Good idea to cut Fainly's hair?

Fainlysmom

Fainlysmom

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Hi, everyone. Fainly is doing well; he will be 3 years old on January 23, and seems to be past his early problems. I have a question about cutting his long and beautiful hair, which my husband would like to do, and I also think it might make his (Fainly's) life a little easier.

He has lovely long hair, with the exception of his back legs where he had surgeries and the hair grew back quite short and stayed that way. We live in the country, and all this long hair picks up an amazing number of burrs and plant materials which we have to comb out and pull out frequently. He also has had a couple of ticks this last summer.

Our question is, if we were to cut his hair to a medium length would it stay that way? We were surprised when his post-surgery legs only grew back a very short hair and wouldn't want that to happen to his entire body. (Of course, his leg hair had been entirely cut off for surgery.) I haven't been able to discover what governs the amount of hair return when a dog with long hair has it cut; it seems to vary. Any advice about this? He'd look fine, we think, with a medium-length hair, but not less than that.

Thank you very much for any advice you can give us on this.
 
All I can say is many a Sheltie coat has been ruined by cutting. It often will no grow back correctly. Mine get burrs and foxtails also. I do use clippers on the hair on the underside of their feet, and I will clip may be 2 inches of their leg feathers to avoid the worst. I think you have an answer in the fact that his back legs did not return to normal.
 
I agree with Sharon. A Sheltie coat should not be cut. Certainly you can trim long stray hairs but cutting destroys their insulation against hot and cold. A good brushing regularly and baths when needed are all that should be done other than the basics of trimming feet and feathers.
 
Don't DO it! I had a groomer shave Teddy without my knowledge when he was young and his hair never came back. I dropped him off for his bath and foot trim etc and came back and he was unrecognizable sorta. I love him regardless but he will never have his beautiful coat back. And at the time I felt terrible that I trusted the new groomer.
Please follow Ann and Sharon7 advice, Good Luck...
 
I routinely trim off about one to three inches from Fillion's chest and belly hang and feathers because its literally dragging on the ground! Koko was the same way. Benson's has never had enough coat to even think about trimming. But I would never shave them down! Trimming the ends of the hairs is different. I live in Sticker Central (AZ desert) and it helps to have the length a bit shorter.

I see these shelties pictures on FB groups where the owner has just got home from the groomer and the dog has been cut down to almost nothing and comments of Beautiful! and Gorgeous abound! I wanna say get another breed if you don't like their coats! But its their dog and they can do what they want...
 
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