coat condition!!! - Page 1

friends, i am very much apprehensive about the coat condition of the show quality female i have.I groom her every day without fail and give her a bath with a good dog shampoo once in a month.what i noticed is that the coat looks very much compressed and not glossy.Its more attached to the body and not silky.I feel that the inner coat is not taken care of as i use a half inch long bristles brush.I give her eukanuba and the coat looks fine.I never used a dryer.Please advise me on this and tell me what i need to do to make the hair look glossy and flashy.I shall be grateful for the advise.

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Instead of a bristle brush, which seldom makes it to the thick undercoating, use a "Rake" and comb.They will get thru to the undercoating and will not damage the hair shaft. Bristle brushs tend to damage the hair shaft ie making it rough. You can also use a brush with teeth that has the little knobs on the end. What type of shampoo are you using? If you are bathing that frequently I would recommend using either a good quality oatmeal shampoo or even better a shampoo called Euca-Leuca-Lime. It has tea tree oil in it which is beneficial for the hair as well as the skin. Using a regular shampoo purchased from the store can dry the hair and skin out. Check the ingrediants list ans steer clear of shampoos with alcohol. Using a good conditioner is a MUST if you are bathing that frequently. I prefer "Re Furbish" on my GSD, I have nice shiney plush coats, and always make sure you rinse any product you use extremely well, I see this problem the most with  owners that home bathe, They do not rinse well enough and it leaves a residue on the hair and can lead to dry skin

Therese.

Does she have enough healthy fat in her diet?  You may want to consider a better quality diet, or at least to supplement.  Fish oil, safflower oil, etc.

May I ask why you are bathing her that frequently?  That is surely stripping alot of the oils.  I haven't bathed mine in months and their coats are sooooooooo shiney.  Everyone at training comments on them.  I add 1 Tbs. of Linatone plus every night in their food also.

I buy the sardines in olive oil.  They each get a can with their food when I run out of their home made soups.

Safflower oil is more digestible to dogs than olive oil.  Many grocery stores carry it now because it's one of the healthy oils.  It's not that expensive either. 

thank you friends for the advise.here in india the weather is very hot and humid unlike the cold countries.So it becomes necessary to give a bath little frequently otherwise the body odor cannot be controlled.

A friend of mine suggested to use the hair dryer.Will it be useful to use a dryer???