Dh is allergic to dogs. He's wheezy after being around dogs and has trouble breathing. I puff of his inhaler eases the symptoms (he suffers bad hayfever and very very mild asthma).
Trouble is, I would love a small dog. So would my two kids, age 9 and 11. But DH says no, because of his allergy.
Has anyone got a positive story to tell whereby they had a family member who was allergic but got a dog anyway and now everything is tickety boo and the human got used to tolerating the canine??
Clutching at straws....
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The doghouse
Dogs & allergies and DH's who have one and don't want the other....
12 replies
BogeyNights · 03/07/2014 12:16
OP posts:
fanoftheinvisibleman ·
03/07/2014 12:32
Ds is allergic to dogs. Spaniels, staffies, greyhounds all left him with a face so swollen he looked like he'd done 10 rounds 
even outdoors.
We looked at low allergy breeds and settled on a border terrier.We fiund a breeder who was happy for ds to spend time with her dogs before we comitted to make sure it would work.
He has never reacted to our dog at all.
moosemama ·
03/07/2014 13:13
Dh was tested and found positive for dog allergy when he was a young teen. He has allergy triggered asthma, that has always been fairly mild.
His family owned two dogs when he was diagnosed and weren't willing to part with them (neither did he) so they stayed and he coped. Dh is a massive dog lover, so when we found our first girl, all but dead, under a hedge and nursed her back to health he wanted to keep her - and we did. 
25 years later and we've always had dogs, up to three at a time on occasion and dh's asthma is pretty much non-evident the majority of the time.
Interestingly dh is also allergic to cats. His family always had cats when he was a child and he had his own that used to sleep on his bed. He is much worse with cats than he is with dogs. He only has to enter a room where a cat has been to start wheezing - and despite also loving cats, there was no way he would have one as a pet. We'll never know if he would have built up a tolerance over time if he'd lived with one, but I suspect not, given the severity of his allergy to them.
He's only used his inhaler a handful of times in the past five years, a couple of times because he over exerted himself at music gigs 
and the other few when he's visited houses that have cats.
I do think it has to be led by the person that has the allergy though, I have never had asthma, but imagine an asthma attack to be both upsetting and scary. It's also not a given that your dh will develop a tolerance like mine has.
CastilianHhhhidalgo ·
03/07/2014 14:28
DH has asthma (which he's on multiple inhalers for) and is allergic to dogs but improves massively with exposure.
His family had a dog (JRT) when he was young seemingly without any issues.
We got our first dog when OH was 23 (roughly ten years since his childhood dog had died) and he was very wheezey and snuffley at first. After a while though he stopped reacting to our dog completely.
Initially he would still react to other dogs, and to ours if he'd been away from the house for a couple of days. He's continued to improve through the years though and twelve years on we now have four dogs 
He's completely fine with ours and with the vast majority of other dogs we meet. He's just got back from nine days abroad with work and he barely reacted when he got home.
DH was very, very keen to get a dog though and willing to put up with feeling rough for a while. Although I'd have been upset I'd have completely understood if he hadn't been prepared to go through it for the sake of having a dog.
Scuttlebutter ·
04/07/2014 23:51
DH has asthma and is allergic to long haired dogs, cats and horses. After a lot of research, we got a greyhound - very short fine coats, and recommended for allergy sufferers. We now have four greyhounds and he is absolutely fine with them. However, he is still very allergic to longer haired dogs. As an example, today we moved a Saluki x lurcher for a rescue and afterwards he was sneezing and very wheezy. If we attend indoor dog events, he has to take an anti histamine tablet beforehand and have his inhaler on standby. He will still be sneezy, wheezy and red eyed. 
Just to add that we also make sure our housekeeping is geared to his allergies. Lots of damp dusting, hard floors, hot washing of soft furnishings, Miele vacuum with HEPA filter etc. though much of this predated the dogs as a management tool for his asthma anyway.
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