We used to have a lady who came into the grooming parlour with Newfies and asked for her old guy to be clipped right back one Summer. He was about 13 and really struggling with the heat, it did really seem to help him. Sadly she lost him over that winter.

She would never have done anything like that with her younger ones - but the old guy in the heat...it seemed to help.

I can see what you mean, Helena. I'm certainly no expert (hence this thread!) but I think that maybe a dog who is growing extra coat because of an illness and its treatment would need approaching differently than a dog who has a "normal" double coat, if you see what I mean. But I'd have to leave it to the groomers on here to know whether or not it would be better to shave his hair right back to a short coat, or whether it would be better to try and thin out the undercoat and leave him some longer hair. (Don't even know if that's possible!) If the latter is possible, it might be the better option for keeping him cool.

Thanks TBBS! As I said earlier, you guys on here are confirming what I've read. I'm so glad I started this thread.

It makes sense Shona! I can't for the life of me see why anyone would deliberately buy a long coated or double coated dog and then shave it when they could do as you do and buy a short-coated breed instead.

Thanks Tassle, that's making my mind up a bit because my old boy is now 10, and it would seem fair to me, kind of

If that's at all possible, without putting him through the trauma of hand stripping ((ouch! I think!) that would be my best option, because normally, most of that would have come out anyway at this time of year, but nothing's happening so far what with this cushings condition. I'm off to the vet with him next Friday for a check over, so I think I'll ask them, although they have told me in the past to get it all off, so I probably know their answer!

I used to take him to the groomers every few months and always asked her to shave his belly and front for the summer, but he always came back so very itchy, even when I told her not to bath him, he was still itchy, just being groomed and trimmed so I stopped going there. That could have been stress of me leaving him there, or it could have been anything in her parlour, just don't know. I wonder if you can get groomers who will come out to YOU?

I have clippers, but my husband says "no"! I've clipped hundreds of horses in the past but never a dog, except for tidying up purposes

Interesting thread.

I think it depends on the individual dog. I'd probably be of the same opinion as you Dennydog had it not been for how my border collie suffers even during the winter. I'm not ashamed to say I've recently shaved him (albeit a bit shorter than I meant to ) because his excessive coat was causing him problems, he would sit in the house panting for no real reason, wouldn't get on the sofa for a cuddle and struggled on walks compared to our other dogs. Now he's shaved he's more active and keeps up with the others, doesn't pant for no reason around the house and is much more cuddly, he even spent last night on the bed.

He's been groomed daily since it was necessary and never had a matt in his life so it wasn't anything to do with being too lazy but simply because he gets too hot.

Here's a couple of pics of said dog with his new hairdo, his names Jayjay btw.

I know exactly what you mean, Im a lowly groomer too, and sometimes you dont want to hand the poor dog back

You should try a furminator or shedding comb and try to thin all the undercoat out so you still have your top coat to cool the dog down, some dogs with bad skin do better with their coat off and special shampoos etc can get into the skin but some dogs it irritates their skin and in my experience GSDs have pretty sensitive skin anyway.

Hope that helps

But from what I've read on here and on other places on the net, it would seem that it would have been better to have taken him to a proper groomer who could have thinned out his undercoat and left him the protection of his longer top coat. Not only would that have made him cooler, it would have continued to do so as the weather hots up. From what people on have been saying on here, your poor Jay will really suffer if we have the hot "barbecue" summer the weather people are predicting.

Not sure where you live but I'm in England.

Neither am I sure what thread you are reading, from what I've read you are the only one predicting he will suffer, everyone else seems pretty open minded.

It's not just his undercoat that causes the problem, his top coat is even more excessive (bad breeding imo, but that's beside the point) which is why we have chosen to shave him.

We will see what happens if we do get a decent summer, at the moment it has proved very beneficial for him but I will hold my hands up if it's an epic failure during the summer, at present I feel it is the best course of action and am currently enjoying my much more active and happier bc.

Oh and having seen some of the work of local groomers last year I wouldn't let them touch my dog.