One of the most powerful and intelligent dogs are German Shepherd. If you are considering adopting a German Shepherd in your home then let me tell you it can be very fun and exciting for you as well as your family member.
But, before you adopt any kind of pet in your home, you need to consider various factors because different elements can play a key role in affecting your lifestyle to different degrees.
One of the most important questions that come to our mind is are German Shepherd hypoallergenic.
If anyone in your family or even you have allergies to dogs that it can be very concerning for you because any dog can Trigger your allergies very easily. So, let’s know if German Shepherd is going to cause any allergy or not.
Are German Shepherd Hypoallergenic?
No, German Shepherds are not considered as hypoallergenic dog breed according to the list of the American Kennel Club. However, it can be controlled but they can shed twice a year very aggressively in shedding season.
By shedding season, we mean that your German Shepherd is going to shed the most in the autumn and in the late spring because they will need to layer up for the seasonal change.
Adding to that, they also produce danders that is alone enough to bother you are allergic.
So, it can be very difficult to control your allergies if you don’t know what is the right measures that you should take to keep your German Shepherd danders forming and shedding at a minimum.
Allow me to tell you that German Shepherds are very kind, loyal, strong, intelligent, and playful dogs. They are very high energy dogs who will love to roam around, play around, and run around your house.
Every dog runs anywhere and scratches themself against anything to itch themselves. At that moment, their body releases or spread small particles into the air which is often known as danders which is allergic to people who have an oversensitive immune system.
Plus, if you are suffering from allergies to animals then you will also need to know what are the medications that can help you out in keeping those chances of allergies getting triggered
If you want to learn more about their danders, shedding, hair, and many other things that can Trigger your allergies then stay with this article. In this guide, I am going to give you some space of information about shedding and danders forming and other elements that can affect your allergy.
Here, you are also going to know how you can keep your German Shepherd danders forming and shedding at a minimum as possible. There are some tips for families with allergy, So, make sure to check all those.
Achieve all the goals that have been stated here. Now moving forward let’s learn first why your German Shepherd is not considered as a hypoallergenic dog breed.
Why German Shepherds Are Not Considered As Hypoallergenic?
Before I tell you why your German Shepherd Don’t claim, the title of hypoallergenic dog breed, you just need to know what exactly the word hypoallergenic means.
The simple word hypoallergenic means that the animal that you are going to keep in your home is not going to cause a trigger any kind of allergy to you or anybody around it.
There can be tons of advantages of having a hypoallergenic dog breed in homes like you or the one suffering from allergies don’t need to take any kind of precaution or medication around their German Shepherd.
They can also enjoy their life with their dogs which makes it very easier for owners to maintain them. But, do you really believe that there is a 100% hypoallergenic dog present in this world.
If you do then let me tell you, that there is no true 100% hypoallergenic dog breed present in this world. The hypoallergenic dog breeds are not entirely void of danders and shedding.
Hypoallergenic dog breed also sheds and can have some danders around it but the only reason behind them claiming the title of hypoallergenic dog breed is their low shedding feature, its skin & coat texture and low danders forming on the skin.
Most of the time it has been seen that hypoallergenic dog breed carries fewer allergens that can irritate people. After knowing that there is no true hypoallergenic dog breed that doesn’t void of shedding and danders forming, you need to know why your German Shepherd is not considered as a hypoallergenic dog breed.
Talking about German Shepherd, you need to understand that your German Shepherd comes with a thick coat that has short hair in it. The thick coat can shed very aggressively if not maintained properly.
Plus, they also required property grooming to be done on their coat to keep their shedding at a minimum. Normally, danders forming and shedding directly depends on the quality of skin and coat they have and what kind of grooming and diet they have been got till now.
So, a good grooming and diet routine is going to play a huge role in keeping the shed at a minimum. Your German Shepherd also doesn’t claim the title of hypoallergenic dog breed because of their aggressive shedding in the shedding season.
In the autumn, they will need to shed some hairs/fur so that they can make some room for the new thick hair growth that can keep them warm and nice throughout the winter days.
On the other hand, in the spring season, they will also need to layer up in which they are new hair will grow in to replaces the old hair in which their old hair is going to subsequently fall out.
This kind of Coat that they developed in the spring season will keep them cool in the summer days. At that moment, you will notice them shedding their winter coat.
With the constant shedding, there will be for danders forming as well as danders shedding from your German Shepherd. That danders can fallout directly on your home floor, on your bed, on your couch, in the kitchen, in the bathroom, and in many other places.
In the shedding season, you can even notice their danders getting stuck on your cloth and unfortunately, you can also find it on the food sometimes if you don’t learn how to manage them in shedding season.
Their urine and saliva also produce some allergic protein which seems to be one of the major causes of allergies getting triggered. In German Shepherd, the given protein can be found in that saliva and during.
After knowing why your German Shepherd doesn’t claim the title of hypoallergenic dogs, you need to understand what are the elements that affect someone’s allergy.
Here’s What Triggers To People Allergy
After giving you a rough idea of why your German Shepherd doesn’t claim the title of hypoallergenic, there are few things that you need to learn about your German Shepherd that can really trigger your allergy.
Normally, it has been noticed that there is three major causes of allergies getting triggered in people. According to the surveys and researches of 2019 done in the United States, people seem to get irritated with their danders as well as saliva. So, the three major cause of allergies are
- Danders
- Urine
- Saliva
These three are the major irritants that can irritate anyone’s allergy. That is why there is few things that you need to learn to keep the chances of getting in contact with any kind of allergens that your German Shepherd is going to produce in the future.
You need to understand that you can’t completely stop your German Shepherd from shedding or from producing danders as danders are good but not that much good to people who suffer from allergies. Anders is actually dead skin that every single dog produces in his lifetime.
So, it doesn’t matter if you want to stop your German Shepherd shedding completely because they are going to shed anyhow as it is a simple cycle that is going to happen throughout your German Shepherd lifetime.
However, some tips can really help you in keeping the shedding and danders forming at a minimum. From here, I am going to give you some rough idea of the tips that can really help you in keeping your German Shepherd shedding at a minimum. So, if you really want to learn the step, stay with this article
Tips For Families With Allergies
There are lots of tips that I can give you to keep the chances of getting in contact with any kind of allergens that your German Shepherd might produce in the future.
So, here I am going to give you very useful tips that can really help you in keeping that dander forming and shedding at a minimum.
So, before I tell you what are the tips, you need to understand that if you feel any kind of allergy getting triggered in you or your family member then don’t be rude or harsh on your dog because it is more your fault than your dog.
Actually, the possible reason behind those allergies getting triggered can be not taking the right precaution or medications that is needed. You have to keep them healthy and allergy-free.
Don’t expect that your German Shepherd will be the reason of getting allergies triggered in you or anyone in your family member.
If you really want to keep them allergen-free then don’t avoid any of these tips because all of them can make a huge difference.
Every single tip is going to make a slight difference in keeping the danders forming and shedding at a minimum and if you follow any 5 of these types, let me tell you that it is going to give you the maximum long-lasting effective results in keeping the danders forming and shedding at a minimum. So, let’s begin with those tips
German Shepherd Grooming
Maybe right now, you don’t think that grooming is going to be as much as effective as it sounds but let me tell you something, proper and effective grooming can make a huge difference in determining how your allergy is going to react around your German Shepherd.
So, don’t ever ignore the power of effective grooming because it can really help you in preventing too much danders forming and shedding in the future.
So, talking about the proper grooming that can really be very effective in keeping the danders forming and shedding at minimum, there are two most important factors of growth.
One is brushing your German Shepherd coat and the other one is bathing them properly that is ideal and effective to keep their shedding at a minimum. Let’s begin with the first one
How To Brush Your German Shepherd Coat?
Before I tell you how you should brush your dog, you need to understand that you should have the right De-Shedding Tools and equipment to brush their coat’.
Adding to that, you should understand that you can’t stop your German Shepherd from shedding completely but somehow with proper brushing, you can keep their shedding at a minimum. Now, let’s learn the first thing that you should learn about the brushing
You should always make sure that you brush their coat’ regularly. If you don’t have that much time then you can also brush their coat three or four times a week but don’t be less than that.
Adding to that, you should always remember that you need to use a good quality of soft brush that can perfectly suit your German Shepherd coat need.
Let me tell you, different types of Brush is available in the market but not all of them is going to be the ideal brush of your German Shepherd. If you don’t have that much idea about what would be an ideal brush of your German Shepherd then let me clear that for you.
If a dog comes with a single-layered coat on its body then they will require a pin brush but on the other hand, if a dog comes with a double layer coat then they will require a slicker brush.
So, after knowing that, I hope that you understand that your German Shepherd needs a slicker brush.
Adding to that if you have a slicker brush already then it’s a very good thing because you don’t need to spend any kind of money but if you don’t have any slicker brush then it is highly recommended to invest in good quality the slicker brush.
After giving you an idea what kind of Brush would be ideal for your German Shepherd, I would recommend you to buy or to check this brush because it’s a good quality soft-bristle slicker fining brush that can really suit your German Shepherd need.
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This bristle brush has been tested on thousands of dog breeds and let me tell you German Shepherds are one of them. Your German Shepherd will not feel any kind of pain if you brush them with this brush because the brush’s teeth is very soft.
This is the recommended slicker brush and let me tell you that I have three huskies in my home and I use this slicker brush and it works perfectly fine. It is not only reliable or durable but can also give you a long-lasting effect.
After knowing what kind of Brush you need, let me give you some ideas how should you brush your German Shepherd coat. let me tell you, you should always brush your German Shepherd coat in the direction of their hair growth.
If you brush your German Shepherd coat against their hair growth direction then it will be very painful for your dog. Now, after knowing how you should brush your dog coat, you need to understand why brushing their coat is very effective and how is it going to make any kind of difference in shedding.
Let me tell you that when you brush your dog’s coat, their skin releases natural oil all over their body and when you use good quality of the brush or the brush that has been recommended here, it will help those natural oil getting distributed on other parts of their body.
This will help their skin in preventing from getting dry. Dry skin can promote more danders forming and excessive shedding. When their skin is moisturized all the time with their natural oil, there is skin produces less danders and keep their shedding at a minimum.
I hope that you understand why brushing their coat is going to be very effective. Now after learning how you can brush your German Shepherd coat, you need to understand how you should bath your German Shepherd to keep the shedding as well as danders forming at minimum.
How To Bath Your German Shepherd?
Let me tell you if you think that you should bath your German Shepherd too often then let me get it clear for you when you bath a dog too often it makes their skin dry.
Adding to that, their coat can also look very unnatural and unhealthy with frequent baths. That is why I would recommend you to bath your German Shepherd only when you feel the need.
From our point of view, it would be ideal if you bath your German Shepherd once a month or every 6 weeks.
Adding to that, you need to understand that whenever you bath your German Shepherd, their natural oil gets washed away with water which is not good for you.
Adding to that, always bath them with good quality shampoos to ensure that their all loose dead hair that is ready to fall out right on your cloth or your house floor can be easily washed away with the water.
Their natural oil can easily get washed away with the water, leaving their skin dry, so you need to use a good quality shampoo that is going to ensure that their natural oil doesn’t get wash away and their skin is always moisturized.
Good quality of Natural Shampoo is going to ensure that their skin is moisturized before the bath, during the bath, and after the bath. Good quality of Natural Shampoo can also help you in removing in washing away all dead loose hair that often gets stuck in your German Shepherd coat.
Here is some recommendation for proper Natural Shampoos that are ideal for your dog. It can help you in removing and washing all the dirt, danders, dead hairs and allergens effectively.
German Shepherd Dietary Requirement
I hope that I don’t need to tell you that a diet plays a very important role in keeping your German Shepherd healthy.
Let me tell you, if you are feeding your German Shepherd with the cheap foods then it is very bad because most of the time, it has been observed that even you look for the ingredient and the nutrition, cheap foods do have the nutrition but don’t have the right balance of nutrition that is essential for your German Shepherd to keep their skin healthy.
Healthy skin is going to ensure that their shedding is at a minimum and there will be less dander forming going on. You should always feed your dog with high quality of food because high-quality food always contains high-quality ingredients and protein-rich ingredients.
Adding to that, I would recommend you to feed your dog with foods that have fish ingredient because fish are very helpful for owners who want to keep their German Shepherd’s skin healthy.
Fish help their dogs to keep their skin healthy as well as in making them look natural.
Here are some food recommendations that I would recommend you feed your dog because these are the perfect foods that is going to ensure that your German Shepherd all dietary needs and nutritional needs get fulfilled.
These foods can also help you in keeping their skin healthy and can prevent shedding and danders from forming. Now, after knowing what kind of food you should feed to your German Shepherd, you should understand that you should never feed your leftover kitchen food or any kind of food that contains grain in it.
Grains are harmful to dogs and that is why it is advisable to keep grains away from your dog. You should also not feed your German Shepherd with kitchen leftover food even you may have noticed some owner feeding them.
Apart from that, you should also ensure that you are feeding your German Shepherd with the food that is is made from the protein-rich ingredients.
Now after knowing what kind of food you should feed and what you should avoid feeding them, you need to understand what are the add-ons that you can add to ensure that their skin will never be unhealthy.
In terms of the addon, you can also add some supplements like Omega 3 fatty acids supplements. When someone wants to keep their dog skin healthy then Omega and fatty acids supplements come very handily.
Plus, you should always feed your German Shepherd with Omega supplement that has been derived from fish.
You should make sure that the supplement has been derived from wild fish rather than farmed pond fish.
Now after knowing what are the good supplement that you can feed let’s move forward and learn what are the things that you need to keep in mind to keep the chances of getting in contact with any kind of allergens at a minimum
After telling you what are the tips that can help your German Shepherd in keeping their shedding and danders performing at minimum, Here is some tips that can help you in lessening the possibility of getting in contact with allergies.
Teach Your Dog Not To Lick You And Make Them Stay At One Place
This is one of the most important tips that you can apply to your dog. You should always teach your dog how to keep their tongue to themselves so can you can avoid any kind of saliva allergen from irritating you.
Plus, if you don’t like getting licked from your dog then you should always teach your dog not to lick you. Adding to that, because your German Shepherd is a very intelligent dog, it can be very easy to train them and to make follow your command easily.
You should always make sure that you teach your dog how to stay in one place whenever you order them or command them.
This training can be very helpful when you want to make them stay away from the dining room or kitchen area when you will be having your dinner or lunch because their tiny little dander that can easily travel in the air and can come in contact with you or with your food.
Their danders can fall right into your food if you allow your dog to be around you when you are having your lunch or dinner.
Bedroom Off-Limit And No Dogs On The Couch
It is one of the best tips that you can learn because you should always teach your dog to stay away from your bed or not to spend most of the time on your couch.
Actually, when you get free time, you mostly spend your extra time either on your bed or on your couch. So, if you allow your German Shepherd to be on your bed or on your couch then their danders can fall right into your bed or on the couch where you will be putting your face, hand, and other parts of the body.
Their dander can get stuck right to your palm through which you will be touching your nose, eyes, head, mouth, and other parts of the body unconsciously allowing those irritants to get right into places where it shouldn’t be.
It can make you feel miserable. So you need to make sure that you teach your dog not to be on your bed and just ensure that they won’t enter your bedroom.
You can close your bedroom door because it will give your dogs some kind of notion that this is not a place where a dog can be roaming around. You can also apply the same method in the kitchen area.
Wash Your Hand After Petting Your German Shepherd
I hope that I don’t need to tell you that you should always wash your hand after you are done handling your German Shepherd.
We are not saying that you shouldn’t spend quality time with your German Shepherd but if you ignore a proper hand wash after you are done playing with them, you can allow those irritants to make you feel itch around your body.
To get itch-free, you might also have to take a quick bath. Adding to that, you should also make sure that all of your family members wash their hands whenever they touch their dog because if they ignore a proper hand wash then unconsciously they can put their hand on the mouth and it is not good. It is very smart to wash your hand properly with a good hand wash.
Vacuum Your Home Regularly
Their danders can get stuck into the corners where it can be very hard or even impossible to reach with your hand. That is why we would recommend you use a good powerful vacuum cleaner that can help you in reaching those places where you can’t reach with your bare hands.
You should vacuum your home regularly because if your German Shepherd is going to spend most of the time inside or indoor, that there will be some hairs and danders on the floor that needs to be cleaned.
Adding to that, you need to ensure that you don’t ignore any kind of corners because you can find their danders on every corner of your house which is not good and it needs to be vacuumed perfectly.
If you don’t know what would be a powerful vacuum cleaner that can help you even those places and can help you in sucking all the small particles that is impossible for a normal vacuum cleaner to clean that here is the recommended vacuum cleaners that you can consider to look on.
We are not saying that it is the best one but it can be very effective in cleaning all the danders and shedding hair.
Medications
In 2020, you are very fortunate because you can easily have a German Shepherd in your home as there are lots of medications available in public and in over the counter that can help you lessen the problem.
This medication can easily control your allergies that is normally caused by the general pet’s hair, danders, urine, and saliva. Let me tell you that you should always take antihistamines with your meal.
You can easily buy those medications by which we mean antihistamines bye walking into the allergic aisle of your local Walmart Store.
These antihistamines are available and can be bought without any kind of prescription. Here is some common antihistamines that can help you or anybody who have allergies to the animal.
| (Some Common Over The Counter Antihistamines) |
| Loratadine |
| Fexofenadine |
| Diphenhydramine |
| Brompheniramine |
| Chlorpheniramine |
| Cetirizine |
Apart from that, if you don’t know then let me tell you histamines are the major cause of people suffering from the over-sensitive immune system.
The people who have over the sensitive new immune system seems to suffer from allergies to dogs. If you really want to block that histamine then you need to ensure that you take antihistamines with your meal because it can easily block those histamines that is causing you problem.
Plus, the best way is to set a reminder that can remind you that you need to take your antihistamines with your meal. Some people say that they sense of becoming immune to those antihistamines but let me tell you it is not true.
It is just an illusion because the main reason behind that kind of sense can be not taking their medications properly which is essential for blocking those histamines.
Now, do consider taking antihistamine as it is going to keep your immune system healthy as well as making them less irritated around your German Shepherd.
Final Thoughts
I hope that I managed to give you some valuable information about German Shepherd shedding and the tips that can help you in keeping those danders forming at a minimum.
All of these tips can come very handy and we would recommend you to follow all the steps because their tips can keep there danders forming and shedding at a minimum.
All of these tips are effective just as it sounds and the products or any kind of De-Shedding Tools that have been recommended here is the best one and if you buy it after clicking from this link, I will get a commission.
It is not going to cost you any extra but it can help me get some Commission. If you like this post then do share this post because it is going encourage me to write more about them and I am always here to help you so if you have any questions regarding your German Shepherd being a non-hypoallergenic dog breed, you can comment below and I will try to give your answer as soon as possible.
94% of pet owners say their animal pal makes them smile more than once a day. In 2007, I realized that I was made for saving Animals. My father is a Vet, and I think every pet deserves one. I started this blog, “InPetCare”, in 2019 with my father to enlighten a wider audience.