Dog wool

Has anyone ever used the dog hair from their undercoat for wool? I've heard it's even warmer than angora, so people generally have to mix it. I have a ton of dogs (16 at the moment) and I'm looking for something to do with the ridiculous amount of hair we collect!

+I remember seeing some on the TV when I was a kid in the 70's 60's seemed to look ok as I remember .

David

It was actually on this forum that I first heard of the Salish wool dogs. I'm trying to find the particular thread, but this one mentions a modern company using dog wool, and some of the details involved in working with it. https://permies.com/t/45724/natural-fibers-materials/Dog-hair-fibers-chiengora

Haven't seen this thread before but felt I had to respond.  Dog wool spins up beautifully and if you have different colored dogs, you get different colored yarn.  I spun up some beautiful cream and grey and white yarn and knit a beautiful scarf from it.  It was very warm and I gave it to my X for a holiday gift.  He was very allergic to dogs, but after it was washed and blocked, it did not seem to cause any problems.

I think a friend who publishes Wild Fiber magazine, and is a dog lover, told me that the only problem with dog wool is that it never completely loses that Wet Dog smell.

I know someone who tried wearing a shirt made of dog wool.  The report was it smelled like wet dog whenever it got wet but okay when dry.

Dog fibre is very interesting.  On the West Coast of Canada, the local first nations people had a specific breed of dog they kept just for the fibre.  (note, 'wool' in textiles refers to fluffy stuff from sheep, all other animals make 'fibre' except the American ones who make 'fiber')

Some European traditions had dogs that were as fluffy as sheep.  They are usually heard protection animals like the komondor.  These guys are huge!  When my friend shears her sheep, she also shears her komondor dogs and treats the dog fibre just like she does wool.  

Dog fibre can be very soft, especially if one is just using the undercoat.  It's surprisingly popular around these parts and I know several spinners who process it.  But a great deal more who won't go near the stuff.

I suspect the dog smell is dependent a lot on the dog's diet.  Sometimes the fibre stinks of dog, other don't.  The fibre that doesn't smell when wet seem to be from dogs who eat homemade food and not a commercial diet.  

I would assume Samoyeds would be a good chiengora breed since they have very thick, fluffy, white coats and they have to be brushed at least every other day. If I were to get a new dog, I would probably get a Samoyed.

I used to have a hat made out of poodle hair.  It was just the hair, not undercoat, poodles hair keeps growing and must be cut.  So I felted it, made a felted wool hat out of it, it felted way easier and better than sheeps wool.  But, it did smell like wet dog when it got wet.  I wore it around the property to keep warm for many years