Summer grooming mistakes pet parents make without realizing

Every summer, the same conversation plays out at my salon, Petsburgh. A worried owner brings in a Husky or a Golden, sweating just looking at the dog, and asks me to "shave him down to keep him cool." I understand the instinct. It feels like kindness. It is also one of the most damaging things you can do to a double-coated dog, and almost nobody knows it.Here is the simplest way I can explain it. Shaving a double-coated dog in summer is like sending someone out to run in the hot sun and then pushing them straight into an air-conditioned room, naked! The body has no way to regulate. The right clothing protects you in both directions, from the heat and from the sudden cold. Your dog's coat does exactly that job.We have to drop the idea that fur is just a warm blanket. Dogs don’t sweat the way we do. They cool themselves by panting and through the pads of their paws. The sweat glands on their body are not there to cool them; they mostly produce pheromones, which is also where body odour can come from when a dog isn't washed regularly or is dealing with a skin or internal issue or just their hormones trying to attract another dog. So removing the coat to "let the heat out" doesn't even make sense biologically.The coat is also working harder than you think. Attached to every hair follicle is a tiny muscle, the arrector pili (we have them too - think goosebumps). It lets the dog lift the hair to circulate air across the skin when it's hot, and lay it flat to trap warmth when it's cold. That is a built-in cooling and heating system, and shaving throws it away. And then come the problems people never connect to the haircut. A shaved dog often turns insecure and shy. I have seen dogs hide under furniture and stop eating after being shaved. You also strip away physical protection: from insect and animal bites, from pest-control chemicals or anything else that would otherwise catch in the fur before it reaches the skin, from scratches off bushes, furniture, or a stray bit of metal on a parked vehicle. People also assume a shaved dog is safe from ticks and fleas. The opposite is true. A tick can reach bare skin more easily, bite, and drop off without you ever seeing it.The honest answer to "how do I keep my dog cool" is de-shedding, not shaving. Deshedding removes the dead undercoat with the right products and tools, so the dog naturally sheds its excess coat for the hotter months without losing the protection it needs. Any properly trained groomer will recommend de-shedding long before ever reaching for a blade. A few other things I wish more pet parents in our climate knew.Bathe regularly, but dry properly. In a humid city like ours, where pollution is high and most dogs walk on the road and promptly jump into our beds, a weekly bath is a good idea. The mistake is sending a dog out the door still damp. A wet undercoat in this humidity is an invitation to skin infection. Use a conditioner after the shampoo so the coat doesn't get rough and the skin stays moisturised.Mind the paws and the pavement. Keep the hair between the paw pads trimmed, and walk your dog in the cooler parts of the day. There's a simple test: if the road is too hot for you to stand on barefoot, it's too hot for your dog.The hardest part of all this is that good advice is genuinely hard to find in our country. Even respected professionals sometimes hand out unverified tips that can harm a dog. The internet is worse, full of confident, contradicting opinions that can leave an owner anxious or convinced they're helping when they're doing the opposite. When in doubt, a certified groomer should be your first call, not a forum thread.I'll leave you with the thought I come back to most. Your dog cannot tell you that the new haircut made them feel exposed, or that their skin is itching under a damp coat, or that the road burned their paws this morning. They simply trust you and carry on. The least we can do, in a season that's hard on all of us, is make sure that trust is well placed.Inputs by Andrea Cyrill Khurana, ICMG - Founder Petsburgh, Founder & President, Professional Pet Groomer’s Association, India