Do you shave your LGD in the summer?

[Pearce Pastures]

I do our other dog and the goats when the heat starts to get up there and I was just thinking about how heavy those coats are. if you do shave them down, do you use the same clippers as for your other critters or should I think about ordering a different head for my clippers?

 

[Southern by choice]

No, there is no need to shave them down. You actually expose the dog to more issues. Sunburn is one another is fleas, ticks, mosquitoes.
I owned 2 grooming shops and groomed pet and show for years, a lifetime ago. For house pets I often did clip dogs down for easier management for the owners.
For your Pyr, brushing their winter coat out is best. Outdoor working dogs tend to really "cake" the dirt in so they remain pest free. Kind of like how chickens dust bathe. Their coat also protects them for when they do need to take on a predator.
There were many Old English Sheepdogs and Collies that I used to "hand scissor" 3 inches all over, it kept the look and protected the dogs from burning. Very few groomers can scissor properly in that fashion, usually they would have to have a show grooming (poodles) background. Some groomers will "pretend" with "comb" attachments that still take the dog very short and look ridiculously sloppy.
I am not against "shaving" down a pyr/ OES/Collie etc sometimes it is more humane. I've had OES and Collies that were so matted and groos that there were actually maggots all over and in their rectum area.
All our LGD's did fine in 3 weeks of 100 degree temps. Well, "D" did come in and lay on the ottoman in front of the a/c. If you have shade trees etc that's good and if they get too hot they will dig into the soil to cool off. We also have kiddie pools.

Start brushing,combing, and doing ears and nails with your pup right away and make sure they get use to it because when they are 140-160lbs it's gonna be a problem!

 

[Pearce Pastures]

Thanks for the advice. I like to brush anyhow. It's kind of relaxing.

 

[EllieMay]

No, do not shave your LGD's.
Their coats actually help protect them from heat and sunburn during the summer.
What I do is brush them to remove loose hair and matts.
I use a wire brush and a FURminator.
They LOVE their brushing sessions!!

 

[Alice Acres]

The breeds that LGD are, are not breeds that should be shaved.
If they have shade, a breeze and access to a kiddie pool or something similar, they will be OK. They should pace themselves (most are calm types anyway) by choosing a good vantage point and laying down to survey their domain.

I show dogs too - and I have 2 Old English Sheepdogs (OES). One is in full show coat. The other is a retired champion and he is in a scissored cut that I do myself. It's about 2 inches long all over at the moment. My guys love grooming, and I like hair (good thing!). We spend relaxed evenings grooming.

Grooming time is also a valuable time to be hands on with your dog. It gets them used to being handled all over, but even more so - can give you a heads up to medical issues that you would have otherwise missed. Cuts, lumps or masses, body condition, etc.

 

[Roll farms]

In a perfect world, w/ a dog who blows his coat, routine brushing and cutting the occasional matt off should be plenty.

But - We had one (Razor) that we had to shave bare yearly, on our vet's advice...he didn't blow his coat like he should, he dreadlocked like a Puli and matted like crazy. We were worried about maggots. Our others haven't needed shaved, but that one male had the coat from Hades.

It was a huge PITA, b/c we had to sedate him, haul him to the vet's office 30 mins away, wait for him to get shaved, then take him back home to monitor, and keep him in the barn for a few days if it was sunny to prevent sunburn.

Edge (pyr) we just cut the 'butt matts' off of. We have muddy sections of pasture she gallops through and it causes her long butt hair to be nasty...so we cut it off. She looks SO mortified when we do that to her. Gus, being half Anatolian, doesn't matt like Pyrs do. Tank, the Anatolian, did fine.

The only clippers we had that would come close to cutting Razor's coat were the sheep shears. Our regular dog trimmers (the ones we use on our Newf in the summer) didn't touch it. One time (trying to avoid the vet bill) I hired a groomer to come here and told her to bring her 'big gun' trimmers, the best she had. They wouldn't do it. We ended up scissoring him and he looked like crap.

 

[secuono]

Get them a 50 gallon metal water trough and keep it filled. Many of them LOVE to swim and hang out in water.
Mine is still jumping into the troughs, she did it yesterday night, 50F, but she doesn't care. A real water dog.

 

[Pearce Pastures]

Great ideas here! Will do on the swimming pool, and I will talk with my groomer about possibly doing house-calls if it is ever needed it or I could probably borrow my friends sheep trimmer since we share stuff back and forth sometimes. I also just planted a row of river birches just outside the pasture fence to create a nice shade spot. Of course, I haven't actually picked out a pup just yet, but I do like to plan ahead.