Originally posted by jenluckenbach
If you trim the belly, tail and legs like the others suggested, it will look wonderful but it will NOT help with the heat.

If the dog acts like she minds the heat, go for the shave. (and a shave down on that type of dog is usually quite short, but not SKINNED). It looks wonderful (but yes, it looks quite different than you are used to) and it feels nice to the touch.

And you can talk until you are blue in the face, but I just refuse to believe that all that hair insulates against the heat! Just go put on a fur coat in 80 degree weather and see if you aren't hot.

Think about this........I have groomed for 21 years. More and more people are getting their large breed, hairy dogs shaved. a good 99.5% of those customers continue to get the dog's hair shaved on a regular basis because they and the dogs LIKE it. You can't argue with that.
I agree mostly with what you say as well, except that I do believe a properly brushed out coat does help insulate a dog from the heat.
My shelties can go lie out in the sun and come inside and their hair is so hot I can barely touch it, but if I push my fingers through the hair and feel their skin it is cool.

That being said we do shave a lot of double coated breeds at work as well and if Samantha is really bothered by the heat then I would try it once. It is hair it grows back. At work we don't shave dogs with double coats with anything shorter than a #5F blade (your groomer will know what that means) and it's a pretty cute length. It also looks really cute about a month after it gets shaved, kinda fuzzy and puppyish looking.

Good luck with whatever you decide, Samantha will look great no matter what.