shedding hair

recovering_spendaholic

I have two wonderful little scottie cross dogs who are a year old. They are litter mates and their Mum was a pedigree scottie who got pregnant by a jack russell! Although they are from the same litter they couldn't look more different.

One is JUST like a little scottie and one is just like a Jack Russell. They are both black with a tiny bit of white.

The "scottie" girl has long hair but never sheds much, but the JR girl has short hair and sheds EVERYWHERE. They are groomed regularly by the groomer and I brush them often. The short haired little girl doesn't shed much hair into the grooming comb but when I pull gently at the hair on her back big tufts come out.

I remember years ago we had a scottie who we used to get hand stripped - do you think that would help this little one? I am getting really despondent about the amount of hairs - I adore both dogs but am fed up hoovering twice a day!! Any ideas?

Fire_Fox

What are you brushing with, have you tried a Furminator? Isn't hand stripping pulling the hair out by the roots? Seems cruel to me if so. Have you tried altering their diet to see if that affects the shedding?

krlyr

I'm not sure handstripping would work well on a JRT coat, I thought it was meant more for the wire coated dogs.
Fire Fox is right, a good diet will help keep the coat in optimum condition. Adding some kind of oil to the diet can help - I would go for something like a fish body oil. Plant oils aren't so well digested by dogs but cod liver oil can be a bit high in Vitamin A to give regularly. Something like salmon oil added to their food, or oily fish fed regularly, can really help the coat.
Grooming will help stimulate the skin to promote a healthy coat, even if you don't see loads of hair coming out. Something like the Zoom Groom, a rubber brush with rubber bristles, helps massage the skin as you brush.
I have used a Furminator before but I found that it can sometimes damage the outer coat a little bit.
Something I'd found that helps with moulting is washing the dog. I don't wash mine that often because it can strip the coat oils off, but it does bring out a lot of the loose hairs in a coat and mine definately shed a lot less in the few days after they've had a wash.

recovering_spendaholic

thanks for the replies. I will definately think about the fish oils and I may also get a furminator.

Katiehound

I would suggest the oil on the food too plus the zoom groom.
My hound seems to shed a lot of white hair and she loves the zoom groom. There are cheap imitations around which work just as well and only cost £1-they look like the real thing just come in brighter colours: the ones I have seen are labelled animal massagers!! If that won't work at least you won't have wasted a load of money!!

pawsies

JRT shed like crazy, white hairs everywhere! It seems to just be genetics, sorry.