Ever Notice How Many Times Your Dog Scratches In A Day?

Food Allergies

While we may think we are feeding our dogs a healthy diet, whether your dog eats dry kibble, or expensive homemade gourmet brands. Most skin irritations are caused by food allergies that your dog consumes daily. Some of the most common food allergies we will look at are:

Corn/Grain fed cattle

Let’s first discuss corn. It originated in the Americas in southern Mexico over 9000 years ago. Today it is the leading crop grown in North America. Used for a variety of specifications, our focus here is cattle feed. The cattle feed is comprised of genetically modified corn, made robust to withstand harsh weather and commercial herbicides. This modification causes problems in digestion. The same cattle and corn are put into our dog’s food. Since their skin is the largest organ, the first sign of digestion weakness in dogs is itching.

Wheat

The second food allergy is wheat. Most commercial brand dry kibble uses wheat as a filler. Let’s look at this a little deeper. The dog was developed with a short digestive trac designed to only digest meat with little grass and berries. Adding wheat to a dog’s digestive trac simply complicates things.

Breed Specific

While some breeds are more prone to skin rashes.

The top 9 breeds prone to sensitive skin are:

The Bull dog

Pit bull Terrier

The boxer

Bull terrier

Golden Retriever

German Shepherd

Labrador Retriever

Maltese

Bichon Frise

Health

A dog’s skin is a good indication of their health. Signs to be aware of; red and scaly skin that is itchy, bumpy, warm. While their sensitivities can be food related, they can also be environmental. VOCS from carpets, flooring, paints, furniture to plastics. Your dog’s immune system was not designed to live indoors in our modern homes with toxic sprays and chemicals. When focusing on the culprit that is causing your pets skin distress, try elimination.

Hygiene

If your dogs like to play outside alot, get into that puddle on the trail and rub themselves all over, go outside when its raining and love getting wet, its time for a bath. Using shampoos that eliminate flees, bugs, bacteria is a must.  If its serious, you will require a more medicated solution. Most of all, their space, the area they spend most of their day also needs to be clean and free from any bacteria. The next step in keeping your dog scratch and allergy free is their bedding.

Canvas

A natural cotton that is not treated with any harmful chemicals. Back in the day, all fabrics where 100% canvas. Now its almost impossible to find anything cotton and its leading to more skin issues then ever before. The same applies for dogs. The canvas we use is 100% cotton and breathable. This means that air can travel throughout the fibers of the fabric just like a bandage would. We wouldn’t cover our wounds with plastic, would we. You need cotton, and we need more of it in our loves. In our dogs life. See Mammoth Canvas dog beds. if you are interested in a natural earth to goodness solution.