It can be incredibly unnerving when your dog begins to loose hair. However, there are a large variety of reasons for dog hair loss and a lot of those reasons depend upon the type of breed you own. Another thing you need to take into account is if the hair loss you’re experiencing with your dog is natural or seasonal or dependent upon the age of your dog or if the dog hair loss is something more severe having to do with diet, allergic reactions or immune system problems. It would be impossible to go into all of the reasons here, but there are some general things you need to take into account.

False Alarm Dog Hair Loss

It’s natural for dogs to loose their hair on a regular basis and this is due to natural shedding, temperature changes and so on. If you find tuffs of hair around your house on occasion, there is no need to be alarmed, especially when it comes to double coated breeds such as collies, german shepherds, huskies and so on.

These double coated breeds are protected from the winter cold and, when it gets warm, they are insulated from the heat. But, when the whether warms up they will usually begin loosing large clumps of hair that seem to come out of no where.

We have a white german shepherd mix named Popcorn where I work at a dog daycare. When the weather began warming up this year, we were literally pulling gigantic clumps of white hair from Popcorn and it covered the ground. Sometimes this can worry people, but in this case it was just natural and not a reason to worry.

Another natural dog hair loss situation that some people may become worried about is the transition from puppy hair to adult hair. A puppy, once its adult fur begins coming in, will rapidly loose clumps of fur everywhere and, at times, will have patches of skin showing.

Cause For Alarm Hair Loss in Your Dog

I’ll give you two quick examples of hair loss that is a cause for concern so that you can recognize these signs in your own dog.

Lady’s Story

I recently adopted a puppy — an American Pitbull Terrier who is now 7 Months old named Lady. When I got Lady she had not been vetted at the correct time. When I took her into the vet she had an unusual amount of worms and a lot of other problems. After I got her vetted I felt safe and thought she would be fine. However, I began noticing her chewing on herself.

A couple of weeks later I noticed Lady’s pink skin showing through her short-hair coat. It was noticeable because there were patches of it forming on her right side. I knew this was a cause for concern because hair shouldn’t be falling out in clumps like that causing patches of skin to be showing. So, I took her into the vet.

The vet scraped some skin samples and informed me that Lady had a form of Mange. I got scared, especially when he said that the bacteria they found on my dog was common with all dogs, but most dogs develop an immunity to it. Because Lady was vetted so late and had so many worms she had a lowered immune system and couldn’t fight the bacteria so it was eating away at her coat and skin like Mange. Even worse, the vet informed me that, back in the 50s, they would have no choice but to put the dog down. There were only two treatments currently available and both were dangerous.

Lady is finished with her first month of treatment and seems to be doing fine only because we caught it INCREDIBLY early. So, when you see patches of hair dissapearing you need to take your dog into the vet, because that is NOT natural.

Lucky’s Story

Lucky is a Chow-Chow mix that often boards over at the doggy daycare where I work. Because Lucky’s parents told us her dog is allergic to a lot of foods such as peanut butter and beef as well as a variety of chemicals we made extra certain to keep Lucky safe.

But, during the winter time we started having freezing temperatures, even here in Georgia. One particularly cold night we sprayed the yards with a disinfectant, which is required nightly. We never allow the dogs out into the yard until an hour after we’ve sprayed the yards. The problem is that the spray froze this particular night and Lucky must have licked the spray in its frozen state.

Lucky when home the next day, but it wasn’t but four hours after Lucky went home that we received a call from the owner saying that Lucky’s hair is falling out at an alarming rate. She asked if we had accidentally given Lucky peanut butter or beef or anything else. Finally, we realized that, since the chemical outside had frozen, Lucky must have gotten into it.

Lucky had to go to the vet and turned out OK, but Lucky’s hair loss was due to allergic reactions.

Prevention of Dangerous Dog Hair Loss

Lady’s hair loss was due to a lowered immune system and Lucky’s hair loss was due to being allergic to a lot of things. These are the two most common causes of alarming dog hair loss. The best way you can prevent dog hair loss, keep your dog’s immune system healthy and keep your dog’s diet well balanced is to do the following:

• Don’t feed your dog scraps from the table

• Keep your dog away from household chemicals

• Don’t buy cheap dog food. Buy well-balanced formulas for your type of dog

• Provide your dog with an immune-system boosting, healthy coat promoting all-in-one dog supplement

• Get your dog vetted correctly and keep it up to date on yearly and semi-annual vaccinations

It’s as simple as that folks! Most alarming hair loss in dogs can be traced back to diet and vaccinations, which effect the immune system, and without a healthy immune system your dog can develop all kinds of problems, many of which manifest themselves with hair loss in your dog.

The best dog supplement I’ve found is Proud Dog Complete Wellness all-in-one health supplement ideal for all breeds and ages of dogs. Not only does it boost your dogs immune system and promote a healthy, shiny coat it also boosts the digestive system, provides essential fatty acids, adds extra support for joint health and provides 24 essential vitamins and minerals ideal for your dog’s body and mind.

If you don’t want to deal with hair loss due to such an easy-to-control factor like diet and essential supplements then all you need to do is feed your dog a well-balanced formula and sprinkle Proud Dog Complete Wellness dog supplement in your dog’s food once a day.