What Ingredients To Look For In Dog Grooming Products And Which Ones To Avoid?

Dog grooming is among the best ways for us to keep our pooch fresh, happy, and most importantly, healthy. While we may be grooming our dogs with the best intentions, you might be doing more harm than good if you use the wrong shampoos, soaps, and powder. In fact, there are a lot of dog diseases that could have been caused by harmful chemicals found in common dog grooming products.

For this reason, you need to check the label first before buying and using it on your dog. In this post, let us take a look at some of the good and bad ingredients in dog grooming products that you should know about.

The Good Ingredients

Aloe Vera

• Comes with a high level of antioxidants
• Antibacterial
• Anti-inflammation
• Improve healing
• Improve collagen formation
• Keep skin moist and protected

Babassuamidopropyl Betaine

• A type of salt that improve the shampoo foams
• Balsam Fir Essential oil
• Antiseptic
• Analgesic
• Natural stimulant
• Reduce stress hormone

Organic beeswax

• Safe and non-toxic

Calendula

• Good for healing insect bites, scrapes, and cuts, and Soothe dry and itchy skin

Castile soap

• Gentle on the skin
• Natural cleaning solution

Cedarwood essential oil

• Natural pest repellant
• Improves dog’s skin appearance

Coco glucoside/glucose

• Foaming agent
• Cleansing agent
• Thickening agent

Eucalyptus essential oil

• Anti-inflammatory
• Antibacterial
• Antiseptic
• Deodorizing property
• Antiviral

Glyceryl stearate

• Skin conditioner
• Moisturizer

Hemp oil

• Potent antioxidant
• Powerful anti-inflammatory

Aside from the ingredients already mentioned, here are other dog grooming ingredients that are safe and non-toxic:

• Vegetable glycerine
• Peppermint essential oil
• Polyglyceryl-4 Oleate
• Potassium jojobate
• Potassium olivate
• Potassium cocoate
• Sodium olivate
• Sodium jojobate
• Sodium palmate
• Sodium coco sulfate
• Rosemary
• Guar gum
• Sodium cocoyl Isethionate
• Jojoba oil
• Saint John’s Wort
• Sea salt
• Saponified Organic Oils
• Olive oil
• panthenol
• Lemongrass essential oil
• Oatmeal or oat milk
• Lavender essential oil
• Shea butter
• Sodium bicarbonate
• Sodium cocoate
• Vitamin E

When you see these ingredients in your dog grooming products, you can feel safe and confident that you got the right ones for your dog.

The Bad Ingredients

If there are good ingredients, there are also bad ingredients. It is difficult to see that some companies still continue to use them. In some instances, they would even label their products pet safe, eco-friendly, and non-toxic. It’s sad that they have these labels when in fact, they are not true.
Thus, it is up to you to be vigilant enough to watch out for these ingredients:

• Artificial colors and dyes
• Artificial fragrances
• Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate (ALS)
• Ammonium Laureth Sulfate (ALES)
• Polyethylene glycol (PEG)
• Butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA)
• Diethanolamine (DEA)
• PEG-40 Lanolin
• Isothiazolinones
• Phthalates
• Mineral oils
• Propylene glycol
• Parabens
• Formaldehyde
• Cocamide-MEA
• SD alcohol 40
• Triethanolamine
• Methylchloroisothiazolinone

Final Words

Don’t hesitate to check the label and look closely. This might sound a lot of work, but you just have to just do this at least once. Once you have found the right dog grooming products, you can simply buy the same ones for you. If you are going to introduce a new product again, simply go back to this list and double-check.

Moreover, if you are always bringing your pooch to a dog grooming shop, make sure you ask your groomer as well what shampoo, powder, and soap they use. It won’t hurt asking, but it would surely save your dog from a lot of problems!