If someone you know has been diagnosed with an allergy to dogs, you may be wondering just how serious it is. What exactly are the symptoms of allergy to dogs? How severely will you or your loved one be affected by an allergy to dogs?

Knowing the facts can help you to decide whether your, or your loved one’s allergy to dogs is a reason to avoid dogs altogether, or whether you can find ways to live with an allergy to dog. It also helps to know what you’re getting into, and when you should begin thinking about making tough decisions.

Mild Symptoms

Mild symptoms of allergy to dogs include a scratchy throat, runny nose, and sneezing. It can be annoying, but is easily treated with anti histamines, and by implementing a few subtle changes to your lifestyle. This kind of allergy to dogs is not a concrete reason to re home your dog, or avoid all contact with dogs, unless you want to.

Severe Symptoms

Severe symptoms of an allergy to dogs can include serious respiratory ailments. If you notice your, or your loved one’s experiencing difficulty breathing, wheezing or anything similar, even up to twelve hours after being around a dog, you probably have a severe allergy to dogs on your hands. This type of allergy may not be treatable, however, and if you do have these symptoms of allergy to dogs, you may need to consider not having dogs in your home.

Treating Allergy to Dogs

Except for the most severe allergy to dogs, most are treatable, if you really want to keep pets. The secret is to find a specialist in the treatment of allergies, and in particular, allergy to dogs. New treatments are being developed all the time, and a treatment plan made up of several medications, therapies, and actions within your home.

What Causes Allergy to Dogs?

Another important secret to finding a way to treat allergy to dogs, is to know what causes it. The first thing you should know is that allergy to dogs isn’t called by hair. It’s a combination of proteins in the dog’s saliva, and dander, or dead skin, that cause the symptoms of allergy to dogs. For this reason, even hairless breeds can induce symptoms, although usually to a lesser extent. Shaving your dog won’t help!

When this fine dander becomes airborne, it lands on the eyes, nose and is breathed into the throat. The body’s immune system reacts to this dander, and the allergen, by causing the symptoms we know as allergy to dogs. It’s for this reason that air filters, vacuuming, and wiping your dog with a damp towel are recommended treatments to the symptoms of allergy to dogs. By doing these things, you minimize the amount of dander, and your chances of reaction.

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!