I think they look horrible clipped out, their coat is there for a number of reasons, including protecting them from the elements, which includes the sun! I have a very thick coated BC and he takes me ages to groom, but I'd never dream of clipping his coat, my others have much easier coats to maintain (2 being smooth coated).

I can imagine how you must feel. It always saddens me that people get dogs (or any animal for that matter) and then don't want to look after them properly. Why do they do it? No-one makes you but a dog, so why buy one if you are not prepared to look after it properly? Why do people buy a long coated dog rather than a short-coated dog if they don't want to groom it properly? I can only think it's got to be either laziness or ignorance.

Think you are probably right! We groom our long-coated border collies daily too. It only takes a few minutes a day, and we've never had any problem with them being too hot - even when we've been on long walks or done agility with them in the hot summers!

Does your thick coated border collie get any more overheated than your other two when it's warm, TBBS? Mine don't, but one of the reasons that I started this thread was that someone I know thinks I'm being cruel in not shaving their coats, whereas much of what I can find on the net says the opposite - that in fact it's cruel to shave them because you are actually taking away a cooling mechanism.

Our meg didn't. Now I have two smooth and I semi Long.....one of the smooth to be honest gets hotter than the others, and when he does he just lies down somewhere cool

Thanks for this Mick. I've always understood that it's a similar case with border collies too - the thick undercoat and longer outer coat keep them warm during cold winters, and then during summer months they shed a lot of the undercoat, and the longer outer coat protects them against the heat. Shaving the longer outercoat does them no favours and actually hampers their cooling system.

Thanks for this - it seems as though the experience of owners on here is bearing out what I've read on the net.

It's difficult to say, he doesn't seem to have the stamina my other 3 have, he'll be the 1st to go lay down when we're playing ball, but it doesn't have to be hot weather, if it's really hot weather and the others are hot, he seems to actually cope better than them.

I'm glad I've seen this, because my white longcoated gsd has now grown the thickest coat you could ever imagine because he has cushings which tends to manifest itself this way. I was pondering about whether to have the lot off for the summer, right back to the skin, coz he gets so hot at the best of times, let alone with a double thickness coat. His coat has always been looked after thoroughly because he had terrible skin problems (Atopy) all his life and has lived on steroids, so he's now doubled in size as well. I'm now in 2 minds as to whether or not to actually do this now, but in HIS particular circumstances, I honestly think it would be much better for him if the air could get right onto his skin if he was shaved right back to a shortcoat kind of thing, bit like they do with those old english? Any thoughts for this then please?

I would be terrible with a dog that needed lots of grooming, hence I stick to breeds with coats I can cope with..