How do I know if my dog's itching is caused by food or the environment?

This is one of the hardest things to untangle, because food allergies and environmental ones can look almost identical from the outside. Both make a dog scratch, chew their paws, and rub their face. The most useful clue is timing. Environmental itching, from pollen, grass, dust mites or mould, often follows the seasons. If your dog gets worse in spring or over a long, grassy Kiwi summer and eases off in winter, the environment is a strong suspect. Watery eyes and a bit of sneezing point that way too.

Food-related itching tends to run all year round, because your dog's eating the trigger every single day, so there's no seasonal break. It travels with the gut more often as well: loose stools, extra wind, the odd upset tummy alongside the scratching. Recurring ear infections, especially the yeasty-smelling kind, are another pattern owners notice with food.

Here's the honest catch, though: these clues only narrow it down, they don't confirm anything. The one reliable way to pin food as the cause is a proper elimination diet, and that's best done with your vet guiding it, so it's run properly and your dog's nutrition stays covered. Start with a chat to your vet, who can also rule out fleas, mites and infections that mimic allergies. If a novel protein becomes part of the plan, lamb is a common starting point for a dog raised on chicken or beef, which is part of why we build Happy Hour around NZ grass-fed lamb.