I have hardwood floors and a dog that sheds like crazy twice a year. After breaking many vacs with clogged dog hair, I purchased a shop vac from Lowes - the little one. This is not a fancy vacuum, but I spent about$40 on the vac and attachments. There are no bags, a paperish filter attaches with w rubber band kind of thing. This thing sucks up dust and hair like a champ. When I first bought it eight years ago, I thought I'd replace it when I had more money; instead, I've kept it, and it still works with no problems.

If you're looking for a vacuum that works well for wood floors and won't break the bank, I can highly recommend this vacuum.

ae2ga - can you share the make, model, etc of the shop vac, please. I need something desperately...I have 3 shedders!

The vacuum is a Lowes Wet Dry Shop Vac 2.5 gallon. One side vacuums; the other is a blower (great for drying the beast after a bath (but I clean the filter first which means dumping the canister and shaking out the filter - takes about two minutes. When I bought it, the price was $25 and attachments were $5 a piece. This is really super basic - what one would use in the garage for cleaning, but it works great for my wood floors, and the price was perfect. I know Lowe's still carries them because my youngest daughter bought one for her dorm room about six months ago. There are larger sizes, but I got the smallest one.

thank you for the info ae2ga!

Finally went for a Miele canister,suction only. The model is called "Quartz." Using it for the first time today, and am very pleased with. More than I wanted to spend, but I like the performance so far.

NCnewbie2012 - WOW! I bet you will love it. That is way out of my budget but would love to happen something like that.