I have one of the early Dyson Animal vacs. I love that thing! Totally opposite experience as Rob (sorry, Rob, for your experience). It is heavy but it always worked for me. We have switched out our wall to wall carpeting downstairs to vinyl plank flooring and just have area rugs now. We are now also dogless for the first time in over 30 years (miss my pooches). I don't know how the newer Dyson Animal version would be.
Quite a while ago we had a small bagless upright vac for our upstairs. I stupidly thought we'd have less dirt/debris/dog hair upstairs, lol, so got a smaller vac. I also have a love/hate relationship with vacuums. If they don't perform as expected they end up on the front lawn and ultimately trash! One of the best smaller uprights we had was Dirt Devil brand. That thing truly did suck the carpet off the floor! What I didn't like about that particular version was short cord; no attachments. If I could find a larger model Dirt Devil with attachments in a configuration similar to the Dyson Animal I would buy it in a heart beat.
Good luck!