No, you should not shave a double-coated dog in summer. It feels like you’d be helping them stay cool, but a double coat actually insulates a dog against heat as well as cold, and shaving it removes that protection while exposing the skin to sunburn. The coat can also grow back patchy or with a changed texture, sometimes permanently. What professional groomers do instead is a thorough de-shedding treatment that removes the loose undercoat, letting air flow to the skin while keeping the protective topcoat intact. The data backs this up: across golden retriever photos on Groomably, you’ll find them bathed and de-shedded, almost never clipped.
So if you’ve got a golden retriever, border collie, husky, German shepherd or any other double-coated breed and summer’s coming, put the clippers away. There’s a better way, and it’s the way the professionals actually do it.
What “double-coated” actually means
A double coat has two layers. Underneath is a soft, dense undercoat that traps air and acts like insulation. On top is a coarser layer of longer guard hairs, the outer coat, which repels water, dirt and crucially the sun.
That insulating layer doesn’t just keep a dog warm in winter. Trapped air is a brilliant insulator in both directions. In summer, the same coat that holds warmth in during the cold months holds heat out and keeps the skin shaded and cooler than the air around it. It’s the same reason a thermos keeps things cold as well as hot.
When you shave that off, you don’t give the dog a cooling system. You take one away.
Why shaving backfires
There are three real problems with shaving a double coat, and groomers see all of them.
Sunburn and skin damage. A double coat shields the skin from direct sun. Strip it away and you expose pale skin that’s never seen daylight to the full strength of an Australian summer. Sunburn, irritation, and a higher long-term risk of skin damage follow.
No actual cooling benefit. Dogs don’t sweat through their skin the way we do; they cool mainly by panting and through their paw pads. Shaving the body doesn’t help them lose heat the way it would for us, and removing the coat’s insulation can leave them feeling hotter, not cooler.
Coat that grows back wrong. This is the one that surprises people. On many double-coated dogs the undercoat grows back faster than the guard hairs after a shave, so the coat comes back uneven, fuzzy and patchy. Sometimes the texture and colour never fully return. Groomers call this “coat funk” or post-clipping alopecia, and there’s no guaranteed fix once it happens.
What groomers actually do instead
The professional alternative is de-shedding, and the numbers make it obvious which approach groomers favour.
Across golden retriever photos on Groomably, the breed appears overwhelmingly in bath-and-dry shots (123 photos) and de-shedding shots (14), while clipped or teddy-style cuts barely register at just 8 photos. That ratio isn’t a coincidence or a preference. It’s what double coats need. Groomers wash, blast-dry and brush these dogs to pull out the loose undercoat, and they leave the protective topcoat exactly where it is.
A de-shedding treatment removes the dead, loose undercoat that’s making the dog hot and shedding all over your house. It thins the insulation without destroying it, so air can reach the skin while the guard hairs keep doing their job. The dog is genuinely more comfortable, the coat stays healthy, and it grows back the way it’s meant to. If you want to see what the treatment involves and what to ask for, the de-shedding style page walks through it.
Photo: The Prefurred Groomer, Mont Albert North VIC — via Groomably
Bath-and-dry, by the way, is one of the most common services groomers offer, showing up in 1,481 photos across the 2,099 salons listed on Groomably, second only to the teddy bear cut. For double-coated breeds it’s often the whole appointment: a proper wash, a high-velocity dry that blasts out loose hair, and a brush-through. No clippers in sight.
How often double coats need it
During the heavy shedding seasons, usually spring and autumn when these dogs “blow coat”, a de-shedding treatment every six to eight weeks keeps things under control. Outside those peaks, you can stretch it out. At home, regular brushing with an undercoat rake or slicker brush, a few times a week and daily when they’re shedding hard, does most of the maintenance and means the groomer has less to pull out.
That brushing matters for more than tidiness. A double coat that’s never brushed traps dead undercoat against the skin, which holds heat and moisture and can lead to skin problems. Keeping it brushed out is the actual cooling strategy, not shaving.
The rare exceptions
Almost always, the answer is don’t shave. But there are a couple of genuine exceptions, and they’re worth knowing.
Severe matting. If a double coat has been neglected to the point where it’s matted right down to the skin, brushing it out isn’t possible without hurting the dog. In that case clipping it off is the kindest option, the same as it would be for any breed. The lesson there is about prevention, not summer cooling.
Medical reasons. Sometimes a vet will recommend clipping an area for a skin condition, surgery, or a medical procedure. That’s a clinical decision made by your vet for a specific reason, not a general summer haircut.
If you’re ever genuinely worried your double-coated dog is struggling in the heat, that’s a conversation for your vet, not the clippers. Heat stress in dogs is serious, and the answer is shade, water, cool surfaces and limiting exercise in the hottest part of the day, not a shave.
The bottom line
For a healthy double-coated dog, leave the coat on and book a de-shedding treatment instead. The coat is keeping your dog cooler than a bare skin would, it’s protecting them from sunburn, and shaving it risks lasting damage to how it grows back. The professionals know this, which is why golden retrievers turn up at the salon for a bath and a de-shed, not a haircut. Brush them at home, get the undercoat blown out a few times through the warmer months, and you’ll have a cooler, more comfortable dog with a coat that stays exactly as it should be.
