My Australian Shepherd sheds enough in the fall to make a new dog every week. It doesn’t matter if I brush her every single day, and even multiple times a day. She just sheds. A LOT. Sometimes I look at all the hair I’ve just removed from Paisley and wondered how she has any hair left on her body at all.
You might have noticed the same thing in your hunting dogs. The only flaw dogs have, in my opinion, is shedding. And this time of year, their shedding tends to ramp up to full power.
Dogs actually shed with every season change, but we don’t tend to notice it as much in the other seasons as we do in the fall. It seems strange that they lose their hair right before it starts getting cold – and it’s highly annoying that they really start shedding about the time we start keeping them inside more. Why can’t they drop all that hair in the summer, when they spend most of their time outside?
In the fall, dogs shed their undercoat so that they can grow in a new, fresh batch of insulating fur for the winter. All that stuff coming out of your dog right now is old, broken-down hair that wouldn’t keep them as warm as the new stuff that’s pushing the old stuff out.
But keep in mind that your dog might shed more than usual if he has a flea or tick problem, or allergies. And shedding can also be a symptom of illness, including cancer. So if your dog is shedding more than you think he should be, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go get him checked out by a vet.
Regular brushing can help, too, if it’s just the seasonal shedding. But if your dog is like Paisley, and you brush him three times a day, you probably wish there were a market for dog fur. If there were, Paisley would be a gold mine.
