How Do I Tell If My Dog Has an Environmental Allergy?

So… I’m guessing your dog is scratching? That’s usually the first reason that people think their dogs have allergies.  Scratching dogs are not because of allergies all the time. Some of the time, yes, butt not all scratching dogs scratch due to allergies.

Still, it’s a great time to talk about environmental allergies.

Environment, in most cases,  refers to pollen. Things falling or landing  on the ground.

This makes sense.  Look how tall your dog is compared to how tall you are. You don’t walk around with your face down at ground level like dogs do. So- if it’s environmental allergies, your dog goes outside, fills his face full of pollen, and his body starts itching.

So now you may understand better why I like bathing. Because if your dog is allergic to pollen, give him a bath. And if the itching stops. Bingo! You figured out that it’s environmental allergies. (Be careful not to  use oatmeal shampoo because anybody who’s allergic to oatmeal on the inside is allergic to oatmeal on the outside.)

I really do not like those veterinary products that are supposedly called shampoo. This is because they’re really incredibly harsh chemicals that can absorb through the skin and cause problems for either the human or the dog or both.

Generally speaking, if a bath makes the itching less, then the cause of the itching is often environmental allergy. However, there are times when this is not the case. Some dogs have really itchy skin because their biome is so screwed up that the imbalance in the gut is affecting the little guys crawling around on the skin. These same dogs will have improvement from a bath, simply because you’re washing the bacteria and yeast that create itch off of the skin.

The other thing that helps you determine if it’s environmental allergy, Is if it’s seasonal. Where are you in the country? The world? Some of you have snow, but oak trees are pollinating in Florida. Something’s blooming in California. Your season may be different than somebody else’s season.