There are some myths about bathing your dog and shedding when it comes to hair: how often you can wash it, when you should cut it, when to bathe a dog, when not to, how to reduce shedding—the list goes on.
How Often to Bathe Your Dog
Clients often ask groomers how often they can safely bathe their dog. Many of the “old school” veterinarians tell their clients a dog has dry skin because she’s being bathed too often. That makes sense if you are using a harsh shampoo and no conditioner, but dogs with chronically dry skin may also reflect a diet of poor-quality food without ingredients to support healthy skin.
The truth is that many show dogs are bathed daily. If you use a mild shampoo and condition the dog, there is no reason why weekly bathing would be harmful. However, if your dog has a skin condition and you are using medicated shampoo too often, you can actually defeat your purpose.
If you overuse them, you can cause the sebaceous glands to overproduce oils to make up for the loss of it, and that can make the problem worse.
Cold Weather Grooming
“You can’t bathe a dog in the winter, he’ll get sick.” Says who? Are you hosing him off outside in the middle of an ice storm? Are you tossing him outside in the snow to dry? If you bathe the dog inside and dry him thoroughly before he goes out, there is no reason why you can’t groom him all year long.
In fact, if you let your dog go several months between groomings, you may find matted hair, packed coat, and skin conditions that accompany grooming neglect. It’s common sense—if you bathe in the winter, your dog can bathe in the winter. Just bathe him inside a warm room with warm water and make sure he is dry before he goes out.
A Dog’s Coat Keeps Him Warm
If the dog has a matted or packed coat, he will not stay warm. Matted coats get wet from the weather and do not dry out because air cannot get through the matted hair. The skin underneath the mats stays wet as well, and it’s like wearing a wet wool coat all winter.
That’s not warm, that’s miserable! A shorter coat that allows air to reach the skin will keep him warmer than a long, matted coat. If you are concerned that your dog’s coat is too short to keep him warm, invest in a jacket.
Shaving Myths
Shaving a dog doesn’t stop shedding. The dog will still shed, but it will be shorter hair and therefore less noticeable. However, hair has a life cycle. When it reaches the end of that life cycle, it dies and falls out, period. Frequent and thorough grooming plus a good diet reduces shedding.
The hair comes out while you groom it, and the omega 3 and 6 fatty acids in quality dog foods help promote healthy skin, which reduces heavy shedding
The density of the hair has more to do with shedding than the length of the hair. If the dog has a heavy undercoat, brushing out the excess dead coat will keep him cooler. If you just shave off the entire coat and do not card out the undercoat afterward, you still have a dense coat.
In addition, when you shave it too short, it can result in sunburn. It’s much better to brush out excessive under‑
coat and keep the hair clean so air can get to the skin.
Longhaired Dogs Versus Shorthaired Dogs
Most longhaired breeds shed seasonally, and that’s usually the undercoat. Because this hair is long and comes out all at once, you think it’s heavy shedding; however, the rest of the year the dog hardly sheds. Meanwhile, a shorthaired breed will shed all year round.
Although the hairs are shorter, they grow to a certain length and fall out Because the length of a Dalmatian’s hair is so much shorter than a Sheltie’s, the lifespan of its hair is shorter too, so shorthaired dogs shed more often.
Hypoallergenic Breeds
Just because the dog’s hair doesn’t shed on your furniture doesn’t mean it doesn’t shed at all. All dogs shed. However, in curly-coated or hypoallergenic breeds, you must comb out the dead hairs in the coat or it will mat. They require just as much, if not more, brushing and grooming than a shorthaired breed.
This gets especially tricky with Poodle crossbreeds. If your Labradoodle inherited a curly coat from his Poodle parent, he may be a low-shedding dog. If he inherited a mixture of the two breeds, it may be wiry and wavy—and it sheds.
Using Human Products on Your Dog
You can use human or dog hair products on your pet. If your dog doesn’t have an adverse reaction and the product works for you, why not? Many veterinarians will suggest you use medicated shampoos for humans on dogs with skin problems.
The thing to remember when using any shampoo or conditioner on your dog is to be sure to rinse thoroughly, and if you get product in the dog’s eyes, flush it out well.
Dogs and people can have allergic reactions to any product at any time, and fragrance seems to be one of the things that can trigger allergies. However, there is a lot of fragrance in pet shampoos! That’s for the human’s benefit, not the dog’s.
