Do You Need to Clip Your German shepherd Dog During Summer?

Summer is a season that puts wrinkles in the forehead of German Shepherd Dog owners. Many GSD owners – especially the new comers tend to clip/ trim their dogs’ coat, thinking that trimming would make their dogs’ life comparatively comfortable in an extreme environment where the outside temperature is much higher the body temperature.

Fact is that you should NOT trim your dog’s coat in the hot weather season. The body temperature is radiated out via panting, not through the skin, unlike humans. For human the sweat is evaporated on the skin surface, and the process acts as a cooling mechanism. But for your dog, evaporation doesn’t happen on surface of its skin, and air circulation, hence, is not much important on the skin surface. Trimming or clipping hair is not necessary. Remember a trimmed German Shepherd faces tougher times during summer than its untrimmed counterpart. Coat acts as an effective insulator against environmental heat. If the environmental temperature is warmer than the body, then the body gets heated up faster if the insulation is removed.

German Shepherds, like any other canine breed, have thinner layer of coat in their inguinal region. Whenever they have to cool down they would lay on cooler surfaces with the region exposed to the surface. This way they would help themselves to radiate off their body temperature.

So, it is recommended not clipping your shepherd’s coat during the summer. Keep him in a cooler place inside that is airy. Natural thermoregulation through panting allows a dog to drop his body temperature. However, brachycephalic dog breeds (breeds with broad, short head like Boxers, Pugs, Bull Dog, Boston Terriers, Shar Pei, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel etc.) do not pant effectively. This, consequently, leads to insufficient thermoregulation, which over heating during the hot summer days.

Mesaticephalic or Mesocephalic dog breeds (breed that have intermediate length and width of head such as German Shepherd Dogs, Dalmatian, Cocker Spaniel, English Foxhound, English Springer Spaniel, Field Spaniel, Labrador, Komodor etc.) can thermoregulate through panting better than the brachycephalic dog breeds. Hence they have comparatively lesser chance to get overheated during summer.

On the other hand the dolichocephalic dog breeds (breeds that have long slender head like Afghan Hound, Great Dane, African Azawakh, Borzoi, Chart Polski, Galgo Español, Greyhound, Hortaya Borzaya, Irish Wolfhound, Italian Greyhound) are least prone of get overheated during the summer, because they pant most effectively. However, whatever type of breed you own, it is important to keep your dog in cool place, with making fresh water readily available. And it is one worst idea to trim GSD’s hair in the summer.