I just think that health comes from the inside out.... and be careful about what foods you feed your dog, because they absolutely DO do better on some foods vs the others. And there's sometimes no visible reason when comparing the ingredients lists.
I was feeding my guys Nutrisource for a couple years and was pretty happy with the food - except I noticed that my Jacks coat was getting really crappy while eating that food. It was dull and dry feeling.
I switched both dogs back to Nutro Ultra and was pretty darn happy to see the coats come back - on both dogs. With the bonus of Bertie eating all his food.
My pup is on PP puppy food and will be on PP for another month or so before I begin switching him onto PP Performance and then PP Performance and Nutro half and half.
Long schpeel short - I do think it matters what you feed the dogs. And I'm saying that as somebody who really feels strongly that different things going on in the dog world right now is causing people to get hysterical about what they feed the dogs even before they even know if the food is even the problem.
Frequent baths don't necessarily cause a problem.... but your WATER might cause problems if it's too "hard" or there's something wrong with the pipes. Also the thickness/texture of the dogs coats can cause skin infections if the dog is bathed in the evening and not dry before bedtime. It means their bedding gets damp and you get fungi/molds growing in the bedding + in their coats.
Show dogs get bathed frequently and sometimes it's ALL about growing coat (not using warm water even sometimes because warm water causes them to blow coat).... but they are always dried within 40-60 minutes of being bathed. They might also be using different conditioners to aid the health of the coat - pretty expensive shampoos and conditioners compared to the stuff you buy in pet stores.
The stuff I use on my dogs costs about $20 a bottle. Which is cheap compared to some stuff out there used by pros.... for dog show prep, I'll use 2 different shampoos mixed together + a conditioner.
I'm heading to a dog show this week... and because of personal stuff (I just lost my Jacks), I'm not really into everything right now. So just doing the one day and have not even gotten him up on a table to groom him yet. My heart's just not there right now and I don't expect to win (not hyped up about the judges and there's like 20 dogs in our class).... My game plan is trimming nails and bottoms of feet tomorrow morning and just doing the rest on Fri morning after his bath. He just needs feet to be shaped better and ears cleaned up - about 10-20 minutes work - which is about as much work I want to do since we are showing one day and I don't expect to win.
But typically I would have entered 2 days of showing, bathed and groomed my dog today.... and completely bathed him both days we show. Show dogs are typically bathed every show day.
Not saying don't bathe your dog every 2-3 weeks. Nor am I saying you SHOULD bathe every week.... I'm just saying if you are going to do that - do it the right way.
But start with feeding a better food - and giving it a month. And bathe at least once a month.
She also probably just got spayed - which is another reason for her coat to be crap right now. Anesthesia during surgery will do that.
One of our dogs (Arthur) was neutered just a few weeks before we brought him home. It caused a heavy shed + the coat was dull and dry looking. Took a few months for it to come back.
ETA - golden retrievers should not have silky coats. It's tough to describe what they do feel like because it isn't coarse either....