Dyson Groom lets you hoover your hound

If you really like to pamper your pooch, then it's time to hoover your hound. The Dyson Groom tool is a vacuum-cleaner attachment that takes care of your dog's hair, keeping your moulting mutt from messing up your home.

This is no shaggy dog story: the Groom is a real nozzle for your Dyson, designed to clean your canine's coat. Defuzzing your dog is a simple matter of popping the Groom onto the end of your vacuum cleaner's nozzle and brushing a clean, dry coat with smooth, even strokes.

To remove loose hair and dead skin cells, the Groom has 364 stainless-steel bristles, angled at 35 degrees. Pressing harder with your thumb extends the bristles, to suit dogs with long hair. That makes grooming a one-handed affair. The bristles retract for storage purposes.

A team of Dyson engineers has spent the last year experimenting with different types of dog grooming, so it could work out the necessary bristle strength and optimal angles. That sounds like a job handed out to Dysonites when they've messed up somehow -- they get sent to the doghouse.

The Groom costs £40. You'll be able to add it to your hi-tech vacuum-cleaner collection, alongside the Roomba and NaviBot. Click through our photo gallery for some tips on how to help Fido stay well-groomed and looking his best at all times. Next week, we'll show you how to train your dog to actually do the hoovering.

A dog's coat contains a mixture of hair types: longer, protective guard hairs and an insulating undercoat. It grows in cycles all year round. There are three different stages: anagen (growing), catagen (stopped growing) and telogen (dying and moulting).

Place the vacuum cleaner in view of your dog. Instead of the dog only seeing it on cleaning days, the machine will become part of the mutt's surroundings.

Encourage your dog to go near the vacuum cleaner by putting food in front of it.

Repeat the last step, but with the vacuum cleaner switched on.

Groom the dog without the Dyson Groom attached to the vacuum cleaner.

Once the dog is comfortable with the previous steps, start using the tool while it's attached to the vacuum cleaner.

Keep praising your dog and rewarding it for good behaviour.

The stainless-steel bristles retract for storage.