What causes dog scratching?
There are many reasons why your dog would scratch. Before you can stop that stubborn itch, you need to find out what’s causing the itch.
Neurogenic: This is caused by excessive licking and chewing. This usually occurs when your pet doesn’t get enough exercise or mental stimulation. This can also be due to separation anxiety.
Infections – This is one of the most common reasons dogs scratch and is usually caused by yeast, bacteria or fungus. What you should do is look for greasy sores, hairless patches, or red swelling.
Allergenic: There are many types of allergies that can cause your dog to scratch too much, such as food allergies, flea allergies, plant and dust allergies, and other types of allergies that can cause skin problems.
Nutritional: When your pet doesn’t have the proper nutrients in his body, he may have dry skin, develop eczema, sores, or may have dry fur that can lead to scratching.
Environmental: Did you know that too much water, such as swimming, digging or playing outside, can also cause scratches?
Parasites – Parasites can also cause itchiness and that includes ticks, fleas, mosquitoes and mites. However, there are medications that can stop the parasites.
As in the example given above, you must first determine why these dogs are scratching in the first place before you can get your dog to stop scratching.
Visit your vet
If you want to know where the scratching behavior is coming from, you should visit your vet and have your dog checked out. If so, you should treat it with antihistamines and change your dog’s diet. The parasite can be treated by giving your dog flea baths and medication.
How to deal with neurogenic scratching
When you are training your dog to stop scratching, it would be difficult to do so, especially if it is caused by neurogenics. The other problems that have been shown can be treated if you have changes in diet, medication or you can change your exercise routines. If your dog is scratching because of this, you need to know why your dog has the urge to continually scratch his skin.
The first thing you can do is make sure your dog gets enough exercise. Most of the time his pet is just bored and he has developed a neurotic tick to scratch himself. You can stop your dog’s boredom by noticing the behavior. What you can do is apply bitter apple spray or cayenne pepper spray to the spot where your dog loves to lick or scratch.
A cone is also helpful and you can get one from your vet. It won’t let your dog get to those itchy spots. When your dog stops trying to scratch and has a more active exercise routine, you can get him back to his activities and remove the cone.
You should visit the vet when your dog continues to scratch to make sure they can rule out any other physical ailments. He may not know it, but infections can grow and thrive in your dog.
