As I try to figure out what today’s topic will be, here’s a repost from March 23, 2012. I am reposting this because it was a very popular post for years and got 26 comments. Sometimes, I’m amazed by what topics people think are interesting. Some of my most mundane blog posts get thousands of views, while the ones I think are especially interesting get ten hits. Go figure. I am reposting this as/is, so pretend it’s 2012.

I’ve had dogs for a good portion of my life.  I’ve also always loved to go barefoot.  Somehow, despite these two truths, it wasn’t until recently that I experienced my first “dog hair splinter”.  In the last two days alone, I’ve had two of them.  I walk around on the bare floor and suddenly feel a sharp pain in my foot, almost like I’ve stepped on a glass shard.  I sit down and look at the sole of my foot.  There it is.  A long white dog hair.  I pull on it and out it comes.  Instant relief!  Isn’t it odd that stepping on something as innocuous as a hair can hurt so much?

I wondered if I was the only one who ever experienced this phenomenon.  I did an Internet search and, lo and behold, there were several Yahoo! Answers and messageboard posts about people who had gotten dog hairs stuck in their bare feet.  Apparently, it’s an occupational hazard for people who groom dogs professionally.  The risk of a nasty dog hair splinter is a good reason to avoid wearing sandals while washing canines.

It’s hard to believe I lived so many years without ever bearing the pain of a hair so sharp it sticks in the tough, callused, soles of my feet.  You learn something new every day, I guess…

Who knew this little cutie pie could hurt me so much with just one hair? I should mention that Zane is the only one of my dogs whose hair ever got lodged in my feet.

And here are the original comments!

26 comments:

1. Ms Read’s ClassDecember 14, 2013 at 1:48 AM I have had a black lab and now have 2 Chesapeake Bay Retrievers. It happens more than once a day. Very painful. 
   1. knottyDecember 14, 2013 at 2:10 AM Funny because I have had dogs most of my life and that was the first time. It’s happened more times since then and I get a lot of hits on this blog from people looking for info on dog hair splinters!
   2. Bad DogNovember 20, 2015 at 5:57 PM Happens to me all the time, never happened to my husband, he’s seen me tweeze them out so he knows it’s true, but he said he’d never heard of it happening before and blames my weird dog (black lab velcro dog) who he’s always claimed is an alien pretending to be a dog lol he says she’s trying to get a tracker in me so she knows where I am at all times. Who knows? He has got a PhD so he might be right 🙂
2. UnknownFebruary 23, 2014 at 2:19 AM I too suffer from these painful hairs. I’ve got 4 Boxers and I get them every now and again. I just had one that I coukdn’t locate until I started to dig and there it was, tucked all the way into the skin…it was there for 3 days, I just couldn’t find till now. Nice little hole I now have in my sole. So relieved I’m not the only one this happens to, because my family thinks I’m nuts! 🙂
   1. knottyFebruary 23, 2014 at 3:12 PM Oh yeah. I think it’s one of those things you don’t believe until it happens to you.
3. AodhnaitFebruary 26, 2014 at 11:22 PM Never realised this could happen!
4. UnknownJuly 8, 2014 at 6:46 AM I thought I was the only one 2. I just pray that they don’t get stuck in my foot. 
5. My Psychic SolutionsAugust 25, 2014 at 4:45 AM The ball of my foot is swollen even after removing the hair yesterday. Painful as can be… I’m going to sound like a freak calling the dr… My sweet puppy is a Pit-lab mix pure white. 
6. UnknownDecember 22, 2014 at 7:15 PM Omg! I’m so glad I seen this! I thought I was the only one! Haha. And my family thought I was crazy when I told them about it. My boyfriend asked if I was sure it wasn’t a piece of my own hair. I said nope! It was a coarse white piece of dog hair stuck in my foot! And it began to get infected, I had to pull it out and clean it up with some rubbing alcohol. Blah!
7. Wild ChildJune 14, 2015 at 5:52 AM I’m so glad you posted this! Now I don’t feel like such a weirdo and thinking this only happens to me! 
   1. knottyJune 15, 2015 at 6:50 AM Since I wrote this, it’s happened a few more times. I get a lot of hits on this post. It’s evidently a very common problem that no one ever talks about.
8. UnknownSeptember 5, 2015 at 12:49 PM I just dug a hair from our dog out of my husbands foot. I’m not sure how long it was in his foot but it was infected. Once I finally got the skin open pus came out. One little black dog hair was sitting there. My husband is a diabetic and the hair created a 2or3 cm deep hole in his foot. 
   1. knottySeptember 5, 2015 at 8:00 PMThat sounds awful! I’m glad you were able to get the hair out. Hope your husband’s okay.
9. AlexisAROctober 27, 2015 at 4:28 AM i almost never go barefoot and don’t even wear sandals except to get in the pool, so I’ve never experiences the phenomenon. Our dogs are golden retrievers, although we don’t know how pure their bloodlines are since they were pound puppies. I don’t know if golden retriever hairs hurt more or less than other dogs’ hair.
   1. knottyOctober 27, 2015 at 7:45 AM I am barefoot all the time. This has only happened to me a couple of times. I am shocked by how many people find this blog because of this post. I had no idea it was such a prevalent problem.
   2. MPavsweetNovember 8, 2015 at 8:21 AM I went to work tonight and after my shift I felt like a had glass in my foot. Got home found I had a black pinprick spot on my foot, had to use tweezers to get it out. oMG it hurt like hell. It was so long too! It was all curled up in there. 😭 
   3. knottyNovember 8, 2015 at 5:11 PM Ouch!
10. UnknownNovember 16, 2015 at 3:59 PM My husband doesn’t believe me when I tell him about this happening. Growing up, we had a Boxer and my mom and I were constantly getting hair splinters! Now my husband and I have a sweet Catahula baby and it has happened twice to me. He never goes barefoot, so he has no idea of the pain.
11. herald manJune 5, 2016 at 9:30 PM I have got a yellow labrador and twice i have had a course hair go into my foot,once into my heel this one went straight in and felt like i was treading on a needle when i walked,had a look and was amazed when i saw it there,the next one went in under my little toe and hurt like a paper cut does it was there for a fortnight until i got my wife to look and she dug it out with a needle then pulled the 3cm hair out with tweezers it was totally in the skin .
12. UnknownSeptember 19, 2016 at 12:25 PM this has happened to me also and I couldn’t understand it. WTF, I have my Dog’s hair trying to grow into my foot, unbelievable! At least now I know that I’m not the only one, thank you everyone!
13. NTDecember 13, 2016 at 5:55 PM This happened to me this morning!! So awful. This is my first dog. He is a half chihuhua, half Jack Russel. So cute! So smart. But I had a stabbing pain in my foot. I finally looked, and there was a 1.5 cm white hair stuck in my foot like a needle. I pulled it out. Now I am scared, my husband is a type one diabetic, this can’t happen to him. Worried! The pup isn’t even a year old. I bathed him yesterday, I guess I really mussed up the fur. 🙁 🙁 🙁
14. NTDecember 13, 2016 at 6:08 PM Does anyone have advice? How do I prevent this from happening again? I bathed the dog yesterday. It’s freezing outside, so I was towel drying him indoors. I was roughing up his fur. What do I do? My foot still hurts. I can handle this but this could permanently hurt my husband. Advice? Help?
15. UnknownJuly 23, 2017 at 1:37 AM HAHA! Same thing happened to me today. Had to google it to make sure I wasn’t crazy. My pup actually looks a lot like yours! 
    1. knottyJuly 23, 2017 at 7:10 AM It happened to my husband the other day for the first time. It amazes me how many people have this happen and show up on my blog.
    2. UnknownMarch 22, 2018 at 2:45 AM I have had one be there just thetiotand pull it out.. however recently I felt a sharp pain n looked didn’t see anything wasn’t hurting so I went on about my day and now a weeklaterwmy foots all swollen and it feels as if I have a splinter it’s very painful butitsbu actually imbedded itself in my foot.everyone in my family picks on me neverhavinev heard of such a thing.
16. KateFebruary 5, 2019 at 9:23 AM Great post!