Is it possible to rule out an allergy to dogs?

[MagicalMystical]

My son (16) is allergic to our cat. He wasn’t at first, but now the cat is 2ish years old, he’s developed an allergy to it.

We would like to get a dog, but we don’t want to make his allergy worse if it turns out he’s allergic to dogs too.

I’ve suggested that he comes to view puppies with us to see if he has a reaction, but I’ve also just looked online at allergy test kits. It says they are unreliable.

So, what do people do about this?

The problem is, you can be fine in the dogs presence when exposed for a short period of time and then discover that prolonged exposure is the problem. So seeing puppies won't really help.

I'm allergic to cats but there's no rhyme or reason to it, sometimes it takes only a few minutes in the house of someone who owns a cat and sometimes it can be hours.

What will you do if your son is fine, and then in a few years develops an allergy? If you do get a dog, please be mindful that none are truly hypoallergenic, and anyone who sells a dog to you as such is a charlatan.

You can ask your GP for blood tests start with. I tested negative for grass pollen but was confirmed to be allergic to both dogs and cats. We already suspected this because I live with both and do get intermittent symptoms during moulting season.
I'm asthmatic and prone to eczema. For me it is manageable.

The problem is that you can react differently to different dogs or cats, it is not as simple as a blanket cat or dog allergy. I react more to short coated animals than I do to woolly furred ones. I was terrible with my parents British Shorthair cat because he shed very fine hairs and dander more than our own more clumpy semi-longhaired cats do. Likewise with dogs; I react more to Labradors and Beagles than to our own hairy moulting breed; short haired dogs make me itch, our woolly textured ones don't.

I will say that I am not convinced at all by the "hypoallergenic dog breed" claims and the fact that those breeds are themselves prone to skin problems would make me very wary.

There are no easy answers I'm afraid - I doubt it is as simple as seeing if your son reacts to puppies you look at. There are far too many possible permutations for that to be in any way accurate.

Thanks both. Wish it were easier!