As dog owners, we love our dogs as much as any member of the family. But our dogs do something that most of our family members refrain from; they shed. If you’ve got a dog that sheds, then you understand the pain of seeing mountains of loose fur piling up in the corners of your home.
You may have resigned to believing that having a hairy house is just part of living with a dog. But that’s not the case! In fact, there are 10 easy steps you can take to stop your dog’s excessive shedding today and have a cleaner house tomorrow. Granted, you won’t stop your dog’s shedding completely, but these tips will certainly help to mitigate the issue!
1. A Daily Grooming Routine
One of the easiest ways to get your dog’s shedding under control quickly is to start brushing them every day. You only need to devote a few minutes to this each day, but you’ll notice a big difference throughout your home.
Brushing your dog will help to remove all those loose and dead hairs so you can collect them instead of them collecting in the nooks and crannies of your house. But regular brushing will also help reduce excess hair loss, lessening the total amount of shedding you have to deal with.
Be aware, there’s more to brushing than grabbing any old brush and rubbing it against your dog’s coat. You need to pick the right brush if you really want to put a dent in the shedding.
- Dogs with longer coats need longer bristles to reach through all that hair. They do well with bristle brushes that have longer bristles spread apart.
- Dogs with wooly coats covered in matted curls will do best with a wire-pin brush.
- Short-haired dogs will do well with combs.
2. Regular Bathing
Now that your dog is getting brushed daily, regular bathing can help to reduce shedding even further. But you have to be careful not to overdo it with bathing. If you bathe your dog too much, you can actually cause their skin to become irritated, which can cause even more shedding!
Limit bathing to about once a month.
Make sure to use a quality dog shampoo that will hydrate their skin. Preferably a soap-free, natural shampoo like the TropiClean Medicated Oatmeal & Tea Tree Oil Shampoo. It’s made with oatmeal, vitamin E, and tea tree oil to moisturize your dog’s skin and coat, plus, salicylic acid to prevent dandruff and scaly skin.
Regular bathing will help to keep your dog’s skin moist and healthy, preventing excess shedding from occurring.
- We reviewed the best oatmeal dog shampoo: Check out our top picks here!
3. A Healthy, Balanced Diet
If your dog is deficient in certain nutrients, it can result in increased shedding. This is often due to weaker hair follicles that break easily.
But if your dog is eating a balanced diet that provides all the necessary nutrients to keep their skin and coat healthy, such as omega-3 fatty acids, then the follicles will grow thick and strong and won’t be as prone to breakage. This will reduce overall shedding and keep your dog’s coat looking and feeling healthy and exuberant.
4. More Water
Did you know that one of the most common causes of hair loss in dogs is dehydrated skin? Their skin can easily become dehydrated if water intake isn’t sufficient.
It can be pretty hard to know how much your dog is drinking each day, but if it seems like they’re shedding more than usual, you might want to start providing a bit more water for them.
As a general rule, an ounce of water per pound of bodyweight is a good intake. So, a 64-pound dog would drink approximately half a gallon of water each day and a 100-pound dog would need about a gallon.
5. Get Rid of Fleas
Fleas are an incredibly common pest that most dogs will deal with at some point or another. When your dog has fleas, the increased scratching will result in loads more shedding than usual.
But that’s not all. There’s a common disease that affects many dogs called flea allergy dermatitis. After a few bites from fleas, dogs with this disease will experience skin irritation, excessive shedding, itching, hair loss, and more for weeks!
If your dog has fleas, it’s definitely a major contributor to their excessive shedding. We’d recommend giving your dog NexGard Chewables for Dogs. They’re easy to feed your pooch and incredibly effective at killing fleas. Each chew provides protection against fleas for an entire month and they’re safe to be given to pups as young as eight weeks old.
- Related Read: 10 Best Flea Shampoos for Dogs – Reviews & Top Picks
6. Shed Control Shampoo
We’ve already discussed how regular bathing can help to reduce your dog’s excessive shedding, but you can actually get special shampoos that are formulated specifically to treat your dog’s shedding problem. These treatments are effective, easy to use, and completely safe for your dog.
To use a shampoo treatment for shedding, you’ll simply bathe your dog using the medicated shampoo. It’s very simple.
Our favorite is the FURminator DeShedding Ultra Premium Shampoo for Dogs. There’s no other way to say it; this stuff works. Just bathe your dog with this shampoo and you’ll notice a difference immediately. And to top it off, this treatment is cheaply priced, so you won’t have to break the bank trying to cure your hair control conundrum!
7. Natural Home Remedies
There are several natural items that serve as home remedies for excessive dog shedding. Out of them all, our favorite is olive oil. But how does it work?
How to Cure Excessive Dog Shedding with Olive Oil
There are two main ways to cure your dog’s shedding using olive oil. We’re looking to get the benefit of all the Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids in the olive oil, which can help to nourish the skin and coat, reducing shedding. No matter which method you choose, make sure you choose the highest quality olive oil possible. Organic is preferable when possible.
Oral
Mix the olive oil directly into your dog’s food. For small dogs, half a teaspoon should suffice. Larger dogs will need a whole teaspoon. Continue this each day for several weeks, until you start to see the difference in their coat. Pay attention to your dog’s weight though and ensure they don’t gain weight from the addition of the olive oil.
Topical
You can also use olive oil by simply rubbing it into your dog’s skin and coat. Again, you’ll want to repeat this daily for several weeks to see an effect.
- Check out more home remedies for your dog’s skin allergies here!
8. Shedding Supplements
If a lot of these methods seem like too much work to you and you were hoping for something easier, like a pill that cures excess shedding, you’re in luck! The Vet’s Best Healthy Coat Shed & Itch Relief chewable tablets are an easy way to give your dog everything it needs to cure its excessive shedding problem.
This is one of the easiest solutions of all. Just feed your dog one of these tablets each day and watch as their skin and coat start to improve, and you see less and less hair accumulating through your halls.
Luckily, these treats seem to be tasty to dogs, so you shouldn’t have a hard time getting your dog to eat them.
9. Increase Exercise
One of the biggest causes of excessive shedding is high levels of stress. Exercise is a great way to reduce your dog’s stress levels. This can help to solve a number of self-destructive behaviors such as biting and scratching.
Moreover, exercise helps to keep your dog healthy. When your dog is healthy, their coat will shine, and their skin will be soft and supple. This will result in less shedding and a better-looking, better-feeling dog.
- Related Read: 8 Best Dog Foods for Shedding in 2020
10. Schedule a Vet Appointment
If you’ve tried everything and nothing seems to help with the ridiculous amount your dog is shedding, then there might be some deeper underlying cause. In this case, you need to get some professional help. A vet can give you a better understanding of what your dog is going through. If there is a deeper issue at the heart of your dog’s shedding, a vet should be able to pinpoint the problem and hopefully, offer some solutions as well.
Conclusion
Excessive shedding isn’t fun for anyone. Your dog probably has itchy, dry skin making them uncomfortable all the time. Meanwhile, you’re looking around your home that’s covered in dog hair and wondering if it’s possible to ever make it look clean again.
Thankfully, there are many ways to solve this problem that benefit you and your dog equally. By implementing these steps, your dog’s health will improve, your home will look better, and you’ll be able to get back some of that peace of mind that was lost when your home started to look like a petting zoo with all those piles of hair.
Just remember, if you try all these methods and your shedding problem is still out of control, there might be a deeper issue at the root of it and you should get a professional opinion.
Related Read: Should You Cut or Shave Your German Shepherd’s Hair?
Featured Image: Budimir Jevtic, Shutterstock
