Double-coated breeds — Labs, Golden Retrievers, Huskies, Beagles, Pugs, and other dogs with fur rather than continuously growing hair (like a Poodle’s) — go through two major shedding cycles a year. In spring, they blow their heavier winter undercoat to make way for a lighter summer undercoat. In fall, that process reverses so the winter coat can grow back in. On top of these seasonal blowouts, double coats shed lightly all year round.
It is not healthy, and it isn’t necessary, to clip these dogs short for summer. In fact, shaving a double coat can make a dog hotter — not cooler.
How a Double Coat Actually Keeps a Dog Cool
A dog’s cooling system works nothing like ours. We take a coat off when we’re warm; a dog’s coat doesn’t work that way. Dogs cool themselves through several mechanisms:
- Panting — heat enters the bloodstream and is released as moisture evaporates off the tongue.
- Sweat glands in the paws and ears — these play a minor supporting role.
- Blood flow regulation — dogs have proportionally larger spleens than humans, which help store blood and manage heat. Blood carries excess heat to the skin, where small muscles raise the guard hairs (the coarser outer layer of a double coat) to let that heat dissipate.
Shaving removes the guard hairs that make this last mechanism work, which changes how air moves across the skin entirely. Removing the coat doesn’t help a dog release heat more efficiently — it disrupts the system that was already doing that job.
What does contribute to a dog overheating is a coat that isn’t maintained: dead, shedding undercoat that’s allowed to mat and pack in blocks airflow to the skin just as effectively as a bad haircut would. Regular bathing, brushing, de-shedding, and high-velocity drying are what actually keep a double-coated dog comfortable — not a shave-down. Plenty of fresh water matters too, especially as temperatures climb.
The Damage Shaving Can Cause
Repeated clipping can permanently alter a double coat. The photo below shows a Pomeranian after being clipped just a few times — notice the color difference between the head (never shaved) and the body. The red is outer guard coat; the blonde is undercoat. The outer coat is much slower to grow back, and in cases of severe damage, it may not fully regrow at all.
The Two Reasons Clients Usually Ask for a Shave-Down — and Why It Backfires
“My dog is shedding like crazy.” Shaving doesn’t fix this — it delays and compounds it. Once the coat starts growing back in a few months, the natural shed cycle is thrown out of sync, which often means worse shedding down the line. And the dog is still shedding the whole time — just in shorter hair that’s harder to see and manage.
“My dog seems so hot.” The coat is insulation, not the cause of the heat — it protects against it. In most cases, a dog that runs hot is carrying extra weight; excess fat is a far more common culprit than coat length. Regular grooming that keeps the undercoat properly maintained (rather than removed) is the best way to help. If overheating is a real concern, a cooling mat is a much better solution than a shave-down.
Bottom Line
Every breed’s coat evolved to do a specific job. For Golden Retrievers, Pomeranians, Labs, Pugs, and every other double-coated breed, that job is temperature regulation and skin protection — and shaving it off works against the dog’s own biology rather than for it. Regular grooming, not a shave, is what actually keeps these breeds comfortable, healthy, and cool.
(Medical exceptions apply — if a vet has recommended shaving for a specific health reason, that’s a different conversation.)
