.
Image Credit: Frank Shepherd
