Coping with excessive seasonal shedding can be painful, especially during spring and summer. Your dog’s coat is likely to shed more than usual due to changes in temperature and humidity.
Luckily, there are several things you can do to help minimize the amount of hair that ends up all over your house!
This post will discuss five simple ways to help you deal with your dog’s seasonal hair loss.
Grab helpful tools
One of the best ways to deal with excess shedding is to have the right tools. Since you can’t stop their seasonal shedding from happening, getting yourself a few helpful tools can make a world of difference.
A robot vacuum is the first item that seriously helps reduce how often you need to vacuum manually. These neat little helpers roam around your home while away at work and collect any fur.
Robot vacuum
Now, a robot vacuum won’t completely get the job done. But many dog owners (myself included) notice how much help they are in keeping your floors somewhat clean until you have time to do a thorough job.
Pet vacuum
The following helpful tool would be a vacuum designed for collecting pet hair. Many regular vacuums have difficulty picking up pet hair because it gets tangled in the brush.
Dog hair can damage your vacuum over time making it less effective at doing its job. You can prevent that problem by using a vacuum specifically designed to pick up pet hair.
Air purifier
Another great gadget to help reduce the amount of fur you find lying around your home is an air purifier. These filter the air in your home and help remove any pet hair and dander floating around. They’re perfect for people with allergies or asthma who may have difficulty breathing with hair and dander in the air.
Lint roller
Last but certainly not least is the lint roller. Lint rollers are great for removing dog hair from clothing, furniture, and anywhere else.
They come in handy when you’re ready to leave the house and realize fur covers your clothes. No one wants to go out in public looking like they’ve been rolling around in a pile of dog hair!
Give their coat a good blowout
Another way to help reduce the amount of fur lying around your home during the high shedding seasons is by giving your dog’s coat a good blowout. This helps get rid of any dead hair before it has a chance to fall out on its own.
This is especially important with dogs who have a double coat.
Before blowing out their coat, you’ll want to start by brushing to remove any knots or tangles. Once you brush out their coat, take your pup outside to your backyard and use a blow dryer to blow out their fur. Start at the base of their neck and work your way down their back, taking care to avoid their eyes and ears.
You’d be surprised at how much fur they lose when you do this!
Watch this video to see how much fur can come out when you blow out your dog’s coat. It’s amazing how much fur is trapped in the undercoat, waiting to fall out.
Follow a brushing and bathing routine
One of the best ways to help reduce your dog’s shedding is by maintaining a regular brushing and bathing routine. This is even more important during the times of the year when your dog’s shedding is more excessive than usual.
If you usually brush your dog a couple of times a week, you’ll want to increase that to every day or every other day. During the shedding season, staying on top of brushing your dog makes it less likely you will find clusters of hair lying around your home.
Also, bathing is a great way to help collect any loose hair or dead fur. However, there’s such a thing as bathing your dog too often, so you don’t want to go overboard.
Bathing too frequently doesn’t give their skin a chance to produce natural skin oils that help keep their skin moisturized and healthy, ultimately resulting in increased shedding.
But not bathing often enough allows dirt and dander to collect, which can also impact the health of their skin and coat. A good general rule for bathing your dog is every 6-10 weeks. You need to plan for a bath when the seasons are changing.
Use the right brush to maintain healthy hair. Depending on your dog’s hair type, a bristle brush or slicker brush could be your best option.
Use supplements year-round
One of the most well-known supplements to help with shedding is fish oil. Fish oil is an excellent source of Omega-3 fatty acids, essential for maintaining healthy skin and a healthy coat.
Feeding your dog a healthy diet is critical, but many dog foods don’t provide enough Omega-3 fatty acids, so supplementing them is beneficial.
Another supplement that can help with shedding is probiotics. If your dog has a sensitive stomach and often has trouble digesting food, this will indirectly impact the quality of the dog’s skin and coat.
If their stomach isn’t absorbing their food’s nutrients properly, this will affect other areas of their body, including their skin and coat health. And when their skin and coat aren’t healthy, shedding is more pronounced.
Cover your couch
Using couch covers is also a handy little trick. Instead of cleaning your couch thoroughly in hopes of getting all the fur off it, you can use a couch cover. When the amount of hair on your couch becomes noticeably bad, take the cover off and throw it in the wash.
Quick and simple.
Another option is to use throws or blankets to cover up your furniture. You’d only have to worry about keeping your pup off the couch while the cover is in the washer!
Final thoughts on seasonal shedding
The more things you can do on this list, the easier time you’ll have with your dog’s seasonal shedding. Shedding is your dog’s natural way of regulating its temperature when the seasons change.
You can’t stop it entirely, but there are a few things you can do to make sure you can manage hair loss as easily as possible.
Alec Littlejohn grew up in a family of vets who discussed pet care daily. He’s also a member of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers, a recognized author by the Dog Writers Association of America, and is the lead editor at Pawscessories.
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