Make My Bullies Coat Shiny

I get asked this question about my dog, Atlas, on a regular basis – how do I make my Bullies coat shiny?  What do I do differently that makes her fur have such a shine to it?

See, she’s an American Bully, just the pocket version, so she’s very short and stout if you see her in person.  However, bullies are notorious for having skin and fur issues and can be very rough to pet. My friend, a few houses down, his bully feels like your typical bully.  Rough fur and some places where the fur almost looks thinner than in other areas.  It’s not his owners fault of course, this is just how their breed is.

So what do I do differently to make my Bullies coat shiny? Well, a few things actually.

Raw Meat Occasionally.

I don’t give her raw meat a lot, so I say occasionally for a very specific reason.   See, since she’s a bully, they can actually have sensitive stomachs versus other breeds that I’ve had in the past.  I focus on raw meats like beef versus chicken unless it’s the liver from a whole chicken or the heart.

Beef is usually my main choice of meat that I give her.   It’s usually more lean steaks like sirloins that happen to be on sale at the local food market.  I don’t give her the fatty cuts, because that’s my husbands favorite.   He said the dog can’t eat better than him, but also because I give her fats in other ways.

I try to be careful with her diet so that she doesn’t gain weight, which bullies are prone to being overweight. Plus, I’m going to list some other ingredients soon that will tell you why I choose lean steaks over the fatty ones.

Bacon Grease Very Sporadically.

This ingredient is why I choose lean steaks. Bacon grease. Now, I might have readers out there that will say, “That clogs their arteries, it’s so bad for them.”  Well, it’s bad for us too, but we still eat bacon. Yes, it can be bad in quantities that are too high for dogs, but when I make bacon, which is usually only about once a month, maybe less, then I take that grease at the bottom of the pan and put that over a full bowl of food, let it cool down, and let her have at it.

After only about a day, her coat is impeccably shiny, smooth and soft to the touch and to the eye. I could actually time it even – I’m making BLT’s for dinner tonight and I guarantee that after giving her that grease tonight, her coat tomorrow will feel even more soft that it does today.

It works amazingly fast and it does wonders for her coat. I’ll attach a picture of her today and revise this tomorrow/Saturday to show an after.

One thing I really want to point out though, is that I only give her this, like I said, every month or so, sometimes less. Giving them too much can cause them to have runny bowels as well as health issues in the future with too much. I also give a little to my other two dogs that are very small chihuahua’s, but they get maybe a tablespoon over their food versus Atlas that get’s about 2/3 of cup.

Really Healthy Food For A Shiny Bully Coat.

Beyond the raw meat and the grease, I also give her really, healthy food. I wrote a couple of articles not long ago about doing some research on dog food and finding out that 99.8% of all dog foods contain extremely harmful chemicals. It took me days of research to find the ONLY food that hasn’t had a ton of recalls and the ones they did have were for too much thiamine and another because the food possibly contained salmonella. Okay – for my dog lovers out there, dogs are from the wild. They eat birds while they’re alive……wolves eat chickens, they eat other birds that have fallen to the ground.

They’re not like humans in that they can contract bacteria from raw food – this is where they came from. So for me to see that there was a recall for possibly containing salmonella, I dismissed that. Not only that, it was possible it contained it.

So what do I feed her? Wellness Core. Not the grain free – my dog doesn’t do fad diets, just like I don’t. She gets grains in her diet, but brown rice. She’s not on the Atkins, she needs that energy just like we do.

For more information on good food, click here for my previous article.

Raw Eggs In Her Food Every Few Days.

I’ve saved the most important ingredient for last, so I hope you’ve read the whole article. This is NUMBER 1. Out of everything you can possibly give your dogs, this is the best for a shiny coat. Okay, healthy food is super important too, because if you give your dog Alpo and then some eggs every couple of days, I don’t know if the eggs will overcome the bad that’s in Alpo or Old Roy. Gross dog food – all the bad stuff is in these cheap brands.

Raw eggs over her food every 2 days.

This past weekend, I’m sitting in my RV and my friend asked, “Katrina, why is Atlas’ coat so much more shiny than her brother’s?”

I said, “I don’t know, maybe it’s cause I give her raw eggs and bacon grease?”

Another friend is sitting right beside me and said he does the same for his dog and his dog’s coat looks just like Atlas’; super shiny. He said he gives his dog the same thing every couple of days and he can watch his dog’s coat get shinier in just a day or two.

I’ve been giving Atlas the same diet since she was a pup and she’s always looked more shiny and soft than other dogs from the same breed. I must be doing something right.

It’s About The Diet To Me.

I’ve seen a lot of people post that in order for a dogs coat to be shiny, you have to bathe them in certain ingredients, or brush constantly, or do something special that I’m not doing. I’ve had a lot of dogs and I treat them all the same. My oldest that recently passed got the same diet as Atlas. Bacon grease, raw eggs and raw meat. I didn’t know about Wellness Core dog food with her, she got Purina when she was with me, but I at least knew better than to give her Alpo or Ol Roy. Her coat was just as shiny.

My two Chihuahua’s, one of them is pretty gangly looking, he’s a Deer-Head with an overbite, and his coat is shiny. Buttons, the Apple-Head long haired, she has a shiny, super soft coat as well. When she’s out of the bath and I’m done blow-drying her (yes, I blow dry her and she loves it), her fur moves to a wind that doesn’t exist; it’s that soft and flowing.

I might not be pushing certain brands of dog shampoo (some are better than others, I will say), or brushing your dog every single day (there are some great brushes out there, but I think it’s all in what we feed our dogs.

In the wild, they get the fat and meat they need and while our dogs in our homes are domesticated, they still need that fat to keep them healthy.

So, how do I make my Bullies coat shiny?  With those few, easy ingredients!