Many groomers notice flaky skin in dogs that may have a decent coat. Once again, food is usually behind it. Substandard ingredients are usually to blame, and an absence of helpful omega 3 and 6 fatty acids compounds the problem. Most of the truly nutritious food brands are not available at the local grocery or discount store. You may have to go to a feed store or order it online yourself.

Greasy Coat

If your dog has an extremely oily coat, you can bet that is a reaction to an allergen of some sort. Many times, dog food ingredients can be the culprit. Most people simply bathe the dog more often with a harsher shampoo to rid the coat of the grease; however, this can be a double-edged sword. If you degrease the dog too often, her oil glands will produce more oil to make up for the deficit, and she will become even more oily than before.

Food to the Rescue

It's always best to look very closely at ingredients in your dog's food and begin to eliminate foods with substandard ingredients. The greasy coat is a predictable result of feeding diets with poor-quality fatty acids. Dogs that are fed corn-based diets as opposed to meat or chicken-based diets tend to have greasy skin and coarse, brittle coats with no shine or sheen to them.

Nutritionists can analyze dozens of fatty acids present in these dogs' oil layer on the skin, and the spectrum of fatty acids is far removed from what a healthy dog's fatty acid spectrum should be. Feeding your dog a high-quality dog food or supplementing your dog's diet with omega fatty acids in the form of fish oils, egg yolks, chicken and meat fats, and some vegetable oils will really benefit his coat. You will see the difference a better-quality fat and protein diet has within two to three weeks.