In the battle against dog hair, does the dog hair always win?
In my house, it certainly feels like it. So we’ve taken the battle to the streets. We’ve pitted hairy Honey the golden retriever against Kurgo’s Wander Hammock to see who’s more powerful—Honey or the Hammock.
In other words, if we cover the seat of our rental car with the Hammock, will it eliminate any stray dog hair? Or will Honey reign victorious once again and leave every surface of the car covered in golden fur?
I won’t keep you in suspense. Let’s roll the footage:
After years of covering all the car seats with sheets and still having to spend up to 45 minutes vacuuming the car before returning it to the rental place, I’m impressed with the Wander Hammock on several levels.
Adaptability
Because we don’t own a car, adaptability is key. We never know what kind of car we’re going to get until we show up at the rental place.
This time we ended up with a mini van that did not have a bench seat behind the driver. We stuffed a sleeping bag into the gap, draped another one over the entire seat to make an even surface, and installed the Hammock.
The Kurgo Hammocks provide alternatives depending on whether your headrests are removable or not. They also allow you to easily shift the position of the attachment points depending on the width of your seats. You can also keep one part of the hammock unattached so a human can share the seat with a dog, something that we’ve done many times.
I saw nothing about the Hammock that made me think it would be difficult to set up with a different model car. Of course, if you own a car, you’d set it up once and never have to adjust it again.
Idiot Proof
Nearly as important as adaptability—I always ask if a product is idiot proof. Because I’m an idiot.
Eagle-eyed viewers will notice I installed the Hammock upside down. Despite that, it did not hinder our use of the item.
Quality
Nothing bugs me more than items that are poorly made. One reason I’ve been a Kurgo customer for a while is that their products are well-constructed. And they come with a lifetime guarantee. If an item breaks you can return it to the company for repair or replacement.
The seams on the Hammock are neat and strong. The Hammock is washable but Kurgo recommends using a damp rag to clean it off. That’s what I did and it looks good.
Fear Factor
Honey loves riding in cars. But she’s a little hesitant about strange surfaces under her feet or feeling constrained. I wondered if she would take some coaxing to adapt to the Hammock.
No problem.
In fact, I had to hold her back from jumping right in.
And I thought Honey might be bothered by having her view of us hindered. But she eventually laid right down with no problem.
Safety
Some of the old sheets in our linen closet have holes in them. Why? So we could clip into the seat belts of the car.
They’re very handy places to get a foot or arm stuck and pretty soon they tear even more.
The Wander Hammock has three flaps that are shut with velcro. You can open them to gain access to the seat belts for restraining your dog.
Even if you don’t use a seat belt restraint, just keeping your dog in the back is a big boost to safety.
Dog Hair Containment
Did the Hammock contain every one of Honey’s stray hairs?
No. And I didn’t expect it to. As several commenters noted when I announced this challenge, golden hair just flies off her body the instant Honey hops into the car. Besides that, we carry quite a bit of it on our own clothing.
But it was a tremendous improvement over our normal method of putting sheets on the back and front seats of the rental car. That usually results in an athletic vacuuming session before returning the rental car.
After removing the Hammock, I found a few stray hairs on the back seats, some on the carpet near the door, and none on the front seat or the carpet behind the front seats. A quick swipe of the carpet with my lava rock dog hair remover
The Hammock Wins and So Do We
I’m thrilled to have found a solution to our whirlwind of dog hair in the rental car. The Hammock is a much better at containing dog hair than anything else we’ve used in the past.
You can buy your very own Hammock at Kurgo. (Just click the ad in the sidebar. Or order it from Amazon.)(affiliate)
Good luck.
Disclosures: Kurgo provided the Wander Hammock I reviewed and the prize I offered. My opinions are entirely my own. I only review products from companies I support. Some of the links are marked as affiliate links. That means that if you buy something after clicking the link, I will earn a small commission. Your item will not cost you more, however. Thank you for supporting Something Wagging.
Don’t Feel Bad About Feeling Bad – Good for the Dog; Good for You
We don’t have a system to manage dog hair in my car. We usually just vacuum it about once a month
My mom uses one of those for her shepherds and she loves it too. 🙂
We use crates, so I’m not going to enter…but I bet whoever wins it is going to love it.
Do the crates actually keep dog hair down, Donna?
Because our car share program has said you can transport a dog in a crate if it contains all the dog hair. When I’ve transported foster dogs in closed crates, however, I still have to clean up dog hair before returning the car.
We use the enclosed plastic crates, and it seems to contain quite a bit of dog hair. I do have to wipe them out regularly. I wouldn’t say they contain all of it, since we do have to remove dog hair from the vehicles from time to time. But since, for the most part, we keep the crates in them all the time, I don’t know just how much escapes after each use. What we find on the rare occasion that we remove them could just be from accumulation over time. (Sorry I couldn’t be of better help)
We like our hammock. It keeps most of the hair off the back seat, and it’s tons easier to clean.
Yeah, I’m usually a fan of less vacuuming. And I’m also big on using tools that don’t require electricity compared to those that do.
Glad to hear the hammock works for Torrey and Roxy.
We have a hammock in the car and it’s fab, keeps the car (relatively) hair and mud free:-)
Dog hair is a fact of life. Hertz (insert other rental names here…..) can just learn to live with it 😉
Yep, Taryn, or they can flag our credit card number so alarms go off every time we walk into the airport to rent a car. 🙂
This is just a thought from one with low shedding dogs. But couldn’t you just become Preferred Customers at the car rental and always get the car with the gold upholstery?
Bwa ha ha! Yeah, we can’t even get the compact car we reserved. That’s why there was a mini van in the review.
Besides, the first time someone sat on the gold upholstery after we returned it they’d find all the “gold” coming off on their pants. 🙂
I don’t contain it. My vehicle is viewed (by me) as a cargo vehicle. I throw stuff in it, leave stuff in it and when it really needs a good douching, I give it one. Otherwise, I just accept dog hair. 🙂
Yeah, that was basically our attitude when we owned the Subaru. If a human needed to read in the back seat, then we covered the seat with sheets.
On the other hand, as a one-car household, it was awful when we wanted to go somewhere looking nice and were utterly covered in dog hair.
I find that many S’Waggers have two cars–one for the dogs and one for dress up. 🙂
We don’t really need one for hair but it would be nice to have around to keep muddy paws off the seats which happens often with our rainy weather.
You are so smart. I forgot to mention that entirely in my review.
Here in the snow belt, we don’t have spring. We have “mud.” And the hammock did a great job protecting the car from muddy paws.
We have that hammock and we LOVE it. It even stood up to a puppy accident. It’s an amazing product!
Good save. I don’t want to think of what it would be like to drive a car smelling of puppy pee.
I also liked the waterproof feature. It meant I could leave a water bowl on the seat for Honey when we stopped without worrying about having a big mess.
We usually put a blanket over the seat.
I love your video. I could have used that hammock when Ike decided to barf on my son’s brand new car’s leather seats!
A hammock to save the rental car – genius!
We’ve only travelled in a rental car with Moses and/or Alma a couple of short times, but this is something to keep in mind for the next time! Given the amount of time we clean up a hotel room before checking out with them, I can imagine we’d be as diligent with a car, and this would help a lot.
I’m still not sure how to save husband’s truck. It’s the first vehicle we’ve had in ages that didn’t have leather seats b/c of the dogs. Before now, I’ve only had to worry about the carpeting getting messed up. Now it’s crazy with the way Barkly sheds. However, we HAVE used several blankets in the past for rental cars when we’ve been out on the road in KS to see youngest son & didn’t want to haul a vehicle behind the RV during tornado season~~But blankets don’t seem to want to stay on the seat in his truck.
I have a smart car. There is no back seat and no room for a hammock.
I want one of these in the WORST way! Right now, we use a cheap seat cover, but it doesn’t stay in place well and is so slippery that they’re always sliding off it. I think these hammocks look so darned cool!
We don’t, other than vacuuming when it needs it. I’ve been wanting something to keep the dogs safer when traveling too (out of the front seat), so if we don’t win this, we will be ordering this or something else from Kurgo!
We are owned by four dogs. (Westie, Westie/Yorkie Mix/Maltese and a Scottie) The Kurgo Hammock sounds like it would be perfect for protecting the upholstery in the back seat of our car. The Maltese does shed and four dogs means 16 dirty paws.
Not an issue for us! Nola hardly sheds.
DM
We vacuum the car out or I will you a sticky roller
Lots of vacuuming! Thanks for the giveaway!
Sissy has her own car booster seat with a cover, so it is not so bad. The muddy paw prints are another story.
We’ve given up on managing dog hair for the most part. I vacuum whenever I visit my parents and have access to their shop vac (and good weather to be outside for a LONG time) and then lint roll for the really persistent hairs.
Not very well, I’m afraid. We cover the backseat with a sheet- I haven’t been able to find a seat cover that will attach without headrests. But the sheet moves around a lot, so frequent vacuuming is still required. Hopefully getting a new car soon, so would love to try this seat cover in it!
i dont really have a problem with dog hair, my dogs dont shed, have mini schnauzers.
We try to manage the dog hair in the car by using blankets. We have to use at least two blankets for the length of the seat and they don’t stay in place all the time. We have nothing protecting the back part of the seat because nothing will stay up. With 7 dogs we change the blankets often and vacuum to try and keep on top of all that dog hair.
We just deal with and vacuum when needed. I deal with it all over my house, so why not the car!
I vacuum it, but other than a towel on the seat I don’t have any other way to control it.
I love kurgo products!!!!
We have a kurgo zip line for the car which is fantastic!
We love our Kurgo harnesses for the dogs!
Have been wanting one of these for my own two as well as the shelter pups that end up in my car. Will finally make me clean my car and have it presentable!
Put a blanket on the seat or borrow our Daughters Kurgo Hammock and hope she does not miss it
Blankets, vacuum, damp cloths but nothing gets it all with our 130lb boy and 55lb girl!
my dog sits in the front seat, her seat, and the seat has the Kurgo Co-pilot cover on it
We have a vinyl seat cover that my in laws gave us. Honestly, I use it more to keep doggie vomit off my seats than dog hair. Bailey gets car sick and if it’s been a long time since she’s been in the car she’ll likely throw up. What I like about this hammock is the front part. I always feel like Bailey is going to fly in between the seats even though she’s strapped in. Like a crazy dog momma I throw my arm back there every time I stop short.
Wow, this would be awesome! I have three dogs that go camping with us and thus they take over the back seat during trips. Three dogs isn’t the issue – the Great Pyrenees / Golden Retriever mix is the issue! This would rock!
Dog hair is a given in our house, our motor home, and our vehicles. Currently we have a seat protector blanket we use in the car or truck but it only does a so-so job. I would love to give the hammock a try.
I normally just cover my car seats with towels or a blanket when my dogs are in the car. This looks like a much better solution.
I have two pugs that are frequently in the car for trips to the dog park, vet, pet shops, etc… They shed more than any animal I know of.. let’s just say there’s lots if lint rollers & vacuuming of EVERYTHING!!!!
Not a bad idea at all when you own a Siberian Husky like me.. I bet no other breed sheds more than mine. Definitely going to give this a try.