The Kenmore Progressive vacuum cleaner is pretty good at what it does. Kenmore is a very solid name in appliances, so I didn't have any reservations in buying one of their vacuums.

The #1 job of any vacuum is to clean, right? Well, the Progressive does that pretty well unless you have dogs that shed a lot. This vacuum did well for me at first, but it soon became apparent that it could not keep up with the sheer volume of dog hair most dog owners have in their carpet. I would say that we keep our house pretty clean, but still I've actually have to take the hose apparatus apart on this model several times to get the dog hair out of it so that it will work properly. That aside, every so often I still have to upend the unit to clear the intake at the bottom.

The Kenmore Progressive does have a dirt sensor, which flashes a bright red light that you can't miss when it detects that it is taking in debris, but I've found this feature wholly useless as it is almost always on when I'm using it. Maybe it's because we have dogs, but I don't know. The headlight at the front, however, works great and has never had any problems.

That said, this $200+ vacuum is still the best I've ever owned. It has a very attractive bright yellow shell that may be too flashy for some, but I enjoy the look. Not having much experience with a lot of different vacuums, I give the Kenmore Progressive 3 out of 5 stars. I don't know what the best vacuum for a dog owner would be, but the Progressive isn't necessarily it. I don't know if such a vacuum exists, outside of an unwieldy shop-vac, but if you have dogs that are heavy shedders the Progressive might not be for you.