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#1
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Shaving my Siberian Husky
I have a 4 year old Female Siberian Husky. She's been with me since
she was 8 weeks old. We lived in Florida for two years and then Texas for two more. The heat here in Texas is noticably more intense than it was in Florida. Last year I had her shaved. She didn't look as majestic, but she seemed more comfortable. Her coat was back to normal just in time for cold weather. She looks just as beautiful as she ever did. Anyway, a few weeks ago at a routine checkup our vet told me that due to the coming heat I needed to have her shaved soon. I decided to do it myself this year, so I went and ordered high quality clippers. Yesterday, I started browsing the internet on tips for shaving her thick coat. It seems that everyone who is involved with Siberian Huskies agrees that I absolutely should NOT shave my girl. So, I put away my fancy new clippers. What should I do next? My Husky has an extremely thick coat. Do I tell my vet that I think she is misinformed? Does anyone in the Dallas area know a good vet for a Siberian Husky? |
#2
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Shaving my Siberian Husky
What should I do next? My Husky has an extremely thick coat. Do I tell my vet that I think she is misinformed? I don't know a LOT about this, but I do know that shaving a dog can alter its ability to handle heat and opens it up to sunburn risk, and what I've heard is that the recommendation is to shave the belly and insides of the legs to cool the dog down. Hopefully someone with some hands-on information will respond to you soon. --Katrina |
#3
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Shaving my Siberian Husky
In article .com,
leskaPaul wrote: What should I do next? My Husky has an extremely thick coat. Do I tell my vet that I think she is misinformed? I wouldn't insult her, but tell her that breed specialists and veterinary researchers disagree with her. The one recommendation I've received that may be useful to you is that if you *must* shave, shave only the belly. I have seven Siberian Huskies. During the summers, which admittedly are usually pretty mild here in way upstate NY, we ratchet back the activity level and enjoy yummy summer treats like frozen low-sodium chicken broth. -- Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis - Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community |
#4
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Shaving my Siberian Husky
"leskaPaul" wrote in message oups.com... I have a 4 year old Female Siberian Husky. She's been with me since she was 8 weeks old. We lived in Florida for two years and then Texas for two more. The heat here in Texas is noticably more intense than it was in Florida. Last year I had her shaved. She didn't look as majestic, but she seemed more comfortable. Her coat was back to normal just in time for cold weather. She looks just as beautiful as she ever did. Anyway, a few weeks ago at a routine checkup our vet told me that due to the coming heat I needed to have her shaved soon. I decided to do it myself this year, so I went and ordered high quality clippers. Yesterday, I started browsing the internet on tips for shaving her thick coat. It seems that everyone who is involved with Siberian Huskies agrees that I absolutely should NOT shave my girl. So, I put away my fancy new clippers. What should I do next? My Husky has an extremely thick coat. Do I tell my vet that I think she is misinformed? Does anyone in the Dallas area know a good vet for a Siberian Husky? I don't mean to be rude, but your vet must be an idiot. Buy a nice big floor fan, keep your girl in the house with you (which I assume is air-conditioned) and exercise in the coolest parts of the day. Comb out dead hair as necessary. Margaret Chow owner |
#5
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Shaving my Siberian Husky
On 2 May 2006 09:11:15 -0700, "leskaPaul" wrote:
I have a 4 year old Female Siberian Husky. She's been with me since she was 8 weeks old. We lived in Florida for two years and then Texas for two more. The heat here in Texas is noticably more intense than it was in Florida. Last year I had her shaved. She didn't look as majestic, but she seemed more comfortable. Her coat was back to normal just in time for cold weather. She looks just as beautiful as she ever did. I'm in the same boat as I live in San Antonio with Chows. I noticed that some handle the heat better than others. From what I've seen It's the ones with the thick dense undercoat that run hot. For the past two year I've been trimming my heavy coated girl's coat down to about an inch or so leaving enough that she doesn't get sunburned. She's been so much more comfortable and doesn't pant as much on our evening walks that I wish I'd started sooner. Having her trimmed makes keeping the undercoat combed out much easer. I know this is a controversial subject and it comes up occasionally on Chow lists I'm on. Some trim/shave and some don't but not one of the trim/shavers have said their Chow runs hotter after being clipped. In fact the say just the opposite. So much for this theory that their coat insulates them from the heat. :-) In the end it's a personal choice so I recommend using your own judgment as to what works on your girl. As long as her hair grows back and she doesn't get sunburned and she seems happy I wouldn't worry about causing any harm. BTW, my guys have access to all the AC they want but still like to spend time outside. Cheers |
#6
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Shaving my Siberian Husky
In article ,
Gray_Wolf wrote: In the end it's a personal choice Yes and no. I've talked to a *heck* of a lot of vets and veterinary researchers about it and they all say the same thing, which is that shaving interferes with the dog's ability to thermoregulate and you shouldn't do it. You can go ahead and do it anyway, but heaven knows that there are endless things that you can do that you probably shouldn't. -- Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis - Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community |
#8
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Shaving my Siberian Husky
"Melinda Shore" wrote in message ... In article , Gray_Wolf wrote: In the end it's a personal choice Yes and no. I've talked to a *heck* of a lot of vets and veterinary researchers about it and they all say the same thing, which is that shaving interferes with the dog's ability to thermoregulate and you shouldn't do it. You can go ahead and do it anyway, but heaven knows that there are endless things that you can do that you probably shouldn't. If the temperature outside was below what their coats was insulating against, I would say this makes sense. But to insulate the dog's natural body heat *inside* of the coat just doesn't make a lot of sense to me anymore. And, so far, the dogs I've seen who were shaved to around an inch *have* indeed been consistently more comfortable than their unshaved counterparts. I used to be in the "don't shave" camp, but I've just seen so many dogs over the years that were positively impacted by removing a good portion of the coat. Now, if someone were to do the world's most *amazing* job of removing only the undercoat (and keeping it removed throughout the whole season), and leaving the guard hairs, then I would say that is the ideal. But if that doesn't happen, and if enough of the undercoat is left behind (which is easy to do), then the dog suffers unnecessarily. If a combination of removing a lot of the undercoat, coupled with shaving down the whole thing to about 3/4-1 inch helps the dog be more comfortable, then I say go for it. Tara |
#9
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Shaving my Siberian Husky
In article ,
Gray_Wolf wrote: Here's some comments from an engineer and dog owner . (OES) An engineer! His comments agree with my observation as a dog owner and a physics major. http://www.oes.org/page2/2554~Summer...ail_Coats.html A physics major! Well, then, that renders the opinions of veterinary anatomy researchers, breed experts, and the majority of veterinarians *completely* invalid! Why didn't you say that you were a physics major in the first place? Here, I could have ignored all that crap from people who've spent decades researching thermoregulation in mammals if only I'd known that a PHYSICS MAJOR was going to come along and let us all know that *panting* would kill our dogs! *Everything* you read on the internet is true! -- Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis - Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community |
#10
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Shaving my Siberian Husky
In article aVS5g.3004$HN3.1772@trndny01,
TaraG wrote: If the temperature outside was below what their coats was insulating against, I would say this makes sense. But to insulate the dog's natural body heat *inside* of the coat just doesn't make a lot of sense to me anymore. The problem is that what seems intuitively obvious is often just plain wrong. Talk to a biker (motor) sometime about riding across the desert wearing leather vs not wearing leather. The people at the Cornell vet school I've discussed this particular issue with do research into thermoregulatory systems, and they emphasize that it is a system with interacting components. They've said that what they've found is that if you impair the function of one piece of the system the other pieces don't necessarily compensate correctly. And of course, the breed people point out that once you whack down a Siberian Husky's coat it never grows back properly. Personally, I don't think that people should have Siberians in places like Texas or Hawaii - the dogs really don't cope well with heat, and not just because of the coats. They're built for cold northern environments, from the shape of the eyes to the function of the feet. However, people will do what people will do, and yet I don't think that messing with something as fundamental to a dog as its coat because someone wants a dog that's inappropriate for their climate is quite the right thing to do. -- Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis - Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community |
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