If you shave a double-coated dog, you take away the very thing that controls its temperature, and you still don’t fix the shedding problem that shaving is usually meant to solve.
Double coats consist of two layers: a coarse outer layer of guard hairs and a soft undercoat. The guard hairs protect the skin and reflect sunlight, while the undercoat traps air and regulates heat in both directions, keeping the dog cool in summer and warm in winter. When you shave, you remove both layers at once and break down that system.
The two layers also don’t grow back at the same pace. The undercoat comes back quickly, but the guard hairs grow back more slowly, sometimes unevenly. This can leave your dog’s coat patchy and different from what you were used to, and in some cases the texture never fully returns to normal.
Shaving is also a waste of effort since it doesn’t solve the shedding problem either. The dog still sheds, just in shorter pieces, since the hair growth underneath continues. Deshedding tools designed for double coats remove the loose undercoat without disturbing the guard hairs, which is the better way to keep shedding under control all year. The EasyGroomer is sized for this kind of everyday coat maintenance.
