Read About Choosing Dog Skin And Coat Care

There are a number of things you can do to help your dog keep her skin and coat vibrant and healthy.

Things to consider: Grooming and bathing, wound care, and allergies.

  • Eating and Cleaning - Skin and coat care starts with regular dog grooming and a proper diet. Bathing your dog regularly (though not too frequently) with a vitamin-rich dog shampoo and conditioner, followed by a thorough and gentle brushing will go a long way to keeping his coat healthy and shiny. So will feeding your dog foods high in natural fatty acids and maybe even adding a skin and coat supplement from the dog medicines department of your online pet store. Linatone and Lipiderm are among the most popular.

  • Injury Protection - When giving your dog medicines -- whether topically or internally -- for any abrasion, burn, cut, sore, rash, or other skin ailment, get some Bitter Apple and spray her coat around the area lightly, just enough to keep her from chewing on the wound and possibly infecting it.

  • Handling Allergies - If your dog is continually scratching, rubbing, licking, or chewing on areas on his own body -- especially her face, ears, feet, or belly -- she could have allergies. Roughly, 15% of dogs have allergies to things like mold, pollen, and household dust. At this point, a combination of treatments is probably called for -- something to relieve the symptoms of the allergies and something to heal the damage the poor dog has done to its own skin and coat.