Has anybody ever done this with a BMD or similarly long-haired critter? My dog is already starting her standard pant, even though I have her personal fan in the floor turned on already. I wondered if shaving her would help her deal with the season. I have a feeling this summer might be a tough one from her POV.
Editorial note: I do not HAVE air conditioning. :no: I gave her her personal floor fan her first summer here, and it helps a lot. She loves it and can get right up to it, but she’s still panting if she’s away from it at all, and she follows me away from it. So my house is never going to be to BMD preference in a summer. It isn’t possible.
Do they look utterly ridiculous shaved? Not that that outweighs comfort, but we had one cat shaved for a skin condition once years ago, and the cat was embarrassed to death over it. You could tell. :o Maybe dogs wouldn’t be as vain over such things.
Also, if you shaved your long-haired dog, did the coat grow back before next winter?
Folks around here do a lot of Golden-shaving. The groomers call it a puppy cut. The coat is similar to Berners, and most leave the tail alone. Take great care around the head, though-Ive seen some truly silly looking Goldens when the groomer neglected to fade the clip close to the skull…poor dogs looked like they suddenly developed encephalitis.
The coats grow back by winter-some dogs get 2 or more clips/summer. Some people think the cut ruins the coat, but I haven’t seen that to be the case. A Golden oldie I know has been puppy-clipped for over 10 yrs., and his coat grows back the same each time.
My Berner sleeps on tile, wood floor or the flagstone outside-no dog beds ever chosen! In the dead of winter, he will curl up on carpet, but that’s it. I haven’t felt the need to shave him yet, but wouldn’t hesitate if I thought he’d be happier.
I have sensed some mortification from the radical change on some dogs’ faces…but they get over it. Just don’t allow anyone to laugh at her!
I’ve had plenty of heavy/double coated dogs and have always shaved them down in late spring. And they always grow a lovely coat back in before winter.
And they’re SOOOOOOOOOOOO much happier when you get rid of the built-in parka. :yes:
I’ve gone with a clip right down close. On Malamutes and some other really thick coats (and breeds that do NOT deal well with heat…including BMDs) sometimes a second clip is a good idea before letting it grow in for winter. No AC and a cold weather dog with a cold weather coat makes for a miserable pup. Clip him/her…doggy will love it after it gets over the nekked feeling, LOL!
Mixed opinions as you will read; I clip one chow mix down short in summer months because he has allergies that otherwise turn to skin problems. The other chow mix I do the trace clip type - belly, back feathers, chest. These are the slowest drying parts after she gets out of the pool…!
I’ve been told not to shave my shaggy dog because she’s a delicate, allergic flower - the vet shaved a little bit off and pointed out that the skin was breaking out instantly. So you might want to see how your dog’s skin reacts to a little shaved patch before going whole hog.
I have heard many times (all of mine are short coated, but I had a bearded collie in the past who I kept shorn short) that you should never body clip a full coated dog with a double coat because the hair will grow back grossly, yadda yadda–but a friend of mine has 3 long haired rescues (one of whom is a big coated Newfie) who she body clipped last year (as we’re in South Carolina) and everyone’s hair grew back beautifully. She has intentions of doing it again this year, these are all of her dogs as of last week.
These were her dogs as of last week and all were shorn short (the St. Bernard is her new foster, THAT coat she hasn’t been caring for but for a few weeks which explains why he’s still a little dull and grimy.) I have been told in the past that once you clip you’ll loose that initial ‘shine’ but you gotta do what you gotta do, to keep a dog comfortable in my opinion.
Warm weather is bringing all my once-a-year shavedown dogs out of the woodwork, and in the last couple weeks I’ve done a good half-dozen dogs whose coats are ruined. Not sort of, maybe, but ‘OMG what is WRONG with your dog???’ ruined. Huskies, poms, one golden, a GSD. Many more grow coat back, but it’s crappy. Dull, rough, thin in spots because the undercoat comes back unevenly.
With that said I shave my pom every summer because if I don’t he gets heatstroke at least once. And he’s always grown his coat back, but I know that each time I shave him it might be the time that it doesn’t come back.
If I shaved my Shiba he would murder me in my sleep.
:winkgrin:
This is just anecdotal but I live in crowded suburbia and see lots of shaved dogs in the summer - some of them done really badly.
In the winter, I see quite a few that don’t look “right” because their coats grow back funky. I should mention that most are doodle-dog types (I think I live at doodle ground zero) so I don’t know if that kind of wooly coat just doesn’t grow back right. Could be just general lack of grooming by the owners. I don’t know.
ETA, I just Googled “shave double coated dog” and looked at the images of dogs who didn’t grow their outer coat back.
Coats provide insulation from sun and heat as well as the cold though. So if your pooch spends time outside in the sun with you, this may not be a good idea beyond the coat quality issue.
If I had a double coated critter, I would be sure that he/she was combed out well (maybe take to groom for a good blow out of the under coat), I’d shave the feet (pads sweat), and I might go so far as to shave the belly if there was a nice cool floor that they like to lay on in front of the fan.
I too have seen a handful of dogs that got shaved down for summer and ended up with permanent damage. These were dogs that I knew before their first shave and for years after so it wasn’t just a case of seeing them in one snapshot of time. A couple were golden retrievers, 1 was an aussie, 1 was a chow, and 1 was a husky I believe. Went to different groomers.
In summary…my opinion: Is shaving your dog going to kill her? No. Might she be more comfortable in the environment you’re dealing with? Probably as long as she’s mostly a house dog and isn’t going end up overheating out in the sun or getting sunburned. Would I do it? Probably not.
The interior of a dog is around 100 degrees F due to internal metabolism. The coat yes, it does insulate the heat- keeping it inside the dog. During the warmer weather, the temperature of the air is only a problem because the dog can’t “dump heat” from their interior into the air because of the insulating properties of the coat. It’s not the warm air that heats the dog up, it’s the dog’s own metabolism. It’s a complete myth that coats “provide insulation” from the summer heat- if this were true, why don’t you put your winter parka on in the summer?
Dogs suffer terribly from overheating due to their coats. Anyone who has ever shaved a dog down can attest to how rapidly the dog finds relief. It’s kind of cruel to not shave a dog down just because you think his coat looks better left full, or you’re worried it will look a bit odd next year.
I always do at least a “trace clip”.
It is true that dogs can get sunburn, but you’d have to basically shave them bare-naked for it to really be a problem; just shortening the coat won’t do that.
You can also buy “cooling coats” that reflect the sun and/or provide other cooling properties.
Yeah, but how about in winter if the guard hairs don’t grow back to protect the undercoat from wind and rain? Is that cruel too? Is this why so many dogs need rain coats and doggie “horse” blankets? I see that all the time in my neighborhood - dogs that shouldn’t need cold protection wearing sweaters, a hoodie!, and raincoats. Maybe it’s a bit of people anthropomorphisizing their critters too.
My dog has a heavy double coat and I only see him “suffer” if the temp gets in the 90s. My dog has me trained to turn on the AC for him if he gets hot anyway.
OTOH, he can go out in -6 degree weather and doesn’t even feel a chill.
Everything I’ve read says the undercoat lofts to release heat. I’ve never seen a shaved wolf either.
I don’t think it’s bad to shave a dog down, but I don’t like being called cruel for not choosing to do so.
I rescued a BMD/Shepherd mix last summer. He was so matted that we had no choice but to shave him. He did look pretty funny, as they left his ear and faces covered but from just behind the ears to the tip of his tale he was bald.
His hair did grow back quickly- shaved him down in July and by the middle of November he was ready for another grooming, this time just to tidy up his coat.
The plan was to shave him again this summer but I think they may wait and see how he does. However, we do have AC to keep him comfortable.
Just a side note- his coat came in MUCH better/healthier looking, and much shinier and softer, than before he was shaved. Of course, that could be because he was not well cared for before we took him. But shaving him definitely did not prevent his coat from coming in naturally afterwards or do anything to ruin it.
[QUOTE=Milocalwinnings;6267335]
I rescued a BMD/Shepherd mix last summer. He was so matted that we had no choice but to shave him. He did look pretty funny, as they left his ear and faces covered but from just behind the ears to the tip of his tale he was bald.
His hair did grow back quickly- shaved him down in July and by the middle of November he was ready for another grooming, this time just to tidy up his coat.
The plan was to shave him again this summer but I think they may wait and see how he does. However, we do have AC to keep him comfortable.
Just a side note- his coat came in MUCH better/healthier looking, and much shinier and softer, than before he was shaved. Of course, that could be because he was not well cared for before we took him. But shaving him definitely did not prevent his coat from coming in naturally afterwards or do anything to ruin it.[/QUOTE]
The stuff I’m hearing from dog show groomers is that sometimes the coat does grow in softer, but in some breeds that’s not a proper outer coat. Like, in my breed the outer coat should be prickly and “hard” to protect from the elements. Not saying that’s how your dog is… BTW, he is really cute!
Can anyone shed light on why shaving a dog’s coat would change the quality of the re-grown hair? That just doesn’t make sense to me. If I cut my hair short, it doesn’t grow back a different texture, or thicker or thinner… it grows back exactly as it was before. Ditto all the guys I know who buzz their hair down for hot weather. My horse’s coat? Same deal… I body clip him every year and every year it grows back the same way. Same for the cat who had to be partially shaved for surgery. Once the patch was fully grown back in, there was no way to tell where the edges had been. Are dog coats magically weird in some way?
Or could it just be that while growing back in, the coat is exposed to more sunlight than usual (since the dog isn’t seeking the shade as much as he would in a full coat) and that makes the haircoat burn, frazzle, whatever…
Unrelated side note off Melissa’s point, when I went through chemotherapy years ago my hair grew back not only a different color, but texture. However, thats different than only shaving down a portion of a coat/cutting off some of your hair. I’d be interested to hear responses, too.
Nope, sorry, you’re in the dark with the rest of us.
There is no known medical reason for clipper alopecia, it just happens. Sometimes other things can factor in - thyroid issues, etc., - but sometimes you have a perfectly healthy dog that just doesn’t grow his hair back.
And it’s not just dogs - cats can have the same issues. I’ve only seen in it Persians so far, but my shop doesn’t get very many cats and Persians are over represented. I would think Maine Coons and Siberians and the like would have the same risk.
If humans and horses had thick double coats like huskies and shepherds I’m sure we’d see the problem there too.
No one is quite sure why post clipping allopecia occurs - it doesn’t happen in every dog or cat, but it certainly happens frequently enough that any groomer knows about it. (Even if they don’t recognize its existence!)
There is a difference between hair-growing animals (us, horses, some dogs like poodles and Maltese) and fur-bearing dogs (Malamutes, Spitz-types like Poms, Labs and Goldens.) You can shave a hair-growing animal all you want, and there will be no change. There is an indefinite growth period in that kind of hair (although we are familiar with that weird look a horse gets if you shave it too late in the season, but that’s simply because the tips of the hair are flat and won’t shed out 'till the next season change) and it won’t change from being shaved. Fur-bearing dogs, now, are a different story: that outer coat sometimes just plain stops, and the undercoat grows like nuts. We groomers call that coat funk.
People often think that coat funk is the dog’s plush coat growing back - it certainly is long and thick - but it’s not the same, and does not have the same protective properties his normal coat would have. It it hot and blowsy. It traps water and damp, and can cause skin infections. People see their dog in discomfort and shave the dog again, and the cycle starts over again. Some dogs/owners are unfortunate enough that the dog drops all his coat. He ends up nekkid and it never grows back. That happened to both my uncle’s rescued Chows. Not pretty.
Another factor is also Hypothyroidism. This condition affects the skin and coat and any dog I’ve seen that has been shaved that is a fur-bearing breed and hypothyroid, the coat does not grow back normally.
I’m not sure if this would be true with all endocrine type diseases, like Cushings, but I would hedge a bet that it is. Most Cushings dogs coats are affected by the disease as well…
[QUOTE=GotGait;6267370]
The stuff I’m hearing from dog show groomers is that sometimes the coat does grow in softer, but in some breeds that’s not a proper outer coat. Like, in my breed the outer coat should be prickly and “hard” to protect from the elements. Not saying that’s how your dog is… BTW, he is really cute![/QUOTE]
That makes sense. I never thought of that. And thanks, he is quite adorable :yes:
Comfort comes first though, IMO, if the dog is just a house pet. If it’s a working or show dog then that’s a different story. But if you have the ability to protect them from the elements when needed, I would shave in the summer if the dog seems to be more comfortable that way. In Carl’s case, he’s 10 and keeping him cool in the summer is top priority, especially since it gets hot and humid in VA.
