A reminder for the summer that double or long haired coats do not keep dogs cooler

This post has been debunked many times.

“Studies of thermal imaging show that long-haired and double-coat dogs had lower surface temperatures. That’s because the heat inside the coat cant get out onto the surface and therefore won’t affect the surface temperature.

Rectal temperature was not significant in evaluating differences in surface temperature. Showing that a thermal image wont tell you if a clipped dog is hotter than a unclipped dog. It only shows the difference in the surface temperature.”

Basically, if the surface temperature of your dog is only 24’C, which is nice and cool, but the dog’s rectal temperature is 41’C (normal rectal temp for a dog is somewhere between 37.5-39.0’C), the dog is still going to be experiencing heatstroke and needs to be cool down urgently (and tbh, likely needs a vet visit at that point).

I think this is a great resource, personally. It’s full of actual scientific studies and resources too.

Obviously some common sense is needed when shaving dogs. Examples:

• People who show need to consider whether shaving or clipping is going affect showing the dog whilst the growth cycles of the hair complete again. Though, if the risk of heatstroke is severe enough, a missed show may not be the end of the world, but that’s just my opinion!
• As with any shorter coats, you need to be a bit more careful about sunburn. Yes you can get pet-specific spf!
• Young and elderly dogs do not have the most efficient thermoregulation so if you’re likely to have environmental temperature fluctuations, you might need to make sure they won’t get too chilly with a super short shave. Especially if you’re going to be bringing them inside to an aircon’d house etc. These might be the cases where clipping or shaving some belly fur may be more appropriate, rather than full body clips.

…. And as a side note, ice cubes are fine to give to your dog to down as long as you don’t have a dog that will eat it whole and potentially choke!

It pains me as a vet nurse to see Bernese mountain dogs, olde English sheepdogs, Malamutes (and so many others!) panting horrendously and trying to find any patch of cool tiled floor everyyyyy summer because they aren’t equipt to deal with the temperature.

Other than bulldogs, I think German shepherds, collies, and the mountain dog breeds, are the most common breeds I’ve seen with heat stroke in the summer time.

Thank you! This myth always baffled me because we have a lot of long-haired farm dogs whose owners shave them down for the summer (partly for the heat, but also to get rid of mats and prevent hot spots and fly strike), and we never see them in for heat stroke.

I think a lot of this stems from a  fundamental misunderstanding of how insulation works.

The most common thing I hear is that insulation “keeps hot things hot but also keeps cold things cold”. (A veterinarian from Penn State wrote a layperson article against shaving that says, if not exactly this, basically.) Which, like, that’s true, but your dog isn’t a cold thing. Your dog is a hot thing, that constantly generates more heat. Which all gets trapped in there with them. So shaving a dog doesn’t make them too hot, it allows them to shed heat more efficiently. 

The other thing I hear a lot of people say is that the hair on certain dog breeds (double-coated dogs, mostly) “won’t grow back”. This is false. The undercoat and guard hairs probably will grow back at different rates, and your dog will look goofy for a bit. But unless your dog has a medical condition that impacts hair growth, it should all eventually grow back.

Jungle cat (Felis chaus)

Photo © Suru Nair

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Hey you want to see the worst dog in the entire world.

Sharpei French bulldog. Allegedly at the vet for aspiration pneumonia (how'd that happen I wonder)

I like that they have cardboard shoved in his ears. You know, to post the ears. So the dog uh. So it will uh. So it will look better