Calming Canines

Clipping double coated dogs in summer.

Anyone who knows me or follows me will know that I live with 4 Shelties (Shetland Sheepdogs). They are one of many double coated breeds which simply means their fur is comprised of two different layers; they have a soft, fluffy undercoat as well as a coarser topcoat. These different layers shed and regrow on different schedules, with the soft undercoat shedding and regrowing on a faster cycle than the topcoat or guard hairs.

I followed the generally accepted advice and kept them well groomed, removing as much of the loose undercoat as possible. This worked fine in our average British summer, and they coped with the odd day of 25 degree Celsius heat.

We are told never to clip a double coated dog, usually for the following reasons:

❎ The coat on a double coated breed helps them to stay cool in summer as well as keep warm in winter.

❎Clipping the topcoat or guard hairs will damage the coat and it’ll never grow back properly.

I never questioned these statements as I’m not a groomer or a scientist and foolishly assumed they were based in science and had been researched. After all, these were being stated with extreme confidence by every groomer, breeder and dog person on the internet.

Then came the heatwaves of the last few years, culminating in the first Red Warning of heat for parts of the UK that I’ve known in my 48 years on this earth. By this summer, my dogs are also aging, the eldest being 13.5 years old and the youngest is rising 7 and they were visibly struggling to maintain their body temperature. I started reading more about thermoregulation and realised that their coats weren’t really keeping them cool. Shedding their undercoat meant they were just reducing the amount they were going to overheat by had they not shed it. This is very different to “keeping them cool”. A dog’s main mechanism for heat loss (~70%) in ambient temperatures of 20°C to 33°C is convection and radiation from the body surface. The longer and thicker the coat is, the slower the rate of heat loss.

I’m no physicist (I failed GCSE Physics!) so I looked to people who were. People with peer reviewed research on thermoregulation. The distilled version of my conclusions is that a dog’s coat has good insulative properties. It protects the body from UV rays/sunburn but not from solar heat gain. The insulation provided by the coat would theoretically keep a dog’s body insulated from the heat IF the dog was inanimate and wasn’t continually producing body heat. Because a dog is always producing heat, the insulation the coat gives leaves nowhere for the heat to escape to.

This quote from Dr David Marlin explains it well:

“A thick coat does not keep a dog cool in a hot climate. Insulation keeps heat in or out. It depends on what the temperature direction is. If the outside is lower than the dogs skin heat moves from skin to outside and the coat slows that down. Great when it's cold. If the outside is hotter than the dog's skin then the coat slows the movement of heat in BUT - the dog is still producing heat continuously that it has to get rid of, so now it has to increase respiratory evaporative heat loss and sweating evaporative heat loss.”

For me, that sealed the deal and in order to provide some relief from the 35 degree heat and considering we were only in June and still had July and August to get through, I made the decision to clip them.

Yes, I committed a cardinal sin in the eyes of many; I clipped my shelties.

Yes, they look a bit silly.

No, it was in no way a professional looking clip!

Did they find it easier to stay cool? Yes.

Do I regret it? No.

Welfare trumps cosmetics.

In the next post I’ll be looking at the second statement; Clipping a double coated dog will ruin their coat and it’ll never come back properly. To this end, I’ll be documenting the regrowth of their coats in real time so that people can judge for themselves whether this is true or not.

Most people pick a dog the same way they pick a jumper. “Oh that one’s nice.” “That one’s fluffy.” “That one looks calm.” And then a few months later you’re standing in your house, slightly sleep deprived, holding something that used to be furniture, wondering how this escalated so quickly.

Because here’s the bit people don’t realise. Dog breeds are not just aesthetics. They are genetics. Genetics that have been refined over generations.

Take a Border Collie. Stunning. Intelligent, athletic, impressive. Also running a full time operations department in their head. They are watching you, analysing you, and wondering why you are making such poor life choices. You don’t own a Border Collie, you are being supervised by one. If nothing is happening, they will create something to manage. Possibly involving your children.

Then there’s the Labrador. Friendly, easy going, everyone’s favourite. Also powered entirely by food and optimism. A Labrador will eat their dinner, your dinner, the concept of dinner and still sell you for a sandwich. They’re not being greedy, they just genuinely believe all food is a shared resource.

Dachshunds are where things get really confusing. Tiny, adorable, looks like they should come with a handbag. Historically bred to go underground and confront badgers. Badgers. So what you actually have is a small, determined, slightly suspicious individual who is absolutely convinced they could take on anything if needed. They don’t care that they’re small. That’s your concern, not theirs.

And then you have sighthounds. Calm, gentle, spend most of their time asleep, your smug self thinks you’ve made a sensible decision. And then suddenly, something moves in the distance and your sleepy dog turns into a missile. No warning, just gone. They’ll come back...eventually.

The problem is, people choose the dog for how they look, and then are surprised by how they behave. But the behaviour is the breed. They come with built in preferences and instincts, about how the world should work. Because you’re not just picking a dog. You’re picking a lifestyle.

There is so much more to helping a reactive dog than just rewarding calm behaviour and correcting unwanted behaviours.

I see this method being used all the time, but if it were that simple there'd be no need for professionals.

This "method" ignores the emotions and motivations behind the behaviour and can result in the behaviour escalating.

Where was the last place I saw this magical method being showcased (other than the local park where I see it far too often)? By our favourite fake trainer on British TV, Mr Graeme Hall.

If you hire someone to help with your dog's reactivity and this is the method they suggest you use, please walk away and find someone more qualified

Exciting news!

In the not too distant future, Calming Canines will be reopening for a limited number of new clients!

I will be working exclusively with fearful, anxious or worried dogs, whether they show their fear by noisy reactions or hiding away.

My health condition is not going to go away and I have reached a point where I accept that, and the limitations it brings. This means I will be only working with a single client at any one time, so that all my energy will go into that dog/human partnership.

I'm very much looking forward to helping more dogs to feel safe in their world!