As you can see in our profiles, Allen and I live in Mississippi. It gets REALLY hot here in the summer and as Callie is a mix of two cold climate type breeds, we wanted to be sure we could keep her as cool as possible--which obviously involves getting rid of any extra hair. So I set off on a quest to research the perfect grooming tool. What I came up with was the Furminator. Seriously. You've got to check out the video on this thing. It's astonishing how much hair this thing removes. The best price I found was on Amazon. Went ahead and ordered the 4 inch one since she's going to be a big girl. Our border mix Daisy, who doesn't shed much, still gave off quite a big chunk of hair when I used it on her. I think it will be a saving grace! (end shameless plug)