How to Stop a Dog from Shedding Hair Excessively

Dogs are amazing pets. I love mine and I have 3 of them. However, one of the most frustrating things is that dogs actually shed as part of their nature. If you are grappling with the question of how to stop a dog from shedding; it is simple. You cannot. Because it is a natural process. When dogs shed, it is usually their skin getting rid of old hair and replacing that with new hair.

What you can do is reduce it, control or manage it. To begin with, if your dog is shedding excessively then that is a problem. If the hair is coming off on every single surface or when you touch the dog, then it might be a case of skin allergies or lack of brushing or any other reason.

In summary, here are some few reasons why your dog might be shedding more than normal:

• You are brushing its hair too often too aggressively.
• Your dog is experiencing endocrine disorders.
• The dog is not getting a balanced diet that fosters long hair life and healthy skin.
• Lack of regular bathing or not using healthy dog shampoo.
• Stress and anxiety especially when you leave your dog at home alone for long hours on end.
• Due to hormonal changes some dogs shed more when pregnant.
• Dog allergies to other substances.
• Sunburn if your dog spends lots of time in the sun.

Let us look at some of the ways you can use to remedy the situation in your home when your dog is shedding a lot.

1). Vacuum clean often

You need to do cleaning around the house using a vacuum cleaner for pets often in order to manage how much hair is on your couches, tiles, carpets, seats, beds, etc. Without vacuum cleaning, a lot of hair will pile up making you even more frustrated.

I recommend you get the Eureka PowerSpeed Bagless Upright Vacuum Cleaner to help you clean up around the house and get some control on that hair. The reason I like this vacuum cleaner is that it is very light and easily portable. It also has 5 height settings and an upright mode that allows us to clean our curtains and anything that is lying against the walls – ideally a very ideal floor-to-ceiling vacuum cleaner. In addition, it is one of the cheapest most reliable vacuum cleaners that is suitable for every floor surface from carpets to tiles and wooden floors.

2). Bathe your dog regularly

One reason why your dog is probably shedding a lot on the surfaces in your home is because you probably don’t bathe the dog often. Go the extra mile and use a shampoo that actually benefits your dog with great nutrients to prevent skin allergies that might be causing the dog to shed too much hair.

Our vet recommended the Pro Pet Natural shampoo and we experienced reduced shedding from our dogs by almost half. We could tell the difference within about two weeks. In the past we have tried other shampoos that ultimately failed to take of the problem for us. In addition, you should learn why shampoos are a really important method of how to stop a dog shedding. We have explained that elaborately in our best dog shampoo for shedding guide.

Some very important proteins and vitamins are also ingested into the dog through the skin helping the skin stay healthy for great and long-lasting hair.

3). Brush your dog consistently

It is called pet care because you actually have to care for your dog. Without you, they won’t be able to shed all the hair that falls off from their skin and so it just ends up making a mess of your house. Schedule some time every 2 weeks to brush your dog and get rid of lose hair. This will give you better control of the shedding issue.

Dogs sometimes might seem like they are shedding a lot when it has been a long time since you last brushed them. We use the FURminator deshedding tool on all our dogs and it works perfect. In case you are wondering, we have a German shepherd, a pitbull, and a golden retriever in our arsenal of dogs. The shepherd and golden retriever are serial shedders when not taken care of. Brushing them consistently every 2 weeks has helped us get rid of the lose hair before it touches our couches and other surfaces.

4). Add Omega 6s and Vitamin E to Dog’s Diet

Too much shedding can also be a results of bad diet. If your dog doesn’t get all the required proteins and vitamins in its diet, it is definitely going to be affected negatively. When you feed your dog with the right diet, you help its hair development and sustenance. When you don’t, the opposite happens. To get a handle on this, give your dog a balanced diet. We use Hill’s Science Diet dry dog food to add onto our own offerings at home for the dogs and we found this to be really helpful to ensure that our dogs are getting all their required nutrients.

5). Take your dog to the vet

For closer monitoring and to ensure your dog is always healthy, take your dog to the vet often. If you are having doubts about the health of your dog or noticing that it sheds more than before or continuously bites his paws, it could be a seasonal thing or a form of unhealthiness. Your vet would be able to know which issue it is and will recommend some steps to take. The vet will also let you know how to stop a dog from shedding with more specific steps tailored to your dog.

In some cases where your dog might have endocrine diseases or showing increased licking both of which lead to increased hair fall, the vet will need to administer medication.

6). Regularly cover your furniture

If you have specific places you do not want your dog to touch, you can use covers for those seats or surfaces. This shedding issue is why we trained our dogs to learn where they can sit and play. We have trained our dogs to rest, play or sleep in their own areas so that we do not have to clean after them all the time. However, many times when we are at home they will seat with us or close to us so this is not very effective at that moment; only when we are away do they avoid the seats.

7). Avoid leaving your dog in the sun

Just like human beings experience sunburns, so do dogs. Too much exposure to sunlight by your dog can cause it to get sunburns or skin cancer that increases hair fall around your home. Ensure to watch how often your dog sits in exposed sun light. Ensure your dog sits under a shed or spends more time indoors to stop shedding.

8). Avoid leaving your dog home alone too much

Dogs experience anxiety especially as a result of loneliness. When they are always alone, they get very lonely and scientifically this has proven to be one of the causes of dogs shedding hair due to increased stress levels. Hire a sitter or leave your dog with someone if you have to leave for several hours.

These strategies should help you figure out the question of how to stop a dog from shedding. You should always remember that excessive dog shedding is not natural. You need to find the root cause of it. If you cannot, it is always safer to visit a vet.