Spinning yarn from dog hair

Spinning with dog hair? Sounds weird, but we’re going to try it when we have enough of Penny’s hair. My sister is studying for a Diploma in textile-related arts and recently at a garage sale we bought a spinning-wheel.

So, seeing we’ve been collecting Penny’s hair after grooming for the last three years, we only need to learn how to spin and we’re off and... well, I guess, spinning... How hard can it be, after all? I'll admit I was a complete failure at spinning when a friend tried to teach me, but we'll have to hope my sister is a more able student.

We figure it won’t be a non-allergenic yarn, that’s for sure. It makes me sneeze just thinking about it.

This was an idea that we came up with ourselves and we thought we were on the edge of ‘strange’, but, surprise, surprise, there are Net sites devoted to this craft. Here are a few:
VIP Fibers, Inc

Chiengora
Here's the explanation given at this site:

Chiengora (pronounced she-an-gora) is the name people are using for dog hair. Chien is French for dog and gora is from angora, the fiber the hair most closely resembles. Dog hair is now considered a luxury fiber along with mohair and cashmere (goat hair), and angora (Rabbit hair).

for the love of yarn

The article at this site is by Kathy Fellows in Massachusetts. She'll spin your dog's hair for you. This would be great for us in case the mysteries of the spinning wheel can't be conquered but I don't think the Australian Quarantine Service would be too keen on people sending pet hair out of and back into Australia.