Dog's hair is looking decidedly "dull and lifeless"...

[Tigana]

What can I do (easy and cheap ) to get him all shiny?

he is 10 years old.
Loss of condition not associated with an illness.
I will not be doing hours of grooming, shampooing, conditioner-ing and blow drying...

Have you ever tried giving him codliver oil?
It may sound crazy, but it does wonders for pets' fur, both cats and dogs.
He'll probably eat the tablets quite happily in his dinner and the human ones are fine. One or two a week should be enough.

Just add a dollop of oil to his food -olive/veg whatever. Do it every day. Works wonders.
There are many expensive supplements that you can buy for this, but essentially do the same thing.

ooooh...I think I can stretch to dollop of oil in food

Thanks!

My mother swears by oil or an egg

Oily fish is great too, my old collie x has a tin of pilchards or sardines once a week, she loves them. I also put the sunflower oil from any tuna we eat over her food. Her coat has got a bit duller over the last year though, but I think this is age related, she's 15 and has aged alot over the last few months.

He is a border collie.
Had lots of long hair until we gave him a chop in the hot weather and to get rid of some tangles.

Evening primrose oil is safer than fish oils as fish oils can carry toxins such as mercury. 500mg or thereabouts of evening primrose for each 10kg boy weight - so you are looking 2-3 capsules probably for a border collie of the standard 500mg capsules. Takes a good 6 weeks to see the benefits. Easiest to give them by piercing the capsule with a pin and squeezing the oil out onto food.

Boy weight - make that body weight!!

A couple of sprays of olive oil (that one cal stuff) in the dog bowl before you put the dogs food in it.