If you’re a dog lover, you may be wondering if it’s possible to avoid allergies to dogs in your children. You may be planning to start a family, and wondering if there’s any way to ensure that the new addition to your family does not have allergies to dogs.

The good news is that recent studies have found that there is a surprising way to avoid allergies to dogs in children – and if you already have a dog, you already have the treatment on hand!

How to Allergy Proof Your Children

According to the findings of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, exposing your children to dogs in their first year of life can greatly reduce their chances of developing allergies to dogs later in life. If you already have a dog living in your house, you should be fine, but if not, and you want to avoid allergies to dogs in your children, why not take them to visit people with dogs, or consider adopting one?

Guide dog associations also often have puppy fostering programs, so you could combine your desire to prevent allergies in dogs with doing something wonderful! Foster a puppy for a year, and during that time, you’re also making sure your child will have less likelihood of developing allergies to dogs.

How Effective Is It?

Now, you may be wondering just how effective something so simple will be in avoiding allergies to dogs in your child. According to the research, there’s a fourteen percent reduction in the likelihood of developing allergies to dogs if you choose to expose your infant to dogs during the first year of life!

In fact, children who are not exposed in this way are thirty three percent likely to develop allergies to dogs! That’s a third of the children born! Children who have been “allergy proofed” in this way are only nineteen percent likely to suffer from allergies to dogs, which is less than one in five.

What Guarantee is There?

Of course, this is not a completely fool proof method, and there is still a chance, in spite of your efforts to reduce the likelihood of allergies to dogs in your children by exposing them to your pooch (or someone else’s!) However, even if you’re not a gambler, the odds seem a whole lot better for those who are not exposed to canines in their first year, than in those who are, to develop allergies.

Allergies to dogs, particularly if severe, can limit your child’s choices – they may not be able to visit certain friends and family, and there are some careers that may be off limits to them. Then again, you might have trouble moving house – dog allergens can remain in a building for months after the dog has left! All in all, while it’s not a guaranteed method of preventing allergies to dogs, this does reduce your child’s chances significantly, and since we all want to give our kids the best, it might be worth considering.

You may be one of millions of people who have allergies to dogs. Or maybe one of your close family members has allergies to dogs. The trouble is, maybe you’re a dyed in the wool dog lover. The question is, do you have any options?

Luckily, except in very extreme cases, the answer is yes. Either by taking specific steps to remove the causes of your allergies to dogs, or even choosing a breed that is less likely to cause symptoms of allergies to dogs. Here’s how.

Choose a Hairless Breed

They may not be the prettiest of creatures, but they are lovable, and they are dogs. If you don’t already have a dog, and you or someone you love have allergies to dogs, consider adopting a Chinese Crested or Mexican Hairless. Less (or in this case no) hair, means less of the causes of reactions to allergies to dogs. Plus, no shedding, and bathing is a breeze!

Try A Variety of Breeds

If you or a loved one has allergies to dogs, and you can’t face the thought of a hairless dog, there are other breeds that may induce fewer symptoms of allergies to dogs. In fact, the reaction of a particular person can vary greatly from breed to breed, so if you’re looking for a new puppy, take the person with the allergies to dogs along, and gauge their reaction.

Short coated dogs, like dachshunds, and wire coated dogs, usually produce less of a reaction in those who suffer allergies to dogs.

Take Precautions

If you do already have a dog, or even if you are planning to get one of the dogs mentioned above, there are steps you can take to minimize the reactions experience by those with allergies to dogs. For a start, make sure that your dog sleeps outside, or in an area of the house far away from the person with allergies to dogs. Next, limit their access to areas of the house with carpets and upholstered furniture, and vacuum regularly.

Make sure that you bath your dog regularly, and remember that even wiping them down with a damp towel can minimize the reaction of those with allergies to dogs. When you do bath, brush or groom your dog, do it outdoors, or send them to the doggy parlor. In most cases, with these tips, and perhaps an anti histamine, sufferers of milder allergies to dogs can happily live with their four legged friends. Don’t give up too easily, but also remember that if you or your loved one has very severe allergies to dogs, you may not be able to keep a dog.

If you do find that you can’t keep a dog because someone in your family has allergies to dogs, why not volunteer at your local animal sanctuary? You’ll be doing the animals a big favor, and you’ll still get to enjoy the company of man’s best friend. Sounds like a win win situation to me!

Of course, the prevalence of the different allergies of dogs varies, as does the treatment of the condition, but here are a few of the basic facts relating to allergies of dogs that might help the process go a little bit smoother.

Contact Allergies
Contact allergies of dogs are allergies to something in the environment. It may be a specific plant, item or even something in the air or it may be something more general, like an allergy to grass. For contact allergies of dogs, the ideal treatment is to remove the cause of the allergy from the environment – easier said than done in cases where the allergen is a common one!

Other options for allergies of dogs, where the allergen is something the dog is in contact with, are anti histamines, immunotherapy, or even steroid treatments, all of which can be used with varying success on dogs with allergies of dogs like these.

Identifying an allergy may be quite tricky. Of course, contact allergies of dogs that begin suddenly, shortly after the introduction of something new in the environment are easy to spot, but if the dog suddenly develops an allergy to something that has been in the environment for some time, allergy testing may be required to identify it.

Flea Allergies of Dogs
More common than contact allergies, flea allergies of dogs can still be a tricky problem to treat. Far from an ordinary reaction to a few fleas, pooches that suffer from flea allergies of dogs will have a severe itching, scratching and biting reaction to even one flea!

Anyone who’s ever tried to keep even a non sufferer of flea allergies of dogs from getting fleas will know that it requires vigilance, and a good arsenal of anti flea products to do so!

You’ll have to invest in a spray for the environment, anti flea shampoo for the sufferer, and any other dogs you have, anti flea dip, and probably a flea collar. Medication, including steroids, may also be prescribed in severe cases. If you have a sufferer of flea allergies of dogs, try to check the dog, and his sleeping area, regularly, and if you see even one flea, take immediate action!

Food Allergies of Dogs
Another fairly common of the allergies of dogs is an allergy to specific foods. Often, these types of allergies of dogs are to common foods or ingredients in commercial dog food brands. Typically, your dog will display generic symptoms of allergies of dogs, including itching, scratching, biting and hives.

When diagnosed, your vet will typically put your dog onto a hypoallergenic food, or recommend a hypo allergenic diet like chicken and rice, and usually, if you adhere to the dietary guidelines, your dog will stop having any symptoms of allergies of dogs.