Why is my dog shedding unusually?

With the cold air outside, and the warm air inside, many dogs (and people!) get dry skin

Also, one of the signs of a food allergy is excessive shedding, as well as scratching when no fleas are present, and ear infections.

Corn tends to be a big allergy trigger

So, check your food

Chances are, if you buy it in a grocery store, it will have a lot of corn in it.

I am sold on Nutro

It is 100% guaranteed to improve skin and coat, cut down on shedding, yeilds less waste, and, it is also 100% guaranteed for taste!

When I adopted my basset hound, he was always scratching, and his coat looked dull, and felt rough.

After about the 2nd bag of Nutro Lamb & Rice, I noticed a sheen to his coat, and he feels so soft!

No scratching either!

First, check your environment. Have you started using any new aerosols, cleaning agents, or shampoo on your dog? Do you bathe it too often? If nothing here has changed, then...

check your food. If you feed a food that contains many grains, vegetables, or fruits, then this is the likely culprit. Shedding is often a sign of consuming too many species-inappropriate foods for too long. And by species-inappropriate, I mean any food other than raw meat, raw bones, or raw organs.

The second best thing you could do to remedy the problem is to switch a grain-free food with few fillers such as Evo, Harvest Legacy, Taste of the Wild, Orijen, Blue Buffalo, Merrick, Canidae, Chicken Soup... it would also be wise to supplement with a therapeutic dose of Omega 3's (300 mg's per 10 lbs of dog).

The best thing you could do is to switch the dog to a raw, prey-model diet. This is mother nature's recommendation and the diet is basically 80% raw meat, 10% raw bones, and 10% raw organs (half of which should be liver).

I'm having the same problem with my dog. She never shed as much as she is now during the summer. It seems as if something about the cold season has caused this. However, I did read online that adding a tablespoon of olive oil to their food should help. We've tried different shampoos and vitamins and none of those methods worked so we're giving the olive oil a try for now. Good luck!

I'm assuming he's an indoor dog, and I'm assuming it recently got cold outside, therefore causing your furnace to kick in inside. Artificial heating/cooling will effect a dogs shedding cycle. If he's just losing a few extra hairs, I wouldn't worry too much, but if he is losing his undercoat there may be an underlying condition. What kind of food does he eat... Make sure he's getting his essential fatty acids (buy them in a pet store or at your vet, or give him a fish oil capsule in his food).

All dogs shed, but unusual shedding may be due to allergic reaction to food, environment or grooming accessories.

Hope this topic helps, http://alturl.com/ys7n