Tips to maintain your dog’s coat

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Cuddling with a dog is a blissful experience. When you cuddle with a dog, their soft, shiny coat gently caresses your skin, relaxing your senses. A rough court can do more than just ruining your cuddling experience with your canine friend. A dull coat can indicate skin issues, which can impact your dog’s appearance and overall health. To help keep your dog healthy and happy, we, in this post, impart a few tips to maintain their coat. Take a look.

1. Check the ingredients of your dog’s food
   Not all dog foods are made equal. Some are not properly balanced and are deficient in essential components such as Omega-6. Omega-6 deficiency in dogs can result in a rough and coarse coat. Before starting to feed your canine dog food by a particular brand , check out its ingredients to make sure it includes Omega-6. Steer clear of genetically modified grains.
   Watch out for low-fat formulas that may exclude certain essential nutrients. Add fish oil supplements that are a rich source of omega 3 fatty acids to the canine’s diet.
2. Follow a bathing routine
   To help your furry friend get rid of ticks, flies, and other pathogens hiding in their coat, bathe them regularly. When deciding how frequent to bathe your dog, consider their breed and type, activity level, and skin conditions. While short -haired dogs can go without a bath for months, dogs with long hair need a bath more frequently. Whatever be the case, make sure the gap between two baths does not exceed three months.
3. Use the correct shampoo
   Opt for shampoos with natural ingredients such as aloe vera, oatmeal, herbal proteins, and citrus extracts. If you furry friend has a light- colored coat, prefer using shampoos with brighteners and whiteners that boost luster. Shampoos packed with essential minerals, vitamins, and proteins can work wonders for dogs with dull coats.
   If your dog has too many tangles, condition their coat after shampooing it. Steer clear of products with artificial ingredients. Most importantly, never use shampoos for humans on your dog, as they can wash off essential oils, often resulting in a dull and lustreless coat.
4. Brush your dog’s coat regularly
   Shedding is a normal process and you shouldn’t be much concerned about it, however, excessive shedding can rob your handsome pooch of their enviable looks. To address this problem, brush your dog’s coat regularly. Brushing not only helps get rid of dead fur, but also distributes natural oil throughout the animal’s coat, promoting healthy hair growth.
5. Give your furry friend herbal supplements
   Give your dogs herbal supplements such as horsetail and spirulina. While horsetail is a rich source of silica that promotes fur and bone health, spirulina contains vitamin-B and carotenoids that help maintain skin health. Before starting to give these or any other herbal supplements to your furry friend, consult your vet regarding the dosage.

When Is It OK To Shave My Dog's Coat?

When it starts getting hot out, we start to look at our dogs and think “how do they stand it under all that fur?” And while their fur may make them a bit hot, for some a shaved dog is more of a problem than a solution.It seems logical to think that less fur equates to a cooler pet, but the reality is that many dogs have long hair for a reason. Not all long hair pups, but many out there should never be shaved dogs.

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When a Shaved Dog is OK

To start, lets go over the two major types of long hair coats: the single and the double coat.The terms are fairly straightforward -- a single coat consists of one type of hair all over your dog’s body. A double coat, on the other hand, is made up of a coarse outer coat with a soft, dense undercoat.How does this apply to shaving? Let me explain.Dogs with a long, single coat are totally fine to be shaved. Heck, they’ll probably thank you for it! Overtime, their hair will grow back and everything will be fine. If you have a hot dog with a single coat, tell the groomer to go nuts.

RELATED ARTICLE: Should You DIY Cut Your Dog's Hair?

When a Shaved Dog is a No No

Now a double coat, that’s a different story. Dogs with a double coat were generally bred to be able to withstand harsh climates (typically the cold).  A double coat functions is like this -- the coarse outer coat protects your dog from sunlight, pests, burrs, and other types of environmental irritants, while the soft undercoat insulates them against wind and cold.Because of their heavily protective nature of a double coat, these types of dogs tend to have especially sensitive skin, which is why they should never be shaved. Also, direct exposure to sunlight greatly increases their risk for sunburn and

skin cancer;  much higher than it would be in single coated dogs.Also, since a double coat consists of two different kind of hair, they grow at different speeds. The soft undercoat will end up growing in much quicker than the longer, coarse hair of the outer coat, leaving them exposed to the elements even longer (and giving them a rough, spotted, almost mangy kind of look).As such, the outer coat of a double coated dog should never be shaved, or even cut. If you have a double coated dog, the best way to help them cool down is to brush away

any excess fur in the heat-trapping undercoat. Typically during the warmer months, double coated dogs will “blow” their coat. What that means is they are genetically predisposed to ridding themselves of the bulk of their undercoat during the spring and summer, growing it all back by the fall.

RELATED ARTICLE: When is Dog Shedding Season

The Takeaway

If your dog has a double coat, give them a thorough brushing with a special undercoat brush and remove as much of that fluffy white stuff as possible. Beyond that, keep tons of water on hand and a shady place to retreat.And if your dog has a single coat, shave away!