Choose the Right Dog Shampoo!

If you’re not using dog shampoo to wash your dog, you could be doing much more harm than good!  The wrong shampoo could actually be causing your dogs odor and oily coat.

It can be pretty overwhelming to look down the grooming aisle of one of the huge pet superstores.  There must be at least fifty different types of dog shampoo; the selection rivals that of us humans when it comes to hair (or fur!) care.

The first thing you need to look for in a dog shampoo is that it is gentle.  I tend to like organic or natural shampoos because they aren’t made with harmful and harsh chemicals, and they are made with natural incredients.

You want your dog shampoo to be gentle because when you wash your dog, you remove the valuable natural layer of oil on their coat and skin called the “acid mantle”.  The gentler the shampoo, the less of the acid mantle you’ll remove.

The acid mantle isn’t the reason for your dogs odor.  This natural light layer of oil protects your dogs coat and skin from excess dirt, dander, dust and mites.

When you remove the acid mantle by using harsh chemical soaps, you drive the dogs pores into overdrive.  The more often you bathe your dog, the harder those pores will work to replace that beneficial oil layer, and this is where the typical “doggie odor” comes from.

It’s a vicious circle…bathe your dog and he continues to smell, so you bathe him again and it gets worse!  The answer is to stop bathing so often and use a very gentle dog shampoo when you do.

Most dogs, unless they get into something stinky, only need to be bathed once or twice a year.  I like to bath my dog after he sheds his spring and fall coat.  If you’re bathing more frequently than that, and/or using harsh dog shampoo to do it, you’re probably doing more harm than good!

Reduce the frequency you bathe them, choose a gentle dog shampoo, and your dogs coat will be, and will stay, healthy and clean!