Got ANIMAL hair??

While the holidays are still a few months away, it's best that you start thinking about what you need to do now to prepare your homes for company. Whether you're having out-of-town guests for a long period of time or just a party for a few hours, there's nothing more embarrassing than having a guest stand up from your couch only to find them covered in your dog or cat's hair.

If you've been searching for the best way to remove pet hair from their floors and upholstered furniture or need to replace your ineffective vac for something with a little more umph, I think I might just have the answer...

The DC34 Animal.

The Dyson DC34 Animal is the perfect handheld vacuum cleaner that has twice the suction power of any other handheld on the market. Powered by the new Dyson digital motor, it is ideal for pet-hair pick-up, tight hard to reach corners in furniture, inside your car and high dirt areas.

How it works: First you must charge it for about 3.5 hours to get the full run time out of it. That’s 15 minutes on normal power, or 6 minutes at ‘max’ power. Once it’s fully charged, you press and hold the red button and … use it like a vacuum cleaner. Because that’s what it is. The DC34 Animal comes with a button on the back that says ‘MAX’. Essentially it’s a booster button, giving you an extra bit o' suction… and noise. In my mind, the bigger the sound, the better it's working.

The first thing that strikes me about the handheld DC34 Animal is it's shape. It's unlike any other handheld vac I've ever seen. It kinda screams ‘I mean business’ and boy oh boy, does it!

What I like best is that it's small and convenient. You can store it in the kitchen cabinet or pantry without any problem. I'm all about the quick pick-up and the thought of having to lug around the heavier vac to pick up a little hair or dirt, makes me irritable. I also like that it's cordless which makes it easy to maneuver and use in your car. Like all Dysons you get to see the crap that gets picked up in the clear-containery-thingy (technical term) so that's always a good visual that your effort is actually doing something.

There are two downsides I see to this product: 1) The vacuuming time vs. charging time is well, a lot. For every minute you charge it, you only get 4.28 seconds of run time. But again, other whimpier handhelds don't have good battery longevity either. 2) It's a pretty penny at $350 (or $299 for the slightly less powerful DC34). But with the fastest, highest power density motor ever developed for a domestic appliance and up to 15 minutes of constant cleaning power, the units are hard-wearing and an excellent value if you can find room in the budget.