Any dog pros out there?

Question

I have a large golden retreiever. She sheds like crazy. We brush she sheds-we brush she sheds-we brush...you get the point! Anyone have advice on how we can minimize the shedding? Its getting out of hand where we cant even walk around the house without being govered in golden fluff. Anyone have some little secrets they can share?

Answer 1

I suggest using a supplement like Shed-stop... http://www.worry-free.net/mrsallens/shed-stop.html

Or Dr. Maggies... http://www.drmaggie.ca/products_skin.html

They are liquid that you put on your dogs food they usually have essential fatty acids, fish oils, suflower oils etc and I have found they work quite well. However I also suggest feeding your dog a high quality food that promises improved skin and coat like Nutro Natural Choice.... http://www.nutroproducts.com/naturalchoicedog.asp

Even better is Natural Balance.... http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/dogformulas/home.html

Canidae... http://www.canidae.com/dogs/all_life_stages/dry.html

Eagle Pack, Holistic select.... http://www.eaglepack.com/Pages/HS_Dog.html

Answer 2

make sure you have your dog on a food that the first ingredient is meat.

Then, do not use a regular brush. You will never get it all. For a double coated breed, you need an undercoat rake. You can find them at most pet supply places and on line. It looks just like the name. A rake. It gets the undercoat (which is the golden fluff) out. Make sure you brush outside.

You can also bathe in warm water. Warm water releases hair, cold water holds hair. This is a show trick. The hair that is released is hair that was about to release anyway, just encourages it to all release at once. The hair that is held (cold water) is only held for an additional day or two - as in going to a show.

When you brush, have a spray bottle and spritz lightly from time to time. Do not soak. Moist hair does not break and is easy to brush. Like I said, do it very, very lightly.

Double coated breeds shed twice per year. Spring is obvious but they are shedding now because winter coats are coming in and pushing the last of last year's coat out.

Good luck

Answer 3

You can shave the dog, but that takes away from the look of the breed. You can have the dog groomed at least once a month. Honestly the best way is to keep brushing. With a long hair breed their is not much you can do. I did hear that if a dog goes inside where it is warm to outside where it is cold it will tend to shed alot more, due to the fact that the coat is trying to shed when warm. I don't know how true that is. Anyway good luck.

Answer 4

We use a thing that looks like a hand held rake for our dog .Its made by a company called bamboo at petsmart and other stores.I have actually tried every brush out there and that seems to work the best on my Alaskan husky. The shedender works good for cats lol but I found it was useless with Smokey.An there are just certain dogs that shed alot ours sheds bad every time the season changes.Because he has 2 coats.Also at the groomer they have a speacial type vaccum that can suck up the loose hair on the dog.Hope that helps:)

Answer 5

This is one of the costs of having a golden. In all honestly and not to sound callous, but if it's a major concern, it probably should have been addressed before getting the dog.

Shaving her won't help too much. They will still shed. The hairs will simply be shorter.

You can attempt to put her on a higher quailty diet. Something like Evo, Canidae, Wellness, or Natural Balance (NOT Nutro, Natural Recipe, Nature's best, etc) may help decrease the amount of hair that she turns over.

If this is a new thing, you may want to have her checked out to see if it's something medical. My dog sheds more when she is sick.

Good luck to you in all this! : )

Answer 6

your dogs are most likely not getting enough VFAs in their diet. The easiest way to supplement them is to get cold pressed fish oil caps 1000mg (you can get them at gnc, walmart, etc). 2 caps a day will do it, for a loading does you can give three to four for the first few weeks. It will take two to three weeks to start seeng results, and after about 6 weeks the problem should be all but gone. I have a few pups that will eat them out of hand (they like the stinky) a few others I have to slip them onto a piece of cheese or lunch meat or something similar. These are very inexpensive (a 90 day supply for one dog is about $15.00) and work much better then the animal formulated shed stop products. As a bonus, this will greatly improve coat and skin health and they are good for the heart.

Answer 7

depending where you live and depending on teh groomer, sometimes it common to get retrievers shaved even if only a little. This does not really stop the shedding but does reduce it a little. Other than that, get yourself a brush with thin bristles and brush away. Try to make it one of the aluminium brushes with the little spikes that look like they scrape. They just look like they hurt but really don't (i've tried them on my brothers hair and he says it didn't hurt). These are the best ones i can think of. Also, when you give him a bath (every couple of weeks or months i'm assuming) spend sometime really brushing him down. Retreivers are just like Shepherds, they require a lot of maintenance to the coat. Also, sometimes but not always, the diet plays a role in it. Try to make sure you are giving your dog a good diet with a healthy food. And, try brushing him/her AT LEAST once a day. This helps cut down on teh hair you find around the home.

Answer 8

there is nothing you can do to prevent shedding. You bought a long haired dog. Had the same problem with my sheltie for all of his 13 years. I can wear black now but miss the dog like crazy. Keep brushing

Answer 9

I am a dog groomer. The bad news is all dogs shed. Very little can be done but there are a few things. What brand of food do you feed her? Cheap food causes a host of skin and coat problems. A trip to the groomers for a lo-shed treatment is also an option.

Answer 10

Sounds like maybe she is shedding more than what would be considered normal. She may have a skin condition causing her to shed more. My daughter has 2 goldens and they do shed tremendously in the early summer but not in the late summer/fall.

Answer 11

I used to have a German Shepherd like that each day we would brush a bag load of fur from her and she still had heaps more to shed all over the place if its really getting beyond a joke you could have her clipped then the hairs would be shorter but its a breed that you have to brush all the time unfortunately