By Carrie Hyde, The Spaw Pet Life Coach | February 5, 2023

Most people assume that bathing a dog is good for their skin and coat. After all, there is nothing softer or more cuddly than a freshly groomed canine. But bathing, especially when done too frequently or with harsh shampoos, can hurt the skin’s natural microbiome.

This begs the question: Is grooming good or bad for your dog’s skin?

Below, we’ll answer that question by taking an in-depth look at canine skin and what this organ needs to stay healthy. We’ll also look at what happens to skin when you over-bathe it and three steps you can take to support your dog’s coat health.

The Three Layers of Skin and How They Function

Skin is the largest organ of the body and makes up 12 to 24% of a dog’s total weight. This impressive organ helps protect us and our dogs from the outside environment through the interaction of three separate but connected tissue layers: the subcutis, dermis, and epidermis.

To understand how bathing affects your dog, you first need to understand how each of these tissue layers functions.

Subcutis

The subcutaneous layer of skin is the innermost layer, separating the skin from internal organs and muscles. It contains subcutaneous fat and muscle, including the twitch muscles, which are important for movement. Subcutaneous fat is important for insulation. It also acts as a shock absorber to protect internal organs and bones from injury.

Subcutaneous fat also acts as a reservoir packed with electrolytes, fluids, and energy that the skin needs to thrive. When the body doesn’t get enough calories or essential nutrients, this reservoir gets depleted and the skin becomes dry and brittle.

Dermis

The dermis is the middle layer of skin. It is filled with nerves, blood vessels, hair follicles, and other structures important for overall skin health and function. Sensory nerves in the dermis allow dogs to feel pressure and other sensations important for survival. Many motor nerves that facilitate movement also run through the dermis.

Two of the most important functions of the dermis are to secrete protein collagen and house specialized immune cells. Collagen is what makes skin firm while allowing it to stretch and move. The immune cells in the dermis provide a last line of defense against pathogens to keep them from entering the body.

Epidermis

The epidermis is the outermost layer of skin. This is the layer that protects the body from most foreign substances and pathogens.

The epidermis is made up primarily of four different kinds of cells:

• Keratinocytes – These cells provide a protective layer for the body that is constantly being renewed by new skin cells created in the bottom layer of the epidermis. Not only do keratinocytes keep substances out, but they also help keep fluids and nutrients in.
• Melanocytes – These cells are concentrated at the base of the epidermis, in hair follicles, and in oil and sweat glands. They are responsible for the production of melanin. This pigment is what gives hair and skin their color. It is also very important in protecting skin cells from UV damage.
• Langerhans – These are immune cells that play an important part in skin pathogen defense. They are very reactive to foreign substances and are the main reason skin rashes occur. Langerhans are sensitive to UV light and are easily damaged by anti-inflammatory drugs.
• Merkel – These cells play an important role in sensory detection in animals. They are most concentrated around sensory organs such as whiskers and tactile pads.

The epidermis is also important in the growth and regulation of skin appendages. These include nails, hair, and oil glands. Additionally, this outer skin layer is home to most of the beneficial micro biotics that make up the skin’s natural biome. These bacteria and single-celled organisms help the skin do everything from retain moisture to crowd out and attack pathogens.

How Skin Stays Healthy

Healthy skin is the first line of defense against dangerous substances, dehydration, and infection. How the skin stays healthy so that the rest of the body can stay healthy is a complex process that starts with regeneration and ends with a little help from beneficial microbes.

Regeneration

Keratinocytes make up the majority of epidermal skin cells. In both humans and animals, these cells are sloughed at regular intervals, with each cell lasting about four weeks before drying and falling off the body. The rate at which they are regenerated is highly variable. Hormones, medications, seasons, and even temperature all play a part in the rate of keratinocyte production.

What’s more, the simple act of rubbing the skin can contribute to an increase in skin cell production. This is true even though the rate at which the skin cells die always remains constant. This is how calluses are formed—skin cells are added faster than they fall away.

This continuous ebb and flow of skin cell production is meant to keep the skin healthy in response to changing internal and external conditions.

Natural Oil Production

The dermis and epidermis are home to thousands of oil glands responsible for secreting a substance called sebum.

Sebum is vital to maintaining healthy skin and coat. This greasy substance coats hairs to keep them shiny and resilient. It also helps keep the skin moist and pliable. But most importantly, sebum acts as an antibiotic, destroying many pathogens that come into contact with it.

Without enough sebum, skin and hair become brittle. When the epidermis dries out and cracks due to a lack of oil, it is at greater risk for infection. And without the antibiotic properties of sebum to kill pathogens that come into contact with the skin, these infections can quickly get out of hand.

Langerhans Cells

Langerhans cells, as we discussed above, play an important role in immune defense at the skin level. These specialized cells have the unique ability to move from the epidermis down to draining lymph nodes. They protect the skin and body by capturing bacteria and depositing them in the lymph system to be destroyed.

They also play an important role in the immune response to foreign substances beyond pathogens. These cells interpret the microenvironmental threat posed by substances and trigger the appropriate adaptive immune response by triggering inflammation or tolerance.

Beneficial Bacteria

The role of beneficial bacteria in maintaining skin health in dogs and humans is still a bit of a mystery. We can infer from recent studies into the gut biome that probiotics living on the skin work with the immune system to detect threats and signal immune cells in the body. They may even play a role in determining how much of and what types of different immune cells are created at any given time.

What we do know for sure is that beneficial bacteria help reduce infection by crowding out bad bacteria. Just as they do in the lining of the gut, good bacteria can help simply by taking up space that bad bacteria would otherwise populate. They may take this protection one step further by actively praying on pathogens.

How Overbathing Your Dog Affects Their Skin

When you over-bathe your dog, three things happen that interfere with skin health.

First, you wash away sebum, that valuable oil that keeps your dog’s coat shiny and their skin resilient. With enough overbathing, skin and fur become brittle and bad bacteria take up residence in cracks in the epidermis. Without antibiotic sebum present to control bacteria growth, skin infection becomes more likely.

Second, the constant rubbing and scrubbing of the skin induces faster production of keratinocyte cells. This leads to thicker skin throughout the body rather than just where it is needed on elbows and foot pads. Thicker skin is less pliable, contains fewer oil glands, and is more likely to crack and harbor bacteria.

Lastly, overbathing washes away good bacteria that help protect the skin. The same shampoo you’re using to wash away bad bacteria, odor, and dirt also destroys your dog’s beneficial skin biome. It takes time to replenish this biome, putting your dog at risk for infection and pathogen overpopulation in the meantime.

All these issues are likely if you wash your dog too often, even if you use gentle, natural shampoo. But they are even more likely if you use harsh shampoos.The Problem with Medicated Shampoos.

Medicated shampoos are made to wipe out bacteria, both good and bad. They are also designed to cut through oil and dirt, which means they take even more of that helpful sebum away. But worst of all, they often contain glucocorticoids, anti-inflammatory substances meant to counteract the skin’s natural reaction to the harsh chemicals the products contain. These glucocorticoids damage the Langerhans cells your dog’s skin relies on to protect it from disease.

While bathing can improve your dog’s skin and prevent infection when done on the occasion, it does more harm than good when done too frequently. This is especially true when you use medicated bathing products.

 

Three Steps to Healthier Skin for Your Dog

We know overbathing can cause serious skin issues. Rather than making skin conditions like dermatitis, hot spots, dandruff, and dry skin better, frequent baths are likely to make them worse.

But that doesn’t mean grooming isn’t an important part of your dog’s skincare routine. It is important, but it’s only one part of the overall picture.

Below, we outline three simple steps you can take to help nourish and support skin health. These steps focus on giving the skin what it needs to bolster its natural defenses rather than trying to fill gaps with artificial means.

1. Feed the Skin

Skin is by far the largest organ of the body, which means it has a large appetite. In fact, about 35% of the protein your dog eats is used to maintain skin and coat health. If your dog isn’t getting enough quality protein in their diet, skin problems are the first sign.

To maintain a healthy, resilient coat, you need to feed your dog a high-protein diet. But not any diet will do. Dry and wet commercial diets utilize low-quality meats and plant-based protein that your dog can’t process well. To support their skin, they need quality meat and organ cuts in the form of raw, freeze-dried, or dehydrated minimally processed meals.

Skin also requires a good amount of fat to keep it going. The subcutis layer, which supports the other two layers, is made up largely of fat cells and connective tissue. Too many extra calories and this layer becomes overfilled with fat. But too few high-quality fats in the diet, and it can’t function correctly. And neither can the two layers above.

A fresh or raw diet consisting of real meat and the occasional oily fish, will supply all the protein and fat your dog’s skin and coat needs to thrive.

To help the skin recover from infections or other problems, we also recommend adding probiotics and brewer’s yeast to your dog’s meals. Brewer’s yeast is packed with natural B vitamins that work together to improve coat and skin health. And fermented foods like yogurt, fermented goat’s milk, and apple cider vinegar pack billions of probiotics to help replenish the skin’s natural biome.

2. Use Water Baths

It’s difficult to give your dog fewer baths if they have a tendency to get dirty a lot. But bathing too often, as we know, is bad for their skin. One simple solution is to give “water baths” in between more substantial grooming.

Water baths are exactly what they sound like. Use warm water without shampoo or soap to remove dirt and debris from your dog’s coat. Use your hands to massage the coat and work the water down to their skin. This will help remove dead skin cells and anything else lurking deep down. But it won’t disrupt the skin’s natural oil layer or damage the healthy cells beneath.

Equally important, water baths won’t impact the natural microbiome on your dog’s skin. If you’ve over bathed in the past, then this biome will take time to regrow. Water baths are a great go-between to give the skin time to heal while keeping your dog relatively clean.

Once you’ve bathed your dog, whether it was a water bath or full grooming, we recommend using an enzyme and probiotic skin and coat spray. These products contain beneficial microbes and enzymes that help balance and reinvigorate the skin after a bath. They are especially helpful for dogs who have had their microbiome wiped out by shampoos or antibiotics. Just like taking oral probiotics, these sprays can help re-establish a healthy biome much more quickly.

3. Avoid Antibiotics and Medicated Shampoos

As we discussed at length above, using medicated shampoos destroys the skin’s natural defenses. Not only does it rinse away that valuable layer of antibiotic and protective sebum oil, but it damages Langerhans cells that protect the skin from infection. It also kills the beneficial bacteria and organisms that help crowd out and attack pathogens.

Internal antibiotics are just as damaging to the skin’s natural microbiome. Just as these medications wipe out bacteria in your gut, they also clear the skin of microbes. But it is much more difficult to repopulate the massive area of your dog’s skin than it is their gut lining.

While both medicated shampoos and antibiotics may provide temporary relief from infection, the problem is only likely to get worse in the long run. These products will wipe out the good with the bad. They’ll also reduce the skin’s ability to heal itself. Once more pathogens find their way onto your dog, and they will, there’ll be nothing to stop them from causing more problems. This often leads to a cycle of bathing to eradicate problems caused by overbathing.

Support Your Dog’s Health by Supporting the Largest Organ of the Body

To wipe out skin problems for good, you need to stop focusing on the problem and start supporting the solution. By giving your dog’s skin what it needs to care for itself, you can get rid of skin problems and help ensure they don’t come back.

Part of this process means changing how you groom. Swap out irritating medicated shampoos for products that support the skin’s microbiome. And only use them on the occasion to prevent cleansing away protective oils and damaging your dog’s natural immune responses. In between, use gentle warm water baths to remove dirt and debris from your dog’s coat.

This new approach to bath time combined with a biologically appropriate, high-protein diet is your dog’s ticket to better skin and coat health for a lifetime.

By Carrie Hyde, The Spaw Pet Life Coach | February 5, 2023

Written for The Spaw by Sara Seitz, Professional Freelance Writer and Novelist with Pen and Post

Carrie Hyde is the founder, owner, and Pet Life Coach of The Spaw in Tustin, CA. Carrie’s extensive experience and understanding of pet nutrition and coaching enabled her to create The Spawdcast, a podcast dedicated to educating pet parents and pet industry professionals on ALL the options available to their pets. Her mission is to open pet-owners eyes to the questions they may not even know to ask, to shine a light on the many myths that have been part of pet care for decades, and to offer whole solutions for their pets. Carrie Hyde is a certified pet nutritionist with the goal of helping pet parents & pet professionals with a new understanding of how to care for pets in a “whole and natural” way.