What Dog Owners Should Know About How Dryer Sheets Affect Their Pups
Even the most unsuspecting household items can be toxic — for your dog and for you.
Anna Hoychuk / Shutterstock.com From choosing the “right” dog food to exercising your dogs and learning about leash rules in public parks, there are a million things dog owners are responsible for knowing.
It can be overwhelming at times to keep up, but at the end of the day, our pets are family. We’ll do whatever it takes to ensure their happiness, safety, well-being, and, most importantly, their health. Unfortunately, one common household item that seems relatively safe could pose potential harmful consequences for your pup and it's likely right in your laundry room — dryer sheets.
Dog owners should understand how using dryer sheets on their bedding and toys could affect their pups.
For many pet owners, noticing your dog’s strange behavior is relatively easy, but ultimately, figuring out what’s affecting their health is an entirely different beast. Since our dogs can't tell us what's wrong, we have to decipher the long list of symptoms to determine what might actually be the cause of their health problems.
Dryer sheets have been shown to irritate dogs’ skin and act as a gastrointestinal trigger when digested.
Like any other laundry or cleaning product, we’ve accepted them with open arms, under the impression that they couldn’t harm us, ruin our clothes, or put our animals at risk, but that's simply not the case.
Dryer sheets can be irritating to dogs' skin and can also pose an internal risk if accidentally consumed.
If you’re storing dryer sheets in an accessible location to your dogs or even leaving them in your laundry while folding, be cognizant of where your pets are.
If digested, dryer sheets can cause a blockage and introduce a great deal of gastrointestinal issues from their toxic chemicals and compounds.
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When washing your pets' toys — which ultimately go in their mouths — or cleaning their blankets, opt out of using dryer sheets. They’re not only irritating to pets with sensitive skin but again, digesting them can cause a plethora of issues, including nervous system depression and chemical irritations.
Dryer sheets are also unhealthy for humans, especially those with allergies and sensitive skin, and they ruin clothes.
Health advocates also urge people to switch from dryer sheets to alternative laundry solutions for their health and well-being. While larger studies are still needed to prove the adverse effects of using dryer sheets, nearly 20% of people have reported symptoms, including migraines, irritated skin, and heightened asthma issues.
For people with sensitive skin, allergies, and other health conditions, the use of chemically scented dryer sheets that expel softening agents and release compounds into the dryer can be especially harmful and irritative.
“They’re just a total scam,” a sustainable advocate named Jade on TikTok said about dryer sheets. “It’s all marketing. By using them, you’re actively damaging both your clothing and the dryer… They’re coated in a slick substance similar to fabric softener that claims to reduce static.”
When heated in the dryer, the materials on the dryer sheet are released onto your clothing, coating them in a layer of compounds shown to damage materials, decrease the quality and absorbance (of things like towels), and irritate many people’s skin.
So, not only are you putting your pets at risk by keeping dryer sheets in your home and using them to clean their toys and blankets, you’re putting your own health at risk — and, of course, wasting money and contributing to sustainability issues around single-use plastics.
Instead, opt for something like a dryer ball or tennis balls that are often more effective in reducing static and more economical.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a News & Entertainment Writer at YourTango who focuses on health & wellness, social policy, and human interest stories.