To shave or not to shave...and how to shave

It was 80 degrees here yesterday and poor Charlie was sooooo hot. He has the most beautiful coat ever and it makes me sick to think of shaving it but I think I'm going to have to. It is only going to get hotter this summer. I can leave him inside with the air conditioning but he gets so bored he gets destructive if he can't go out and play for a few hours a day. Anybody have any tips on how to cool this poor guy off and not make him look stupid? If you have read some of my previous posts, you know I can't take him to the groomer so I'll have to do it myself. Any advice is appreciated! Here's what he looks like now:

he should be able to handle heat fine!

You really think so? He acted like he was just dying yesterday after about 1/2 hour of running around outside in the sun. He was panting really hard, drooling (and he's not a drooler typically) and lying in the shade on the concrete to cool off. I've thought of getting him a baby pool to play in but I know he'll just chew it up immediately.

How about an in-ground medium-size coy pond? They're between $50 and $100 dollars (or more, I guess... depending upon where you buy) and I've seen huge ones as well. You have to dig it in, so it's a bit of work, but with some rocks or soemthing around the edge there's NO WAY he could chew on it. How often do you groom him? Just curious... And is there a possibility that you could thin out his fur or something?

I thought about a little pond but I really don't have a good place for one, where it wouldn't be in the sun boiling for most of the day, and honestly, I don't want to deal with trying to keep one clean. A baby pool I could just dump it when it gets nasty. I don't know about thinning out his coat. GSDs have that undercoat that I would think would make that really difficult. ?????

is their no way you can get him to a groomer? or even have a mobile come to your house? We get alot of long hair dogs in and when we DO have to shave them the owners always regret it, We will do everything we can to avoid shaving because it does lose some protection from the sun. We use a high velocity blaster which gets right down in the coat and blows away all the dead hair, I do this on my lab and shes always alot cooler during the summer.

It's not that I can't get him to a groomer, it's that no groomer can do anything with him because he's so crazy. I've tried, and I end up paying for a grooming that was never done because they can't handle him. I've been working with him on it for a while now and he's getting a bit better, but it's still not really an option.

oh ok! maybe invest in a home blaster and see if he will allow you to blast him outside or maybe a furminator? You will need to ask others for their opinion on this tool as I've never used it.

My dog hates the heat, and her favorite game in the summer is 'attack the hose' wherin I squirt the garden hose over the lawn and she races around the yard, coming in regularly to run through the water or bite the stream. It's a lot easier with one of those adjustable nozzles, by the way. Exercises her, gets her soaking wet, and makes me laugh uncontrollably.

That's hilarious, BECAUSE I spent most of Saturday underneath my house, replacing my faucet so that I could do exactly that! (It froze and broke over the winter) Charlie went nuts when I sprayed him!

AHH DO NOT SHAVE HIM!

What you might be able to do is bring him to your vets office, ask if they do grooming, book an appointment there and if he is truely completely horrible for grooming and there is no way you can train him into being groomed..

get him sedated and groomed that way...

There is NO reason to shave a GSD

I agree. DO NOT SHAVE HIM!!!

Invest in a kiddie pool and supervise (maybe spray the outside with bitter apple?)!

~Tucker

Thank you, Summer for saying something! DON'T SHAVE!

Just have a kiddie pool out for him on hot days when you see he is heating up. Or, I am not sure what you call them, but they will often use them at like agility trials for dogs that are very hot after just running the course....like a huge tub. Those would be good too. We are starting to use them at agility class for the summer.

WATER...WATER...WATER ..NO SHAVING !!!!
Dogs that don't shed like a Shih-Tzu can get a close cut but shaving is never right unless there is a medical reason. Please don't shave him groom him more and encourage water play. ACDs have dense coats and dry out slowly so if they are wet the heat never bothers them and I live where 123 is a daily event!!

count me in with the "OMG DON'T SHAVE HIM!" people

When we have extreme heat here, I run my dogs twice a day for a shorter time instead of one big walk. We go in the early am (before work) and at night once it's cooled off. They stay inside in the hottest part of the day. They also go to a small, man made lake where they can swim quite often if it's hot. My dogs won't set food in a kiddie pool- not sure why.

Get a furminator and brush him once a day until his coat thins out - those things supoosedly take out a ton of undercoat -which is what you want- Minimal undercoat but the shiny top coat left there. If you shave them you can really mess up their coat and end up with more undercoat coming in.

I agree! I'd never shave a GSD.

Ours loved the water. I'd invest in a kiddie pool or think about taking him somewhere to swim.

He shouldn't need shaving. We live in AZ where it's 115-120 in the summer, and oddly enough some of the more popular breeds here are malamutes and chows. We have a GSD, though her coat isn't as long as yours.

How often does he need to go outside for exercise? What we do with our dog is take her for a walk in the early morning before it heats up, then keep her inside during the day except for potty breaks. Around 6-7 in the evening we go outside and play, bike ride, walk, some activity like that once it has cooled down to the 90s or so. I see a lot of shaved chows around here in the day, but in the evening all the "natural" chows come out. When we first moved here and wanted a dog I asked those people how they kept their dogs cool and they did exactly what we do now. Many of them also invested in a kiddie pool of some kind for their dog as well.

Just a thought if you are worried about him eating a pool.....There are these heavy duty plastic sandboxes with covers that look like an animal face, like a frog or dinosaur. Here is a picture I found:

http://www.step2.com/product.cfm?product_id=1132&stp2ssid=18E092E1-1143-E489-2D4D7228E7A3A5D8

You can probably find one used on craigslist, or even in the toy stores new. They are VERY sturdy, it would be difficult for an aggressive chewer to mess one up unless left unsupervised for several hours. The sides are very thick (2.5-3"), and angled in such a way that it would be hard for a dog to keep it's mouth on them. The little boys I take care of gave up on keeping sand in theirs, and it makes an excellent wading pool.

Those regular kiddie pools are junk. I think the material they are made of tends to break down in the sunlight as they always get very brittle and break soon after buying them.

Ok, let me see if I understand...you're saying don't shave him.... LOL! Got it.

Thanks for the sandbox suggestion, Romy. I will try that. He really only likes to destroy things that are new in the yard for the first couple weeks. Once he gets used to it being there I don't think he'll chew it so hopefully I can just let him out there supervised until he gets used to it.

And I think I'm going to make another attempt to take him to a new groomer. I've been talking with her and she is confident she can handle him (of course, the last one said that too). I don't know why they have so much problem with him. He used to be psycho when I tried to brush him but now, as long as you keep giving him treats, he's OK with it.

a furminator of other kind of undercoat rake if he'll let you brush him will get the dead undercoat out wihtout damaging the top coat.

as others said, DONT shave (by shaving you acutlaly REMOVE the dogs natural protection from the sun and heat)

id buy a real cheap kiddy pool (check out freecycle.com for your local chapter than put out a wanted add for a couple free ones. (that way if he destroys them, no big loss for you)
a sprinkler, or hose would also work if you cant/dont want to go the kiddie pool route. a big beach unmberella over the pool will create a shady place to play. just make sure you understand itll getmuddy with all the running round and udmp out the pool every day to avoid it being used as a mosquitoe breding ground

some other fun games mydogs liek when its hot are anything involving icecubes. toss a hand full of icecubes in the kiddie pool or his drinking water to play bobbin for icecubes, or let him chase one across a tile/hardwood floor.

my frandfather used to fill an big ole bucket with water, and toss in a veriety of rubber dog toys, then put it in his chest freezer. once completly frozen hed toss it in the large kiddie pool he had for his saffy who would play with it in the water and as it melted toys would be freed so the game was endless, he would also do "ice pops" for the chis, in an icecube tray hes take natural none sweetend yoghurt, and organic (pesticide free) blueberries blend into essentially a smoothie and spread it into the icecube tray. the dogs LOVED them. you could also use chicken/beef broth.

I agree. Don't shave him.

Kiddie pools work wonders for cooling dogs off - my dad has this gigantic one for his three dogs (boxers and a setter).

Since I don't have a yard, and therefore have nowhere to put a kiddie pool, we go out for walks and to the dog park in the early morning or late evening, to avoid the heat.

The dog park also has a nice-sized pond, about knee deep at the most, that the dogs can go lay in when it gets too hot. It has a filter (it's man-made) to keep it clean - it's really awesome in the summer! Especially when you have two waterbugs like mine! :lol-sign:

Funniest thing though, one of my fosters, a lab mix, is SCARED of the water. He's a lab! And my little sheltie mix is in love with the water.

-Rosefern