When its time for my bitch to whelp and feed pups, will I need to clip her fur back or will it thin down itself ? Shes a doubled coated breed and her fur is very dense and thick. Its also pretty long around her vulva and on her undercarriage. I did notice when she was bleeding during season a lot of the blood got caught up in her longer fur on the back of her back legs.

I usually clip mine out. I find its much better than leaving the coat long around her back end.

I have a breed with similar coat and would never clip.  Make sure during whelping that you clean off any discharge and keep dry, the waters can be quite caustic and it wet is trapped then ti can cause sores around the vulva and above the hock are of their rear.

If there is any sore skin then I use Vaseline as a barrier after carefully cleaning.

The fur will drop out around nipples naturally and by the time pups are 6 weeks old the whole coat will be lifting out,a and your bitch will look first moth eaten and patchy and then like something from Belsen as they loose their coat down to the skin almost.  A double coated bitch after the post whelping moult looks like a neglect case coat wise.

Don't expect her to have a decent coat again until around 5 months or more after the pups are born.

Thankyou Brainless thats really helpful. I was worried about having to clip her if need be because they say you should never clip my breed as their coat keeps them as cool in the summer as it does warm in the winter. I will just leave her and keep it all clean. I was just a bit worried about any hot spots as my male developed a hot spot last summer.

I always scissor away fur from the stomach and around the vulva area.  It's always grown back in both my breeds Pomeranian's and SWDs

> I always scissor away fur from the stomach and around the vulva area. It's always grown back in both my breeds Pomeranian's and SWDs

Poms are long-coated and so are SWDs (correct me I'm wrong!).
Is there any advantage to clipping a double coated breed which isn't long haired (as in the OP's if I/We have guessed breed right)?

I can see the advantage if the breed is blessed with voluminous "bum curtains" :) but not if it is just thick and dense and short.

I would never touch the coat on my Malinois bitches (again very similar coat type, double but not long) -what needs to be out of the way simply falls out. Now the Papillons with their long single coat is a different matter altogether. Sure, enough falls out on the stomach to make suckling easy for the pups (isn't it funny how this does NOT happen in cats -I have spent so much time over the years clipping fur off Persian stomachs as it really does get in the way for the kittens!) but on the hindlegs, if it is long, pups can actually get tangled up in it when being born so that has to be shortened. Just makes it easier for everyone to not have it in the way.

Wasn't through a mating that my Goldie had her coat clipped to see to an infection, she was double coated, don't know if its the same sort but where she had been clipped around infection never grew back, stayed very short.  The infection site grew back lovely.  She stayed like this for over 7 months.

My other breed are long coated and only clipped the first time under her belly, the second time I didn't.

MsTemeraire my girl has some impressive "bum curtains" LOL. I  may need to cut them slightly back but we will see closer to the time

As your bitch has a natural primitive canine type coat (like my own breed) then narture has designed it not to need removing for birth and rearing.  It will all fall out sson enough during weaning.

>Now the Papillons with their long single coat is a different matter altogether.

>but on the hindlegs, if it is long, pups can actually get tangled up in it when being born so that has to be shortened. Just makes it easier for everyone to not have it in the way.

It is the same with Chihuahua Long Coats.  The ones with the best pantaloons are the worst. 

Should be ok with a breed like that. I did trim on my Cavalier when she had puppies, just the long curtains on her back legs, but I used thinning scissors rather than clippers so it still looked fairly natural, just shorter, and it looked fine in the ring as it regrew.

That's why I mentioned breed as of course all are different! Pomeranian's do have double coats, but sometimes can be quite long and extremely thick around the teats so have always trimmed around with  no detriment to coat.