Didn't post it as a bargain because it's a price I negotiated but just thought I'd let others know to give them an idea on what you should expect in terms of negotiated prices:
-RRP is $499
-Store price is $449
-Went into the good guys and got it down from $479 to $410
-Went into HN and asked "what is the best you can do" got offered $429
-Said we got offered $410 at the good guys and were really looking for under $400.
-Lady came back after speaking to manager and offered $398, not sure if there was further room to move after this.
On using the animal attachment (only difference between the animal version of the DC35) I have to say I'm a bit underwhelmed by it but we have a very hairy dog and it does seem to work very well on some stuff just not everything. Overall the vacuum cleaner is awesome and a great compliment to our Roomba 564 pet series at cleaning up after our extremely hairy dog.