if one more stranger stops me mid walk to tell me im cruel for not shaving my samoyed in july i am going to lose my mind, the double coat IS his cooling system, he gets brushed four times a week, walks at 6am, and owns a kiddie pool, please stop diagnosing my dog from across the street

it happened again this morning and i need to vent to people who get it. 6:15am, 68 degrees, Bjorn trotting along with his tongue out and his tail up, having the time of his life, and a guy walking the other way stops, points at him, and goes "in this heat? poor thing. you know you can shave them right." and then stood there and lectured me for a solid minute about cruelty while my dog, the alleged victim, tried to lick his hand. this is the third one this month. last week a woman outside the coffee shop told my wife she would "hate to see him in august," like we keep him in a smoker.

heres what the general public does not see from across the street. walks at 6am and 9pm, never midday, pavement checked with the back of my hand. line brushing three to four times a week with an undercoat rake, a $150 high velocity dryer that turns our garage into a snow globe every coat blow, and a professional bath and blowout every six weeks at $110. he has a cooling mat he ignores, a kiddie pool he does not ignore, and AC hes fully entitled to. and at his checkup in may i specifically asked the vet about summer, and she said the coat is doing exactly what its supposed to, the undercoat he blows out for summer is the insulation layer, and the white guard hairs that are left reflect sun and hold an air gap that works in both directions. shave that off and you take away his sun shield, expose pink skin to UV, and in spitz breeds theres a real chance the coat never grows back right.

our groomer has a samoyed client who got shaved down by a previous owner years ago and she showed me the pictures, patchy cottony regrowth that mats if you look at it wrong, three years later and it still isnt guard hair. thats what these sidewalk experts are prescribing. and the thing that actually makes me crazy is im not even mad that people care about dogs in the heat, they should, but they walk right past the actual overheated dogs, the ones getting dragged down hot asphalt at 2pm with their tongues shaped like spoons, to come lecture the fluffy one whos been strategically managed since 6am. anyway. thank you for coming to my vent, im going to go brush my air conditioned son