Do Australian shepherds need haircuts?
Australian shepherds do not need haircuts. The hair present on the body of your Australian shepherd occurs in two layers. One is the closest to the skin of the dog. It functions to insulate the body, i.e. the hair helps to regulate the transfer of heat from the dog’s body. This insulation is responsible for your dogs scaling through the cold and hot weather conditions.
The second layer of the hairs is the one that appears rough with uneven ends. This one acts to protect the inner layer of hair from penetrating dirt particles and moisture droplets. From this, you would realize that each layer plays an important role in the protection of your Australian shepherd. That’s why it is not recommended that you give them haircuts.
Another thing you need to note is that this dog breed sheds its hair regularly, and so, you do not have to bother about getting rid of the dead hairs from the skin. What you really need to do is brush the hair of your Australian shepherd. That way, you get rid of the dead hairs and also, encourage the skin to grow more healthy strands of hair.
How often do Australian shepherds need haircuts?
Australian shepherds do not need haircuts often. You have to bear in mind that the hair on its body plays a very important role in the protection of the dog. However, if you want to reduce the shedding of your dog’s hair or maintain your dog’s coat, you could opt for a light trim. This light trim can be done once in two months.
You also should bear in mind the following factors;
- When your dog’s hair is cut too frequently, they’d feel hotter at summer.
- With frequent haircuts, you leave your dog unprotected from mosquitoes and other insects that could irritate its skin.
- The only time you should cut the hair of your Australian shepherd is when the strands of hair in a portion of the dog’s body get matted.
- Trimming the long strands of hair dashing out of the ear and feet of your dog would not pose any health challenge or discomfort to your dog.
How to give your Australian shepherd a haircut
Giving your Australian shepherd a haircut is one of the acts of keeping it physically groomed. Here, we will discuss several grooming tips and guidelines you can work with;
- Brushing the hair on the body of your Australian shepherd is a better grooming technique than cutting. Australian shepherds naturally shed their hair regularly. Most of the shed hair strands usually end up getting stuck within the mass of hair present on their body.
However, when you brush through the hair, you get to get rid of the dead hair strands. Working a brush with nice bristles through the dog’s hair would also be great in stimulating the skin to produce more hair.
Ensure that your brush’s bristles do not rake too strongly across your dog’s skin though, to prevent incidences of bleeding or irritation.
- Ensure that you do not run the ends of a clipper across the body of your Australian shepherd. One thing you need to know is that the hairs on the bodies of this breed of dog occur progressively and orderly. The different progressions all serve certain purposes related to insulation and protection.
Once you begin to chop the hairs off, your dog begins to get more affected by the environmental conditions. Also, chopping their hairs off would not cancel out the shedding of hair by your dog!
- Always ensure that you regularly scrub the skin of your Australian shepherd. That way, the pores get cleaner and free from microbes. The hair that grows across the body also comes out looking sleeker, fuller and shinier than ever.
Australian shepherd haircut styles
Haircuts sometimes could be nice when you wish to create a certain effect to the outermost outline of your dog’s hair. Let’s see a number of Australian shepherd hairstyles that you could cut out.
The slight trim style
This style is created when you only cut the pointy tips of your dog’s hair. Before you start, it is recommended that you first run a brush through the edges. Then, you do a light pruning like you’d do to your garden. Hair thinning tools for dogs work best for this cut.
The sphere trim style
If you want your dog looking like a clean doll, then, this is the style for you! You would need to take your time in cutting evenly across all the parts of the dog’s body—the head, foot, ears, feet, etc. A pair of cutting shears with rounded blades works best for this style. To spice up things a bit, you could leave the hair at the backside of your dog. The puffier they are, the better your dog looks.
The lion trim style
You want your dog looking like the King of the Jungle? This is the style for you! Here, you trim all the hairs around its body and then, leave the hair that stays around its neck and head. You could slightly trim the hairs there though, in order to give the outline a regal touch.
How to trim Australian shepherd hair
Lastly, let’s consider how you can trim the hair strands from the feet, tail and ears of your Australian shepherd dog.
Trimming your dog’s feet
To trim your dog’s feet, start by running the bristles of a brush gently in an upward incline. The kind of brush that suits this purpose is a slick brush. After that, use a pair of cutting shears to trim off the tips that don’t align with the rest. Any strand whose length does not align with the rest should also be trimmed off. When trimming the hairs around the dog’s feet pads, ensure that you cut more carefully.
Trimming your dog’s tail
When trimming along the tail, ensure that you work the tip of the cutting shears in a straight line. Ensure that you do not cut too deeply that the skin of the dog gets exposed.
Trimming your dog’s ears
Start the trimming procedure by running a brush across the hair in one direction. Use cutting shears to cut off the excess length. Use the brush to brush the hair to the other direction. Then, cut off the excess length too. Lastly, brush the hair upwards to see if the strands are in line with the one around the head. Cut off the extra length. When you finish, make sure to clean the ears. That way, the tiny pieces of cut hair don’t enter the inner chambers of your dog’s ear.