hair of the dog: What is the best way to reduce dog's hair fall?

Thursday, June 17, 2010

What is the best way to reduce dog's hair fall?

This depends on if your dog has long hair or short hair. If you have a long hair dog that has a dense undercoat, you should wash your dog regularly, twice a month is a good rule of thumb. Then you should purchase a good coat rake to rake out the undercoat, they also sell rakes that have little razors on them that cut the undercoat and thin out the coat in general. This will cut down on shedding. Feeding omega 3 supplements will also help greatly. If you dog has a short coat, wash your dog twice a month also and for both coats use a good conditioning shampoo and a cream rinse to nourish the coat. Dry coats shed more. Then while your dog is wet use a tool called a zoom groom, made by KONG. It has little nubby ends and it helps lift the short dead hairs while you are washing which will rinse away and help take away the dead coat. Then once your dog is dry use a deshedding tool to rake the coat (different then the coat rake for long hair) and remove any other dead undercoat. This will substantially reduce shedding. Inbetween your dogs bi monthly baths, use baby wipes and a good universal brush to brush your dog, the baby wipes will keep the coat clean and the brushing will help keep the loose hairs at bay, and not allow them to accumulate until the next bath time.

I listed some links to the products I mentioned. As a professional groomer I purchase my products from Ryans Pet Supplies. So take a look at their catolog. They also have shedless shampoo's and other items that will help keep your dogs shedding in check.

Hope this helps you. Good luck :)