Best Dog Shampoos
Dogs need baths just like we do to stay clean and healthy, and the right shampoo can make all the difference. There are a lot of choices out there and we won’t lie, most of them are rubbish and can cause more harm to your dog’s fur and skin.
More on this below, but here are the general criteria we used for the best shampoo for dogs:
- A hypoallergenic shampoo that cleans gently, is pH balanced, that won’t strip the natural oils from our dog’s fur and skin.
- A shampoo that cleans and conditions fur without loading them up with petroleum-based surfactants that will ultimately attract more dirt.
What we were avoiding:
- Shampoo that “lathers up well” due to lathering ingredients like sulfates, which are harmful to dogs.
- Strong scents- heavily scenting our dogs with strong synthetic fragrances is a no-no, which was why our dog doesn’t go to the groomer anymore.
- Shampoo with parabens, tar, petroleum-based anything like mineral oil, and artificial coloring.
You shouldn’t wash your dog too often (unless he’s like our miniature pinscher who keeps finding the gross stuff to roll in every.single.week), and we wanted to see how the shampoos we were testing did over time. Even so, the Evaluated pack got a lot of baths over the last 14 months.
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What does bar soap for dogs actually look like? Victory, with a little bit of fur left behind! I used to be a total skeptic about bar soap for dogs, and not just because my grandmother used to wash hers with Ivory. Wondercide has to be one of the best dog shampoos I’ve ever used and the bonus with their formulas is that they don’t leave behind oily residue, but the subtle essential oils in the formulas tend to help repel nasties like ticks and fleas. They come with a gorgeous little wood bar for the soap to dry on.
Want to learn more about our research, what goes into dog shampoos, and what to avoid?
