Flaky Dog Home Remedy

Hello all! The cool air has really set in around here and I'm completely head over heels for it! We love and pray for the cool air, but as we all know with cooler air comes dry skin. My pitbull, Houdini, has had dry skin for a better part of a year now, he's super flaky but it doesn't seem to make him itchy at all. He was taken from us last year and kept in an Animal Shelter kennel for a week (a whole nother story). When we got him back his skin was flaky. The vets told us it was probably the stress and change/lack of diet and it would work itself out. Well it's become quite obvious that this isn't something that is just going to go away on its own; and with that cooler air coming in I wanted to try and tackle this problem before it worsened. I've tried a couple different dry skin dog shampoos, but those don't really seem to help. So I started looking for home remedies. I love home remedies, much like I love thrifty crafts. I love being able to solve a problem (or a craving) with things that I already have on hand. While looking I found a couple of different remedies, only one of which is something that I had, so I went for that one. OLIVE OIL.

 It said to add ONE TABLESPOON of olive oil to your dogs food a couple times a week for a shiny moisturized coat. And guess what?! It works! Yay! Instead of a tablespoon every other day I've just been drizzling a very small amount on his food just about everyday. (I'm not a very good schedule keeper so I do this so I won't forget my days.) I've been doing this for almost two weeks now and have noticed a huge difference in his dandruff. It is almost completely gone! AND his coat is super shinny and pretty! Houdini also has an odor that seemed to come around about the same time as his flaky skin, even though he isn't flaking anymore he still smells. So I'm still trying to figure that out and will definitely share my trials and errors with that too! I want to try some of the other dry skin remedies that called for oatmeal, tea tree oil and vitamin E. 

Have any of you ever battled with your pets dry skin or odor before?! I'd love to know your remedy!

(Be careful to not give your dog too much olive oil as it will most likely make them gain weight. If your dog is already over weight I would suggest trying out the other home remedies first. Also, I give my 80 lb pitbull one tablespoon, if you have smaller dogs DO NOT give them the same amount. I'd cut it in half at the very least. After posting this to Instagram a vet friend of mine told me that olive oil can give your dog diarrhea and vitamin E can be used the same way without the side effect)