Dog Skin & Hair Care

The skin and hair are usually indicators of the good health and physical shape of the dog. The bad aspect large dog kennels and of the coat is usually the first symptom of almost all the diseases.

They work as a protecting barrier as well as they contribute to control the dog's temperature and pick up the information from the environment: how cold or hot it is and how conformable or uncomfortable. The skin is also sensitive to pain, which turns it into the first alarm system in case the environment gets dangerous. The coat can terribly vary either from one breed to another or from one dog to another. There are dogs that totally lack of it. The Xoloitzcuintle or Mexican Naked Dog and the so called Chinese Naked Dog for example, are bald from birth due to a genetic mutation fomented by the selective breeding. Cat Houses

SKIN STRUCTURE
The dog skin in formed by two big superimposed layers: the dermis and the epidermis. The epidermis is the exterior layer and is formed by cells that are constantly regenerating to replace those that are lost on the skin surface through the friction or wearing. The dermis is underneath the epidermis. It is a resistant and flexible layer that is responsible for the sensitivity and the blood flow of the epidermis. The hair grows through the hair buds located on the dermis and emerges to the surface through the hair follicles. On dogs, many pieces of hair grow from each of the follicles, one of which is frequently thicker and longer than the others. This piece of hair is called primary hair or guard hair. The greasy glands, present on the dermis, provide some oil that keeps the dog's skin lubricated and the coat shining. The sweat glands also flow into the epidermis. On dogs, these glands are concentrated in the pads and the hearing conduct, since the dog pants instead of breaths, as we do, to fight the heat.
There are small muscular fibers in the dermis that alter the position of the primary or guard hair. Contracting and relaxing these tiny muscles the dog provokes the piloerection, which means that it makes the hair "stand up". This normally occurs when the dog is mad, insecure, anxious or excited. Dog Training Collars, Barking Citronella Nobark Dog Collars.
HAIR'S VITAL CYCLE
Dog's hair grows and falls on a cyclic way. Each piece of dog hair is always on one of the following three phases: growing phase, transition phase or resting phase. None of the hair pieces falls until there is a new one prepared to replace it.

The growth of the hair is divided into three phases: the anagene phase or active growing phase; the catagene phase, that is when the hair has stopped to grow but is still attached to the bud and the telogene phase, that is when the hair bud contracts in order to let the hair free before the replacing hair begins to grow. In this natural environment, the time each piece of hair takes to grow, once the old piece of hair reaches the transition or resting phase, depends on the meteorologic time, the quantity of hours of sun and the hormonal state of the dog or its color.

Normally, the dogs change their hair in the spring, when they less need it and then during the autumn in order to let the winter coat, which is a lot dense and warm, grow. If the dog lives in a house where there is a central heating and artificial lighting, these factors alter the vital cycle of the hair and the dog will probably change its hair in a regular way during the whole year. Dog Kennel House & Four parts of the body are considered as modifications of the skin tissue: the mammary glands, specifically modified for the milk production; the anal saculs, that are skin imvaginations located just where the skin is joint to the mucus of the digestive tract; the dog paw pads and the nails.