BullyLady wrote:SisMorphine wrote:My advice is to get a nice short trim but don't have him shaved. When you shave a double coated breed they have a difficult time regulating their body temperature in both cold and heat if you shave them down.
Two widely varying schools of thought. During my years of grooming, I shaved down quite a few goldens and shelties, and even a Malamute once (he managed to roll in some road tar ). Many of the over-bred goldens have ridiculously thick coats that never dry out after swimming and lots of them around here spend all day in the local ponds and lakes -- it's better to shave down the dog and spare him the skin conditions that result from chronically damp skin. As long as some simple precautions are taken (sunscreen, staying away from temperature extremes, and I NEVER shaved a dog down during the winter months) the dog won't come to any harm.
My neighbor's sheltie is a far happier dog once his HUGE over-bred coat is shaved off. He's a fearful snapping bastard when you try to detangle his undercoat and he's only gotten worse as he's gotten older. So, I do what is best for him.
Of course, they aren't shaved to the skin -- I usually use a 5F or 7F blade.
On the other side of the argument, I had many Labrador owners ask me to shave their dogs simply to "cut down on the shedding". I refused every time.
Personally, I don't like the look, but if an owner is not capable of maintaining a thick coated dog or if the dog is very uncooperative, then I will do whatever causes the least amount of stress for the dog.