In full groom: ‘Tis the season for paring down your pet’s coat

Tuesday, June 5, 2001 | 9:08 a.m.

Summer is a time when many, even the most unlikely, forsake fashion for comfort.

That includes animals.

Forget the pompoms, the lengthy curls and scruffy wisps that adorn loveable pets, local pet groomers will tell you: Around this time of year the shorn look is in.

"Right now it's shave-down season," said Heidi Rosenthal, a groomer at PetsMart on Faircenter Parkway, near Decatur and Charleston boulevards. "Everyone's getting ready for the summer."

Dog owners across the valley are relinquishing their beloved's breed-specific 'dos in hopes of keeping loose hairs from coating the family couch, as well as to keep the dogs cool for the summer, yet still protect them from the sun.

Long-haired cats also are losing their matted fur to lion-style cuts with bushy manes.

Other than the winter holidays, springtime is the busiest season for pet grooming, Rosenthal said.

Over at A Little Big Dog pet grooming on East Desert Inn Road, even German Shepherds lose their trademark thick coats this time of year.

"I personally am a fan of fluffy (hair)," said store owner Kim Buchan while shaving down an American Eskimo dog. But a lot of owners insist on a shaving their dogs for the summer, she said.

Owners who shave down their pets cut down on shedding and help keep the dog cooler, she said. "But the animals still shed -- just shorter hairs."

Buchan said smaller dogs, such as Cocker Spaniels, Lhasa Apsos and Shih Tzus and cats will feel a little cooler in the summer with a shorter haircut.

But large dogs that have double coats (an under- and outer-coat), such as huskies and shepherds, will not be any cooler with a shaved cut, Buchan said. "It doesn't really make a difference for them."

Besides, she added, most of these dogs live indoors. "They're actually living in 75-degree weather."

German Shepherds need their hair to protect them from the sun, and light-haired dogs that are shaved too short tend to get sunburns, she said.

"He has a chance that he could sunburn," she said, referring to the white American Eskimo dog.

Brushing cats and dogs regularly during shedding season is helpful in keeping an animal cool, Buchan said.

If a dog's fur isn't brushed, its skin can't breathe which will make the dog hot, Buchan said, as she pulled handfuls of loosened hair from a blue-eyed Siberian husky (at the shop for a bath and brushing) that was shedding.

Shepherds and Huskies that aren't brushed regularly will quickly develop clumps of matted hair, Buchan said.

Prince, a German Shepherd mix that hadn't been brushed regularly, was in the final stages of his shave down. His once-long coat was in piles on the floor, but he stood politely waiting while Buchan's team finished the final touches on his nubbly, tan-colored coat.

Buchan said she doesn't like to shave German Shepherds, but in Prince's case he's probably better off because of the matted clumps that had formed on his backside.

Holding up a tightly woven stretch of Prince's former coat, Buchan explained, "That's why it pelts like that, because of the undercoat that hadn't been brushed out."

"A dog's hair is like leather," she said. "Once it gets wet, it tightens and shrinks."

Also, if it's not correctly brushed before and after its washed, the loose hair can get locked in, creating "body armor," she said.

Ann Ambort, a groomer at A Little Big Dog, said shedding season can start as early as March and continue through June.

"(And) every dog sheds," she said. "Poodles shed into their own coats, so you have to brush it out, otherwise they'll matt."

For dogs with thicker fur, such as German Shepherds, two or three tools are required for brushing, she said.

"You've got to have your rake (a comb shaped similar to a lawn rake) to get dead hair out, then a universal-slicker brush to pull the under hair out" she said.

After that, she said, the dog should be combed again with a rake.

Slicker brushes should be curved so that it grabs all of the loose hair, she said.

"Shedding blades should be used for short-haired dogs," Ambort said. "Regular (pet) brushes don't grab the hair."

Cats with long hair are also susceptible to matting, Buchan said.

Holding up what at first appeared to be a coonskin cap, Buchan explained that it was actually a pelt of tightly woven and matted cat hair that had been shaved from a cat that was under anesthesia the day before.

"A cat was not designed to have long hair," Buchan said. "Long-haired cats were bred this way. Unlike dogs, they are cooler with short hair.

"We (shave) a lot more cats now that it's warm."

Elizabeth, a white-and-honey-colored, long-haired cat was recently in for a brush down -- a process that could have been avoided if the owner brushed it regularly or at least let the groomers shave it down, Buchan said.

Because the cat's hair was matted, it went through a painful brushing process, was bathed, then blown dry. Normally cats don't mind being groomed, she said, but Elizabeth hadn't been in for a grooming in two years.

Buchan said, "Two years is a long time to let (her) go without brushing."