How to stop dog hair shedding?

You are probably here because your dog is shedding hair all over the house, and you are sick of cleaning your sofa or bed again and again.

Well, don’t worry. We will try to explain how you can stop your dog’s excess hair shedding.

Table of Contents

• Why is my dog shedding so much all of a sudden?
• How to reduce dog hair shedding?
• Heavy shedding dogs

We want to clarify one thing at the very beginning of this article: You can’t stop the hair shedding completely, but you can definitely reduce it. The more well-groomed and healthier your dog is, the less hair it will shed. But it will never stop completely. Shedding is always going to be a part of your life as a dog owner. Our only aim is to keep it to a minimum.

Let’s first of all understand the root cause. That is, let us first get to know why dogs shed hair in the first place. And why some dogs shed more hair than others.

Why is my dog shedding so much all of a sudden?

Normally, a dog drops a lot of fur, whether it’s a dog with short hair or long hair. But, the amount of hair being shed and frequency often depends on:

• the type of breed

• their overall health

• season - some dogs develop a thick coat in winters and tend to shed it in the spring. It’s natural, as their body prepares itself for the oncoming summer.

However, if your dog is shedding more hair than normal, then it may be because of some underlying health issue.

"Normal Shedding"

What is considered as “Normal Shedding” may differ from one breed to another.

Let us see some of such possible causes.

• Lack of nutrition
• Allergy
• Dehydration
• Lack of grooming
• Stress

Apart from these, there might be some other causes behind excessive shedding of hair, e.g. defective genes. That is, it can be hereditary. If such is the case, then there’s not much you can do. Just keep your dog groomed and provide it good nutrition.

Now, let’s see some of the possible steps we can take to resolve this issue.

How to reduce dog hair shedding?

Regular Grooming

Make sure you groom your dog. Brushing its hair, giving it a bath and keeping your dog clean are the bare essentials that you must do on a regular basis.

Brushing

Brush is going to be the most important tool, if you want to reduce hair shedding of your dog. You will get to remove the excess fur off your dog when you brush it. Also, brushing distributes the natural oils in your dog’s skin, which maintains the overall health of his coat. Brushing makes the coat softer and cleaner.

However, make sure you are using the right brush. Which brush you choose will depend on the thickness of the fur, which in turn depends on the breed of the dog. You should use the following kinds of brushes:

• Bristle brushes for short haired dogs (e.g. Pugs and Beagles)

• Rake brushes for long-haired dogs (e.g. Collie and Pomeranian) - It will be able to reach farther down to grab loose fur from the undercoat.

You should invest a reasonable amount on brushing to get out as much fur as possible. You should stop brushing only when large amounts of hair stop collecting on the brush with each stroke.

Matting issue

Make sure that you are gentle while brushing, especially if your dog’s hair has matting (i.e. its hair are tangled). If you bathe your dog but do not dry and brush it, then it is more prone to develop matting in hair. To gently rid of any serious tangles, use steel comb or a mat splitter. Sometimes, I just used to cut that part of hair with scissors.

Warning

For more extreme cases of hair shedding you may use more specialized tools such as a deshedding tool. But it will be better to consult a specialist in such cases.

Also, most dogs enjoy being brushed. But, if your dog doesn’t, then there might be a serious underlying cause.

Bathing

Giving them a regular bath is important. Excess hair will flow down from the coat during bathing. If you use a blow dryer to dry your dog after bath, it will remove some more of those loose hair. It will also keep the fur healthy and shiny.

But don’t overdo it. Excessive bathing may be counter-productive, as it may dry up their skin and cause even more hair fall.

Providing nutritious diet

One reason may be the lack of nutrition in its diet. It may seriously affect your dog’s coat and skin.

So, the first thing you should do, is to start giving them proper and nutritious full diet. That is, focus on their overall health, because hair shedding may just be a symptom of underlying health issue.

Let’s have a look at the best dog food for shedding.

• Meat: You should give them better quality food, such as meat and eggs.

• Omega-3: Maybe he is missing omega-3 fatty acids in its diet. Omega-3 fatty acids improve the quality of fur and health of the skin. You can buy supplements of omega-3 or give them fishes like salmon or tuna, which are rich in fatty acids. As far as supplements are concerned, fish oil is better (and more costly) than flaxseed oil.

• Fruits and Veggies: Around 5-10% of your dog’s diet must be fruits or veggies, e.g. apple slices without seeds, seedless watermelon, carrots or cucumber etc.

Also, avoid the food that your dog may be allergic to.

You may even consult your vet to chalk out a better diet plan.

Tackling dehydration

One of the reasons why your dog may be shedding more hair than normal, is that it may be drinking less water than it should. Dehydration leads to dry skin, which in turn leads to hair fall.

Make sure that your dog is well hydrated, especially in summers. You can add flavours to his water to make him drink more, e.g. add chicken pieces in his drinking water etc.

Stress

Stress leads to hair fall in humans. Same is true for dogs too. You will have to figure out the reason behind their stress.

Now, let us see some breeds of dogs that are known to shed hair heavily.

Heavy shedding dogs

There are a variety of dogs when it comes to hair shedding. Some shed more, some shed less. Some shed throughout the year and some more in certain seasons.

Some dog breeds are more prone to seasonal shedding. They blow their coat once or twice annually. But most shedding is done at spring time. As soon as summer starts coming, they shed their winter coat and switch to summer coat.

Following are some of such dog breeds:

• Sheltie

• Collies

But some other dogs shed all the year round, e.g. German Shepherds.

Many heavy shedder dogs have double coats - undercoat and topcoat. During shedding time, they may shed their entire undercoat fur. There’s so much hair lost that it’s also called ‘blowing’.

If you are dealing with a major hair shedding problem, then it’s pretty likely that you have got yourself a heavy shedder dog breed. The only solution in such a case is regular grooming - mainly brushing and bathing.

Here are some dog breeds that are considered heavy shedders:

• Alaskan Malamute: They lose their undercoat twice a year. Its shedding period lasts for around three weeks, during which all its hair fall-off. So, it’s pretty intense. It can be a nightmare for its owners.

• Akita: They are also a ‘double-coated’ breed, i.e. they have an undercoat. They lose all their fur twice a year. The amount of fur it sheds in this period may shock the owners.

• Siberian Husky: It has double coat, which looks beautiful, but it leads to a lot of shedding. Routine grooming is required to reduce shedding.

• Pembroke Welsh Corgi: As you might have caught the trend, they also have a double-coat. The inner coat sheds twice a year when the season changes, but during the spring this inner coat is completely discarded.

• Cardigan Welsh Corgi: They shed very much year-round. Moreover, there’s an undercoat blowing twice a year.

• Great Pyrenees: Its coat is fluffy, and they shed throughout the year. We need to brush them often - one or more times per week.

• German Shepherd: They have two-layer coat, and are considered to be very heavy shedders. They shed consistently throughout the year, but they have two heavier shedding seasons each year.

• Chow Chow: They shed most of their hair near the end of spring. But some shedding continues well into the summer.

• Labrador Retriever: Labrador Retriever sheds moderately.

• American Eskimo: They also shed a lot.

Winding Up

Whatever you do, dogs will shed their hair all over your house. So, use furniture cover, do regular vacuuming etc. If you hate regular vacuuming like me, then you may invest in automatic vacuuming robots. But do not leave you dogs alone with these vacuum robots, or else they may destroy them. Dogs like chasing moving objects. You probably already know that!

Warning

If you witness excessive hair loss, or big bald patches, then you must consult a vet.