As a dog owner, one of the more unpleasant recurring tasks in your life is the requirement to bathe your dog. Depending on your breed and the amount of outdoor time your dog has, this can happen as frequently as once a week, which makes the shampoo you choose to use on your dog extremely important.

The pet store likely has an entire aisle of dog shampoos that can be difficult to choose from. You might begin to feel a bit overwhelmed with the large selection of seemingly similar shampoos but there are differences between them and the shampoo you choose will have serious effects on the way your dog looks.

If your dog has fleas or has a tendency to pick up fleas when he romps outdoors, you'll probably want to get a flea killing shampoo. These can be a bit more difficult to use than other kinds of shampoos because in order to get the full flea killing effect, you need to leave the lather on your dog for several minutes. If you've ever been responsible for keeping a dog still in a tub for several minutes, you know how hard that can be.

Some dogs, on the other hand, have dry, itchy, sensitive skin and normal shampoos can aggravate those conditions and make the dog uncomfortable and unattractive. For this situation, you can purchase a dog shampoo that soothes the skin of the dog and moisturizes the skin to keep it from becoming flaky. These shampoos tend to have more natural ingredients and less chemicals.

If your dog is white or cream colored, you'll need to get a shampoo designed for light colored dogs. This is because dogs that have light colored fur tend to get dingy, especially when they spend a lot of time outdoors. They need a whitening shampoo to keep them from becoming too dingy.

Long haired dogs have a tendency towards knots and tangles and there are shampoos that are designed to help prevent and reduce the amount of tangling in the dog's fur, which can save you valuable time when you're brushing your dog.

If your dog lacks any of those issues, you can get a basic simple shampoo without any special ingredients. There are countless simple shampoos and you can choose any of those if your dog has no special issues and you can choose whichever shampoo you like and fits your budget.

There are many different kinds of dog shampoo and you need to take into consideration the needs of your dog when you're choosing which to purchase and use.