Whats the best thing for a mostly black german shepherd in the summer?

I own a 5 month old german shepherd. Hes mostly all back and we live near the desert, he never seems to cool down and is always panting should i get his coat slightly trimmed so he wont be as hot?

Sure, and make sure he has enough water. Don't leave him outside for very long.

You don't want to get his coat trimmed as much as you want to be sure you get out a lot of undercoat. A Mars Coat King is a great tool for that. Black dogs DO get hotter, faster, if they are out in the sun. You want to keep him either in the shade with ample access to water or indoors in the AC when it's really hot. Shaving him would be a mistake-the coat helps to keep him protected from extremes of cold and heat. Think of the coat as an insulator. If you are ever worried that he's overheated, call your vet immediately and then get him into shade and get tepid water all over his underside to help him cool himself. If his temperature is over 102, he may be having heat stroke, so learn how to take the dog's temp so you can check to be sure if he's just warm or if he's dangerously overheated. It's easier to prevent heatstroke than to treat it, so always err on the side of caution. If you think it's too hot for him, it likely is. Keep him inside then. In high temps, you want to do brief walks, more frequent if you have to. Just keep them short.

You can talk to a dog groomer but for the most part the dog should shed on it's own for the warmer seasons. As long as your house is air conditioned and you give him plenty of shade and water he should be good. I know people who own Huskies in Texas (which may not be the best idea, but hey they have a good home at least).

You are NEVER supposed to shave or trim a double coated breed like the German Shepherd. Their coat serves not only as protection against the sun, it also serves as an insulator against cold AND heat. Besides that, dogs do not lose heat like humans do, that is sweating. When we sweat, heat is lost as the sweat evaporates. The more exposed skin, the easier this is to do. Since dogs do not sweat, exposing more skin does not help any.The best thing you can do it to keep your dog well groomed. It will help for better insulation against the heat. Provide plenty of water and shade. Keep all activities restricted to the cooler times of day, when the sun is not as strong.

What a DREADFUL idea!Your profile doesn't exist, but you must be VERY young to think this way.Are you going to rush out to shave every poor coyote & wolf that is at present using its thick coat to INSULATE it from the hot sun?Have you not heard that the sun's rays on exposed skin produces melanoma aka skin cancer? We are certainly aware of it in my country, we being under the southern hole in the ozone layer.Dogs have 3 ways of keeping cool:#1: Drink cool water and pant furiously.#2: Do nothing (therefore their muscles aren't creating lots of internal heat) while lying in the shade panting, with their coat insulating them from the heat in the air.#3: Stand or lie belly-deep in cool water that will absorb heat passed from the hairless areas of their skin (basically: foot-pads, under-arms, and belly). You might have noticed your dog lying spread-eagled so that its belly gets maximum contact with cool lino or cool tiles or cool mulch under trees.We, being hairless, have evolved sweat glands all over our skin, although the concentration is in armpits, groin, forehead, neck. As air passes over the moisture in our sweat, the evaporation process cools the skin where that moisture is vanishing from. (Water has MANY marvellous properties!) Of course, the more humid the air, the less effective is our sweat evaporation.But people in VERY hot countries do NOT strip to the skin in order to cool down - they wear loose clothing that shields their skin from direct sunlight but encourages air to circulate between body & material. And that material is woven to soak up the sweat then evaporate it to the outside air.But dogs can use evaporation from only in their breathing passages. So they pant. And so they need water to replace what they evaporate from their tongues & nasal passages.As [Kasper] said, they do NOT have sweat glands under their coat.So your idea brings NO benefits, only 2 major problems - heavily increased exposure to heat, and a HUGE risk of skin cancer on skin areas that were NEVER intended to be touched by sunlight.Grooming has negligible effect on insulation - it may even worsen the situation by opening the "air pockets" to the outside air, allowing the scorching desert breeze to filter through the coat and heat the dog. We do NOT "groom" the insulation in Thermos flasks, refrigerators, house walls. We want the air to remain trapped, each layer reducing how much heat is passed between air & skin (science shows you that it ALWAYS flows from the hotter to the cooler - look up "entropy").You might care to research for the ORIGINAL reason that working Poodles were clipped except for certain parts of their anatomy. It had NOTHING to do with keeping them cool, NOTHING to do with ditzy fashion.◙ If you are foolish enough to live in places that are not fit for man nor beast, then the ways to protect your dogs from heat are the same as used to protect yourself:• Provide shade, to reduce heat intake.• Provide a cool air-flow, to increase evaporation.• Provide lots of cool drinks (just water, for dogs)• Provide a shaded paddling pool (not a chlorinated swimming pool) to allow for massive cooling through the exposed skin; whether a kid's plastic one or a farmer's cow-trough depends on your pet's chewing habits and toe-nails.If YOU need air conditioning, then your dog should have access to it. In a closed area such as a car or shed, it will die of "heat-stroke" much quicker than you will!I did NOT appreciate your impatient choice of alleged-Best Answer for http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AjP21tSx9z_avozUU7h1vtfsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20100501225722AAvCMwPGo read my comments.And isn't it time you learned what BREED your pet is? There is no such thing as a "german shepherd". A German shepherd is a person who looks after sheep. My breed's real name translates as German Shepherd Dog - 3 words in the breed-name, so 3 capital letters needed, and GSD for short.It really is time that you took the following 2 items of advice:• Add http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/The_GSD_Source to your browser's Bookmarks or Favorites so that you can easily look up such as feeding, vaccinations, worming, clubs, weights, teething, neutering, disorders, genetics.• To ask about GSDs, join some of the 400+ YahooGroups dedicated to various aspects of living with GSDs. Each group's Home page tells you which aspects they like to discuss, and how active they are. Unlike YA, they are set up so that you can have an ongoing discussion with follow-up questions for clarification. Most allow you to include photos.Les P, owner of GSD_Friendly: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSD_Friendly"In GSDs" as of 1967