“Shaving dogs in the heat: pros and cons”
Some owners prefer to shave long-haired dogs in the heat. But is this a boon for the dog itself? The owners are sure that by shaving their pet for the summer, they are doing a good deed for him and making life easier. However, this is a misconception, and a rather dangerous one. Shaving a dog in the heat does nothing good for the pet.
Long-haired dogs have adapted to exist with such hair. Of course, if you have shaved your pet since puppyhood, he will adapt to this (dogs get used to almost everything). But if the dog has grown up, say, she is already 1,5 years old, and a similar idea suddenly visited you in the midst of the heat, it is better to refrain from this. Have pity on your four-legged friend. A dog’s coat is a kind of protective barrier. In the same way, we put on a panama hat or use an umbrella to protect ourselves from the rain. Therefore, shaving, depriving a pet of this protection, will become a strong stress for his body, including affecting the functioning of internal organs. And the dog will suffer much more from the heat. Perhaps I would take the risk of shaving a dog whose silky coat is more like human hair in texture, such as a Yorkshire terrier or a Shih Tzu. For such dogs, shaving brings minimal damage. Also, if you shave a dog, its hair, growing back, changes its structure in the future. It gets thinner and doesn’t protect your pet as well as it used to. Rigid hair, for example, becomes soft, which means it begins to absorb moisture, stray into tangles, such dogs begin to shed, which was not the case before shaving. Sometimes the coat starts to curl. If you can’t resist, you should leave at least 3-4 mm of hair, and not expose the dog “under zero.” If you want the dog to constantly walk “naked”, do everything gradually so that the body has the opportunity adapt. But I personally would not advise any dog to cut bald.
