# Summer Grooming Options



## Zach

Hello,

My 10 month old pup is in need of some grooming. He needs some of his butt feathers shorter so he doesn't get poop on them.

I also want to do something to make him more comfortable in the Texas heat. How should I instruct the groomer to trim his hair so that he will be most comfortable?

I too him to a groomer this morning and she said that using clippers on him would make him more comfortable and the concerns about shaving goldens are myths... I don't believe her.

For now she is just going to do his feet, ears and tail, but as the heat picks up I am getting tempted to have his hair cut shorter.


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## Tahnee GR

The most important thing is to keep his undercoat down. Shaving does nothing to cool the dog, if the dog doesn't have a thick undercoat.

I have had groomers do a "cooling strip" down the middle of the belly for some of my older dogs.


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## mylissyk

Do NOT have him shaved, and please do not let a groomer take a pair of clippers to his coat. It sounds like if you even allow her to use the clippers she will go ahead and shave him. I would not trust her with his grooming given her "opinion".

You can have his tummy and hips trimmed shorter to make him more comfortable during summer, but the double layer coat acts like insulation and helps keep him cool. You can also permanently damage the coat if it is shaved and it may not grow back healthy. Some dogs have been shaved and it grew back fine, but there is no guarantee it will.


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## Megora

Rather than clipping the coat - I'd honestly just do a couple different things...

Keep the dog indoors during the hottest time of the day. 

And when outside, hose the dog down and/or provide a wading pool for him to wallow in. 

I know people who clip the dogs on the bellies similar to what Linda described above, but their dogs do get rashes from bugs biting.


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## Zach

When show dogs get groomed, don't they get their hair cut real short?

I wonder if I should ask for that kind of cut.


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## K9-Design

No, goldens in the ring have long flowy hair 

I live in Florida and groom dogs. I really love when people who live up north say that cutting the hair doesn't make the dog cooler. Sure. Go sit out in the sun in a parka and let us know how that feels. Most dogs in the deep south don't spend a lot of hard time in the sun so they aren't going to get sunburnt. Clipping the hair absolutely can help if heat is a concern for you. The only real drawback is, some haircuts can look a little goofy if not done correctly. The hair grows back totally fine -- it's hair.

There are several different haircut options I use for my clients. The least invasive is just a regular groom, and I take out as much undercoat as will naturally come out with a force-air dryer and Coat King brush, and trimming on paws, ears, tail and tips of the feathers just enough to make them even.

A mid-level summer trim is the same as above, except I trim the feathers shorter (say, 2-3" long) and shave a strip down their bellies from armpits to groin. The longer hair on their sides hangs down over it and you never can tell unless they lay upside down. 

A true summer cut I do the belly clip with a 10 blade as above, then use a 1" attachment to clip the whole body except the tail. They don't look ridiculous and I'm able to blend the hair so it looks natural. Typically the 1" blade doesn't even touch the top coat on the back, but will trim down all the longer hair on the sides and feathers. The tail is trimmed like a "fox tail" with scissors. NOT a lion puff or long and scraggly. The whole thing looks pretty darn good and everyone seems very happy with it. Absolutely the dogs are cooler. 

Best of luck.


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## SwimDog

I have friends with dogs who were not tolerant of heat - as an experiment (there wasn't a lot to lose in terms of dog comfort), the dogs were shaved down - and many dogs did much, much better. But note - not all the dogs did - some had very little or no change.


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## mylissyk

K9-Design said:


> No, goldens in the ring have long flowy hair
> 
> I live in Florida and groom dogs. I really love when people who live up north say that cutting the hair doesn't make the dog cooler. Sure. Go sit out in the sun in a parka and let us know how that feels. Most dogs in the deep south don't spend a lot of hard time in the sun so they aren't going to get sunburnt. Clipping the hair absolutely can help if heat is a concern for you. The only real drawback is, some haircuts can look a little goofy if not done correctly. The hair grows back totally fine -- it's hair.
> 
> There are several different haircut options I use for my clients. The least invasive is just a regular groom, and I take out as much undercoat as will naturally come out with a force-air dryer and Coat King brush, and trimming on paws, ears, tail and tips of the feathers just enough to make them even.
> 
> A mid-level summer trim is the same as above, except I trim the feathers shorter (say, 2-3" long) and shave a strip down their bellies from armpits to groin. The longer hair on their sides hangs down over it and you never can tell unless they lay upside down.
> 
> A true summer cut I do the belly clip with a 10 blade as above, then use a 1" attachment to clip the whole body except the tail. They don't look ridiculous and I'm able to blend the hair so it looks natural. Typically the 1" blade doesn't even touch the top coat on the back, but will trim down all the longer hair on the sides and feathers. The tail is trimmed like a "fox tail" with scissors. NOT a lion puff or long and scraggly. The whole thing looks pretty darn good and everyone seems very happy with it. Absolutely the dogs are cooler.
> 
> Best of luck.


Do you have pictures of dogs you've done the summer cut on? You are a true treasure if you go to the effort to blend the coat when you clip it short. (Not sarcasm, I'm genuinely impressed.)

There are so many bad, or just careless people at groomers around here. Every Golden I've seen in this area that was shaved or cut short was a disaster. I have several friends whose Golden's coats never grew back correctly. One female who originally had a beautiful long coat, after two summers of shaving her it grew back wiry and brittle and has never improved.


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## Alaska7133

I'm with Annie. I do think a commercial blower (usually the kind they have at the dog wash) will blow out a tremendous amount of coat. A coat king tool does wonders also. I have used clippers on dogs that aren't being shown to shorten their coats. Heat is an awful thing for a dog. I like to see them comfortable.


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## Nairb

I've been raking tons of undercoat every day for at least a week. Can an inexperienced groomer such as myself be trusted with one of those Coat Kings? If not, I'm content to keep raking. Bella is not a hot weather dog.


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## Alaska7133

Coat kings are easy to use. The fur will grow back if you take too much. It's not like the fur is permanently gone forever. But coat kings I don't think could make too much go away. Have you tried taking your girl to the dog wash and using one of those professional blowers? An amazing amount of fur will come out of them!


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## Nairb

Alaska7133 said:


> Coat kings are easy to use. The fur will grow back if you take too much. It's not like the fur is permanently gone forever. But coat kings I don't think could make too much go away. Have you tried taking your girl to the dog wash and using one of those professional blowers? An amazing amount of fur will come out of them!


I'll have to pass on the dog wash station. I'm pretty sure that would traumatize Bella. I just gave her a bath and a good dry with my shop vac (poor man's dog dryer). It seems most of the undercoat is out now, just from the raking and brushing I've been doing for the past week. I can't imagine cutting the length of her coat, but that's just me. I'd be concerned about what it would look like. Maybe it would be different if we were in Texas or Florida.


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## Goldens&Friesians

I have to disagree about cutting the hair making dogs cooler or not ruining hair. I am a groomer and I worked with a certified pet aesthetician (CPA). Basically, that is a person who specializes in skin and coat and works with the vet treating skin and coat issues through proper grooming and shampoos/conditioners. She was from Arizona before moving to IL (note AZ is VERY hot and IL is VERY humid). She would tell you that yes, cutting the hair will ruin it and no, it does not make them cooler. The problem is we like to think in terms of how we as humans would feel. If we wore a parka in 90 degree weather, yes we'd boil! So I totally understand why you would think that taking off your dog's coat would make him cooler. But it doesn't work like that for dogs. The double coat is designed to keep him cooler in summer and warmer in winter. Each time you cut that hair it damages it-the change may be very gradual and un-noticeable, or it may be obvious after just one haircut. The undercoat grows shorter, but faster; the topcoat grows longer, but slower. When cut, the undercoat grows in thicker each time. This has a negative impact on the dog in a couple ways. One, it lowers the dogs critical temperature, meaning if the dog becomes ill it will go into shock at a higher temperature than its body normally would. Two, it increases shedding. And three, it causes them to essentially bake in their own hair without the topcoat to keep the airflow moving through the hair. There are even a couple of non-conclusive studies linking hypothyroidism with shaved double coated dogs. If your goal is to keep your dog cooler or to prevent so much shedding the answer to both those problems is REGULAR professional grooming with a groomer who will bath, BLOW dry, and brush out the undercoat. The key to coolness is keeping the coat free of mats and loose undercoat so that it can do what it was designed to do-keep your dog cool! This information is all somewhat new to me as I have been a groomer for 7 years, but only just started working with a CPA about 3 yrs ago. I have learned all of this from her over the past couple years and it totally makes sense to me! I'm not sure how to put photos on here, but I could show you a couple of photos of dogs I've groomed who's coats have been permanently damaged from shaving. 
Having said all of this, there are a couple options for making a coat more manageable without damaging it. One thing I commonly do is just a scissor trim up of the feathering on the hind legs. Another is an all around trim up of all the feathering-basically making it even with the length on the body. While this can occasionally still damage the coat, the vast majority is still in good shape and the dog is still comfortable.


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## Harleysmum

K9-Design said:


> No, goldens in the ring have long flowy hair
> 
> I live in Florida and groom dogs. I really love when people who live up north say that cutting the hair doesn't make the dog cooler. Sure. Go sit out in the sun in a parka and let us know how that feels. Most dogs in the deep south don't spend a lot of hard time in the sun so they aren't going to get sunburnt. Clipping the hair absolutely can help if heat is a concern for you. The only real drawback is, some haircuts can look a little goofy if not done correctly. The hair grows back totally fine -- it's hair.
> 
> There are several different haircut options I use for my clients. The least invasive is just a regular groom, and I take out as much undercoat as will naturally come out with a force-air dryer and Coat King brush, and trimming on paws, ears, tail and tips of the feathers just enough to make them even.
> 
> A mid-level summer trim is the same as above, except I trim the feathers shorter (say, 2-3" long) and shave a strip down their bellies from armpits to groin. The longer hair on their sides hangs down over it and you never can tell unless they lay upside down.
> 
> A true summer cut I do the belly clip with a 10 blade as above, then use a 1" attachment to clip the whole body except the tail. They don't look ridiculous and I'm able to blend the hair so it looks natural. Typically the 1" blade doesn't even touch the top coat on the back, but will trim down all the longer hair on the sides and feathers. The tail is trimmed like a "fox tail" with scissors. NOT a lion puff or long and scraggly. The whole thing looks pretty darn good and everyone seems very happy with it. Absolutely the dogs are cooler.
> 
> Best of luck.


If I gave your description of "A true summer cut" to a groomer would they be able to follow it. It looks like we are going to have a hot summer in Oz this year but my real reason for wanting to clip Harley is because of the dreaded paralysis tick. He is unable to have any flea or tick meds due to having a seizure following a Bravecto chew. Would the short coat make him more susceptible to mosquito bites as he can't have heartworm meds any more either. I seem to be between a rock and a hard place!


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## K9-Design

Hi Harleysmum, I would think a groomer could follow the outline I gave above, pretty standard protocol but of course how it turns out for the blending and trimming with scissors depends on the talent and vision of the groomer.
If you have him shaved really close (ie. 10 blade) then yes he would be more susceptible to mosquito bites, I would think. I really can't answer your question on the tick stuff. Sorry


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## 3181wly

What blade size should a groomer use if the intent is to give the dog a summer/swimmer cut where the undercoat remains wholly intact and the long stuff is groomed down to a couple of inches or so, with appropriate trim work to make it look good.?I don't know if I would ever do it, but it seems that giving a picture to the groomer along with instructions to use a blade size no larger or smaller than "x" would be a good way to at least limit the damage if the groomer messed up.


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## Goldens&Friesians

A lot depends on your individual dog and its coat type and length. I've seen some Goldens that a 1 comb (leaves coat about 1 inch long) doesn't even touch the hair on top, and others where a 1 comb would make them look shaved it would take off so much! A blade will always take the coat too short-blades are used for shaving. What you want your groomer to use is a snap-on comb-that's a blade guard which will keep the coat a certain length. Generally speaking, a snap on comb sizes C, D, E, or F should be ok without damaging too much coat. Of those combs, a C would be the shortest (maybe 2 inches or so) and an F the longest (maybe 3 inches). Also, just fyi, an F comb is the longest snap on comb they make. Ideally you'd probably want a length that takes nothing off the hair on the dog's back, but only the feathering. My preference is to NOT do a full haircut on a Golden, even if it is a longer one. If a more manageable coat is what my client wants, I prefer to just shorten the feathering and blend it into the body. Not all groomers are equal in talent, though, and blending is something not all groomers are great at, so how a hair cut turns out also just depends on the groomer. I hope this helps you!


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## Goldens&Friesians

I should also mention that those snap-on comb sizes I gave you are the Andis brand combs. I'm not sure if other brands of combs are marked the same. I know Wahl brand is different, because a new groomer hired at our place had Wahl and had to try to figure out which of her combs were equal to the Andis size so she didn't mess up any haircuts.  Everyone else I've ever groomed with uses Andis snap-on combs.


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## 3181wly

G&F, I just saw your responses. Thanks very much for taking the time to offer your advice. If I'm reading correctly, and E or F snap comb should allow even a poor groomer to at least not ruin the undercoat or overcoat. With a picture of what I want and your information, I should at least get a tolerable result the first time out, then hopefully improve after that. Of course, a great result the first time would be preferable. Thanks again.


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## 3181wly

Oh, and I would plan on being present if they permit it.


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## Palsmypal

Blowers are noisy and antithetical to the golden temperament. After washing, Just take him for a nice ride in the car on the highway with the windows rolled down. (S)he will enjoy it much more than the blower.


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## Prism Goldens

Palsmypal said:


> Blowers are noisy and antithetical to the golden temperament. After washing, Just take him for a nice ride in the car on the highway with the windows rolled down. (S)he will enjoy it much more than the blower.


LOL and your car will be full of hair, as will your eyes and mouth. 
Blowers are faster, easier and the dogs love them once used to them.


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