I have a dog in my house that is a show dog that is bathed normally 4x a week as I condition him for agility and conf. Does he have dry skin? Nope. If he did would I think it was from bathing, hardly. I'd more than likely look to diet imbalance first.

The reality of things is that we've come a long way in the past 15 years in the quality of dog shampoos and conditioners. I think the bathed too much thing has gone out the window so long as you're not selecting a non quality shampoo. There are several labels on the market that are garbage, Hartz probably the most common.
If the reason for not doing frequent bathing is the joy of a wet dog a doggie blow drier is a great investment both for de shedding and pushing dander, pollen, mold spores etc out of the coat. Start to finish at work a normal GSD groom takes about 40 minutes so long as the dog isn't shedding in clumps and will tolerate the dryer.

It usually costs less in the long run to manage this route as well.
1 gallon of hypo shampoo that dilutes 15:1 $30
1 gallon of conditioner that dilutes 32:1 $22
1 doggie dryer $110 - $250
2 mixing bottles $2

Wow, thank you everyone for the additional info. I wouldn't mind bathing the dog that often at all, it would be just another positive-association ritual. For kicks I did that when he was younger with a human hair dryer (set to low and frequently checked) and luckily he naturally likes it. So bathing won't be a big deal if that is what will help him.

I did check his ears--and I was wrong. They are tattered on the edges. They didn't use to be, in my defense.
Here are the photos:

http://www.panix.com/~mstrhck/czak1.JPG
http://www.panix.com/~mstrhck/czak2.JPG
http://www.panix.com/~mstrhck/czak3.JPG

Since I didn't give environmental allergens enough attention earlier, it looks like I should drop back to his basic food items (using real lamb meat as treats for training) for several weeks to evaluate the itching. If he doesn't itch at all, then I guess I can continue with the food testing. If he does still itch, then I can put more energy into evaluating the environment and the few ingredients he is eating. Sound reasonable?

Edited by Connie Sutherland (01/09/2010 10:53 AM)
Edit reason: changed embedded photos to links

Almost missed it---Lori, thanks for your post! I would like nothing better than to feed him raw, but I am not the only owner and need to do some convincing. I work on this here and there but it's going to take time (my mom and I co-own, and maybe you are familiar with the generation).

Also I must say that when 10% of dogs have a food allergy, that does mean that 1 in 10 do...so I can't automatically dismiss that as the cause, ya know? Maybe I can work more urgently to get a raw diet going on because as you posted I've seen it help with so many different problems, at least on forums.

My usual reminder to those battling the itching problems:
Keep a really detailed daily log of diet, supplements, bathing, environmental changes, everything you can think of that could have some effect, good or bad. After a while, your notes can give you some feedback and clues. This is particularly important because different changes will have different periods before the effects show up. I use Clear Allergies and they don't seem to kick in for 3-4 weeks. OTOH, a dose of prednisone will give relief in about 30-60 minutes.

When you're making a lot of changes over a period of weeks and months, some notes will help you figure out what's really going on.

Mike

 Quote: Webboard User

... I did check his ears--and I was wrong. They are tattered on the edges. They didn't use to be, in my defense.

You will want to make a vet appointment. In a way, this is almost good news, because folliculitis is right there, to examine and do a scraping of. It's kind of a blanket term meaning a hair follicle infection, possibly secondary to a mite, etc.

 Quote: Webboard User

... it's going to take time (my mom and I co-own, and maybe you are familiar with the generation).

I am that generation.

So it is not a lost cause. I recommend a couple of the inexpensive easy-reading raw feeding guides LB has such as http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=236675 and give your mother plenty of time and opportunity to browse through them.


http://leerburg.com/970.htm
http://leerburg.com/935.htm

and plenty more:
http://leerburg.com/books.htm

Thanks for the additional comments, Mike and Connie...we have a vet appointment for Wednesday to see if he can see anything interesting. I also will start logging everything as Mike suggested, because although right now I can remember the details, they are adding up and I'm sure a log will be useful later.

Thank you all, I'll let you know how things progress.

And thank you, Connie, for fixing my image mistake.

Iam going thru the same issue... infact I have been feeding RAW from the time he has come home that is 9 wks. He is 11 months now. I feed him raw beef & chicken. As of yesterday I stopped chicken....he did not eat chicken when I gave him last time. Iam watching his diet for a week....with raw beef & rice food is over in 10 min. When I looked at those ears it looked like you took my dogs ear picture. Only thing we stopped was wiping his feet when he comes in from outside. Iam going to start that again. I vaccum his room daily without him in the room. I will be eager to see what your vet has to say about it.

Finally I got the appointment and met the dermatologist and he suggested to stop feeding chicken and hamburger with rice because of more protein he might be scratching and biting instead I can give him rabbit,goat,duck,ostrich,emu,alligator,kangaroo and for carbohydrate replacing rice give sweet potatoes(yams),potatoes,oats - cooked and unprocessed. Have to apply Revolution (selamectin) instead of interceptor. 1 dose every 2 weeks for 3 total doses. Before going to the dermatologist I met the vet and checked him for folliculitis and the result was negative.

 Quote: Daniel Mathai

Finally I got the appointment and met the dermatologist and he suggested to stop feeding chicken and hamburger with rice because of more protein he might be scratching and biting instead I can give him rabbit,goat,duck,ostrich,emu,alligator,kangaroo and for carbohydrate replacing rice give sweet potatoes(yams),potatoes,oats - cooked and unprocessed. Have to apply Revolution (selamectin) instead of interceptor. 1 dose every 2 weeks for 3 total doses. Before going to the dermatologist I met the vet and checked him for folliculitis and the result was negative.

Are you saying that the derm vet does tentatively suspect food allergy and recommends an elimination diet? Was it made clear that there can be no other food of any kind (treats, gelcaps, table scraps, etc.)? Why Revolution?