My dog is moulting at the moment and keeps eating the hair that is coming off him. I am hoovering at least once a day (sometimes twice) to limit the amount of hair there is around but being a double coated breed I'm sure you can imagine a lot of hair is coming off one dog! Even when i'm brushing him he tries to eat the hair off the brush. Is this normal? Will it do him any harm?

Duibh likes to try and get the hair off the brush, but he doesn't eat it - chews it into a ball, and then I find spat out saliva-y (if that's a word!) balls of hair around the house. It should just pass through if he's eating it though - unless he eats enough to make a hairball like a cat - but our cats never had a problem regurgitating those in the most inconvenient places!

Dogs naturally do swallow quite an amount of their own hair, through grooming, which does pass through with no problems, but I certainly would not let him eat large chunks from his brush, it could cause a blockage.  I would stuff a ball or chew in his mouth whilst I were grooming him outside.  It is a terrible time of year for moulting at the moment most of us are probably suffering with the excess coming off.

I groom my girl twice a day, sometimes more outdoors to try and limit the house being smoothered in her shedding hair. :-D

If he does grab any off his brush I take it off him straight away so he's certainly not eating large amounts. The most annoying thing is my girl (of the same breed) hasn't started moulting yet and I can guarentee as soon as he finishes she will start - Typical :)!   I'm glad now though we made the decision to only let dogs in the garden and downstairs rather than them having the full run of the house, at least I've only got half the house covered in hair so half the house to hoover :)!