my friend has sprollies & their coats are basically YUCK! not like Collies at all (i dont like trrimmed collies)

Tufty bits on the top of their heads are stripped out, ears are trimmed short,around their ear & over the ear, feet are trimmed short, feathers on legs brushed through & thinned. On the hind legs trimmed from foot top hock. Knickers brushed through & thinned out & tail "tidied". The old hair on the body is stripped esp if its on the dogs sides,then given a BIG groom with a comb to get all the old hair out.
they always look good after!

I`m honestly more for dogs having their natural coats, but sometimes it really is a problem for an individual dog. My lad whom I clip, its not my perception of how he`s feeling, its that when he`s clipped during very hot weather, he does`nt pant like mad, and I mean a worrying level of panting, [ which he does with full coat], is`nt restless because of heat which he is with full coat, and heat related grumpiness level drops straight away, very identifiable with him, and something a lot of owners don`t realise that over-heating can be the cause for dogs to sometimes be `out of sorts`, out of character `snappy` or worse.
My others keep their normal coats whatever the weather, because they don`t suffer like Willow does in the heat. When his coat comes off, he`s his usual self. When full coated in hot weather, he`s not a happy lad at all.

I had one other dog in the past whom I clipped for the summer, she was a cross breed, half Poodle, and her mish-mash of two coat types clashing, [ clashing for her that is, I don`t mean aesthetically ], meant she was also more comfortable without it in hot weather

Strangely, my dog who copes best in hot weather is black, yet of all of them, [ my others being all or mostly white ], she should find it the worst, but then I`ve never been one for having `normal` dogs anyway

We have to bear in mind also, even things we take for granted like central heating or other types of heating are `unnatural` in terms of what a dogs coat is designed for, and many breeds live in countries with climates completely different to the coat type their breed benefits from in their country of origin, so sometimes a dog now and then just does`nt cope well as a result of such factors

[ ps, off-topic, one of my Agility students has a new pup - a Spanish Water Dog - I`ve seen the photo`s already but I`ll be getting to meet pupster properly soon, after second jabs are out of the way ]

As the whole cutting/trimming thing is true this dog is however part ESS which is a dog that is normally trimmed. To me it seems different in this situation....What about giving him the ESS trim??

The difference is an ESS should never ever have clippers taken to it's coat other than the neck area and the top of the ears (and even then you're pushing it using them on the ears).

For the show ring ESS are just "tidied up", which in reality means some trimming and quite a lot of stripping, but no clippers!

A Coat King might be better for Charlie, Kel. Not everyones cup of tea, but might be what you need? Sorry if it's been mentioned already, have had a look but couldn't see anything!