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Watch videos from Paw Nation Brief Grasp, Flickr Amy D. Shojai is a certified animal behavior consultant and the award-winning author of 23 pet care books, including "Complete Care for Your Aging Dog" and "Complete Care for Your Aging Cat." Shedding may be a big hairy deal, but it is normal. Floating fur increases the challenge of keeping just-washed apparel a Fido-free zone. Unless you're a passionate pet lover who considers pet hair to be a condiment, understanding how to tame the hairy mess will keep your pet's coat and skin healthy and simplify housecleaning. Why Pets Shed It's not the temperature that prompts shedding. Light exposure, either to sun or artificial light, ...

Wicked Cat, Flickr Cats are meticulous creatures but that doesn't mean your pet can't use help in keeping up its coat. Certain long haired breeds -- such as the Persian, Himalayan, Maine coon, for example -- are especially vulnerable to mats and need to be groomed daily. If you fall behind, your cat can develop knots in its fur that not only detract from the animal's natural beauty but can also be painful to the cat. The Right Grooming Tools Make a Difference According to B.J. Fox, a prominent breeder of Persians and Himalayans in Greenbriar, Ark., one should use a professional steel comb on long matted hair, not a brush. Fox, who worked for many years as a pet groomer, prefers using a ...

Hi. How come your hair's so short? Photo: star5112/Flickr Short, long, straight, curly, wiry, smooth or extra fluffy -- dog hair comes in a lint-brush-busting variety of lengths and textures. Now, researchers at the National Human Genome Institute have discovered that almost all the variation in dog fur comes from just three genes, as NPR reports. Elaine A. Ostrander, chief of the Institute's cancer genetics branch, studied the DNA of more than 1,000 dogs, representing about 90 different breeds, according to NPR. "You can go to the dog park, and every breed of dog looks different from every other breed, it seems. Yet, you know, when we get down to the molecular biology, we really find ...