Summer days can be very long and get very hot. These days do not only affect people, but dogs too. Many dogs have to stay outside all day while their owners are at work. For the big fluffy dogs like Bernese Mountain dogs, Golden Retrievers, Huskies and many more, it is easy for them to get overheated in the summer. However, there is a way to help them out and make the heat more bearable for them: a summer haircut. 

By April this year, the temperature had already raised all the way into the nineties, leaving many people shocked that it was getting this hot this early into the year. On May 1st I took my Golden Retriever, Harvey, to my younger brother’s soccer game. It was only 11:00 in the morning but the temperature had already reached 75 degrees. As I sat through the soccer game constantly watching Harvey as he sat there in the sun panting during the entire game, I knew he was way too hot with that thick coat of hair covering him. 

Later that day I got out the clippers and the razor and decided I was going to give Harvey a haircut. It would have been a lot easier to schedule a haircut for him and get him into the professionals, but with how booked they are, Harvey would not have been able to get a cut until June. I have always loved dogs and wanted to be a vet when I was younger, so I was very excited to give him a haircut. However, I had never done this before. In the past, I had only ever given Harvey a bath. Harvey has not always done so well with baths so that left me a little nervous when thinking about how I was going to get him to sit still while I cut his hair. 

Harvey has very silky and thick golden-colored hair, too gorgeous for me just to mess up. I decided that I was not going to cut any hair on his back but instead trim up his feet, legs, stomach, ears and tail. I put a leash on him and tied it to a lawn chair in the backyard, reassuring myself that he would not be able to run as I was trimming him. 

I can successfully say that Harvey was a pro at getting his haircut, besides the fact that he wanted to lay down the whole time and made it almost impossible for me to trim his stomach. By the end, I cut off a whole bag of hair leaving him noticeably cleaner, cooler and happier than he was before.