ok, so i thought i’ve seen it all here - shaved Malamutes/Huskeys etc but /and that’s a huge but/ today right in the middle of Zhong He my eye caught this bird walking a rather miserable looking shaved golden retriever /in the classic poodle-like fashion/!
to top that that stupid cow managed to get two stars carved in its hind legs - seriously WTF?
what’s wrong with these people?
can’t you just let your dog be?
or maybe think before you buy and simply don’t get a dog that’s not likely to enjoy local weather?
shaving your dog is pretty savage thing to do in my opinion and honestly i have never encountered anything like this in any other Asian country?
Last Summer we shaved our dogs because it was so hot. One of which is very furry. But they looked so ugly and became very itchy. So, we decided to never do it again.
I agree you shouldn’t shave them completely, but long haired dogs suffer in this merciless hot and especially humid weather.
I also agree that we as owners should not push the cuteness factor into yuckiness… or worse. I recently bought a shaver to take care of teh dog myself -man, it’s 1200 nts a visit!-, and I am still learning. Got scolded in the park by the old ladies, saying how could I do that to such a pretty dog. Yet he’s fresher, cleaner, and I guess he enjoyed the three days it took me to get most of his long hair. Well, some of it.
And definetively, you shouldn’t clean shave. 3 to 6 mm is OK.
They shave them so they can exercise without getting heatstroke. Nothing savage about it. The stars are kind of daft though – maybe she wanted it to look like those arsehole kids who shave patterns into their hair.
It’s like shaved pussy … some are done nicely but over time it becomes itchy …
Anyways, do dogs get heatstroke? My dogs are never hot on the body, they are hot around the head,ears and maul … and drool more aka sweating …
I don’t think it’s a good idea to shave dogs as the layer of fur actually protects them from UV rays … just take people that live in the desert, do they run around naked?
Absolutely. It can kill them pretty quickly, too, as they can only pant to cool down, so there isn’t as much body area for heat exchange. Excessive drooling is an early sign of impending heatstroke, too.
My dog doesn’t drink a lot of water as he eats raw food and gets a lot of moisture out of that.
But I take him on my power walks every day and he’ll go through a litre of water if its a sunny day.
I don’t shave him, though.
Dogs don’t sweat so they don’t exchange heat through the skin as we do … and therefor I think it’s useless to shave them … plus, the fur acts as a buffer between heat rays and body, the skin will not become overheated … and as I said UV can’t reach the skin …
precisely. They can only exchange heat through the tongue, which is why they heat up quite easily.
Shaving them allows them to remain cooler. Just as spraying them down with water cools them down. You don’t shave them down to the bone, or you shouldn’t, at least. Just down to the underfur is enough to make a huge difference to the dog’s comfort.
Well, having just had a wee search, I’m astounded to find that for once in his miserable life, the Belgian appears to be correct! Strange though it might seem.
General opinion seems to be that shaving doesn’t make much of a difference in terms of overheating. However, in a humid place like Taiwan in the summer, shaving long-haired dogs makes a huge difference in reducing skin complaints such as fungal infections, so maybe that’s why they do it here.
I did a fair amount of research when I ADOPTED my STRAY husky (just to ward off anybody complaining about having a husky in Taiwan), and it said that shaving them makes them hotter, as the fur insulates them well against the heat. However, that was specifically regarding husky hair, which is a bit different from other breeds.
Regarding people shaving their dogs here, I think half of it is an attempt to keep the dogs cooler, and half is because so many dogs here are simply accessories for their owners.
I know many people have done research about shaving their dogs and cats, but i just go by my dogs/cats’ reactions.
As the weather starts to heat up, my three dogs with longer thicker fur start to just lay around. THey don’t want to go on walks and they are constantly panting. So i shave them. THen the seem to get their energy back, want to go on walks and pant less. One of my dogs actually seems to do a little dance just after i’ve shaven her. THe same goes for my persian cat (adopted). She physically hates the actual shaving and will scratch me to smitheriens but after she is much more lively and seems more relaxed and not constantly looking for a cool place to lie.
So until i see a change in my dogs’ / cats’ attitude towards shaving i will continue to shave the longer haired ones.
I ride past a stray almost every day on the river road in Yung ho (that hangs around the builders yards etc) with dreadlocks a rasta would be proud of.
It desperately needs some clippers. Looks like it’s a big inconvenience for it.
i have shaved a persian pussy several times in the past for that exact reason. poor rasta cat ( a semi-stray… tried to adopt him but he preferred living wild and saw us once a week if lucky).
dogs do cool down through their skin, on occasion. they will often choose to lie belly down, legs apart on a cool tile floor when it’s hot. it’s not as efficient as sweating, but then sweating can’t be done if you have thick fur… also, how does having a thick fur coat keep your 37 degree body cool if it’s 30 degrees outside? that doesn’t compute.
animals that do sweat: horses, cattle, some kinds of antelope, goats, and to a far lesser extent pigs, don’t tend to have thick fur.
