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Location: South East UK
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 27,437
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Originally Posted by
lafleuk
We have a border/bernese cross and have always taken extra care iof him in terms of grooming. He is getting older now and seems to have an increasingly hard time keeping cool in the summer, despite daily grooming and removal of the undercoat. Also we are in the country and the blackflies and mosquitos seem to get 'caught' in his fur. We bug spray him, but still when we brush/pat him down we find dozens of flies coming out of the fur.
I agree that shaving him would be a really bad idea,
but I'm considering buying clippers and just trimming a bit off his coat (leaving it about 2-3 inches long everywhere).
Has anyone tried this? What was the result?
This is what I've done with my longcoat gsd, who suffers with terrible skin problems, has grown a doubly thick coat this year, which could be due to his cushings or could be down to his steroids, he's overweight and hot even though he gets a darn good grooming every other day at the very least, otherwise he would be itching like crazy. I've taken off the belly really short. I've then used the longest number to go around his trousers and thighs, just to get some air through to his skin, and I also went very gently along his back, again with the longest attachment and the blades at their longest, so as not to actually take the fur off, more to thin it out a tad. It's worked a treat for me, my dog looks thinner, cooler and happier and he's not scratching. I would never do this with my other gsd who has a much finer, longer coat, but the dog I've done it with, has a coat more like a sheepdog than a gsd!
If you haven't got clippers yet, then you must go for the battery ones, coz mine have the wire and it's a right pain keeping that wire tucked out of the way to get to places, remember that!