My pup is now 6 months old and for the breed is lacking in coat and rather in substance.  I feed AG Puppy/Junior Large Breed.  Several people have advised changing this.  Just wondered if anyone has experience of using a complete food that they swear by for coat and substance.  Should I be giving him extras as in tripe, goats milk.
Any ideas welcome please :-D

my friend recently changed her dogs onto Royal Canin and the difference in their coats is amazing, they have gone from sparse to thick and shiney.

Given a good, well balanced diet a dog will develop as its genetic make-up dictates.
Most premium dog foods will give all the essentials for good growth.

The old adage " you breed for coat - not feed for coat" still holds true. Not all dogs develop at the same rate nor will all members of a specific coated breed grow a wealth of coat.
I have one line of Cavaliers which grow an alarmingly huge coat as puppies only for it to fall out and a normal one come in at 6 months, another will grow their coat steadily until mature.

I started using Yumega for a Papillon of mine that was pretty short of coat, then also added it to the food of one of the Malinois. The Pap now has far more coat than before and the Malinois has the thickest coat she has ever had in her 9 years of life.

I feed my 2 toy poodles natures menu in tins and also royal canin mini sensible and their coats are in super condition.

Ok - so is the consensus that as he matures he will either develop better - both in coat and substance - or that if genetically these two things are lacking, then he will obviously lack.  Though parents lack in neither!  I was hoping to show him but obviously need to improve on both.  I already feed Yumega for the show dogs anyway!  I know that some lines can be slower to mature and sometimes growth is very uneven in young dogs.  You do get so many differing opinions and I do not want to change what I believe to be a high quality food if I am just swapping like for like!

Well just to add my two pennies worth, I changed my lot to Orijen complete because it has no rubish filler ingriedients whatsoever and can honestly say they all (I have 9) young and old improved in condition and coat in quite short time, shall be sticking to Orijen now.

I also feed grainfree,and am very happy with my dogs coats,  but have found in the past any fish-based food will tend to help for coat

The only difference you can make to coat in an otherwise healthy dog is to add "shine" by adding more oil - either by using a food higher in fats or supplementing with some sort of oil.

Otherwise - all the rest is determined by genetics. 

Have you heard of Trophy Pet foods?

They make fantastic dog foods, wheat gluten free, no meat or animal derivatives used, only good quality oils are used in there products, chicken, sunflower, salmon oil, very very good for the coat.

Take a look at their web site. www.Trophypetfoods.co.uk

We have noticed a massive difference in all our dogs since we switched to the Challenge Salmon range (www.challengedogfood.com). We recommend it to everyone now and have just reared a litter really successfully on their puppy food.

Considering we used to feed raw we never achieved the coat and condition we get now - we wouldn't recommend it if we didn't really like it but we are very impressed. Nor do we use any of the extra coat supplements that are on the market.

Alex

Interested in your response as I have literally just emailed Challenge about my dogs having dull coats all of a sudden. I have been using Challenge for about 6 months and been very pleased with it but both their coats seem a bit dry and dull at the moment.

I do agree to an extent to the adage "you breed for coat, not feed for coat" however I do think that diet does make a difference. I reared my pup on Royal Canin and she had the best coat by far out of the five pups we are in touch with. Unfortunately she had intermittent looseness and after reading super comments re Orijen, I changed over to the 5 fish variety. Although it suited her and no more loose poops, I don't think she has as good a coat as when she was on the RC. After speaking to the guys at Fish 4 Dogs I decided to give it a go and bingo, we have perfect poops and a lush coat, every bit as good as when she was on the RC. My friend changed her three onto Fish 4 Dogs and her oldest boy, who has previously been on ProPlan (Salmon) had never had a good coat, but now on F4D and has a great coat, much more of it and plenty of undercoat. It could just be with maturity, or a coincidence, but F4D seems to work for us.

I'm feeding the Origen 6 fish at the moment and must admit that my two haven't got great coats - both are quite dry and scurfy in fact. Fish suits my boys really well so I'm thinking of trying either Fish 4 Dogs or the Arden Grange fish and potato next. Out of interest, where is the best / cheapest place to buy Fish 4 Dogs online?  Sorry - not much input for the OP.

Hi Luvhandles
We either buy ours from shows (£20 - £25 per 15kg bag either salmon or cod) or we buy direct from them. We buy 6 bags at a time and pay approx £28 a bag, including carriage. You can buy just one bag, but the more bags you buy, the cheaper it is, so my friend and I club together. I would never buy a food based on price alone, but the saving is quite considerable and not something I am grumbling about.

which do you find the best goldiemad, the salmon or cod - or rather which do the dogs tend to prefer?

I'm feeding the Arden Grange Sensitive (fish and potato) to Pip at the moment and am really pleased with it.  Too soon to say re coat as she's only had it 2 weeks, but she's loving it and the difference it's made to her stools is amazing - won't go into it now as it's meal time, but suffice to say very impressed lol!!

Hi Luvhandles
I feed both, and both varieties are devoured with flourish. I think if I was only going for one type, I would go for the salmon as I would imagine that is the tastiest, but I am only hazarding a guess. If you ring them up, they will send you samples out but make sure you tell them you want to try both varieties. If you show I think they are going to be attending most of the Champ shows.

Hi Annie,

Have you tried adding a supplement to their food like Dorwest Herbs Kelp Seaweed Powder? It is a natural mineral supplement for coat growth and 100% pure powdered kelp seaweed. Although the recommendation is that it is given from Autumn and throughout the Winter months I find that it works at any time of year whenever assistance is needed.

HTH

Jo

I would add tin sardins, tuna, pilchards to there complete, if the coat was in a very poor condition, it would be every day if not every other or twice a week. A good coat comes from the inside out. Just add an oily fish it will work. Asda's own are very cheap.

Denese

since changing my pup onto orijen her coat is looking fantastic and very shiny - I am getting comments all the time especially as she is a red and white BC so a shiney coat doesnt show as well as on a black and white.