English Mastiff Grooming

About the English Mastiff

The English Mastiff has a short, dense, straight coat that needs about ten minutes a week and nothing else. There is no cutting, no matting and no schedule to keep.

What makes it one of the hardest appointments anywhere is that it is, by weight, the largest dog there is. A Great Dane is taller but a Mastiff is far heavier: a big male runs to two hundred pounds and more, on a frame that cannot be lifted, persuaded or hurried by anybody.

Add heavy hanging flews producing a genuinely remarkable quantity of drool, folds across the brow and under the jaw that stay permanently damp, and a breed with a short life span and a lot of joint trouble, and the picture is clear. The coat is trivial. Everything around it is not.

Size, which is the entire appointment

Everything on the Great Dane page about equipment applies here and then some, because weight rather than height is the constraint.

A standard grooming table is rated nowhere near two hundred pounds and is the wrong height regardless. What is needed is a floor level hydraulic table the dog walks onto, or a walk in bath, and preferably both. Ask before booking rather than on arrival, and be honest about the weight, because "a big dog" and "a hundred and ninety pounds" are different bookings.

Two people is standard and is not a comment on the dog. A wet Mastiff that decides to shake, sit down or step off a slippery surface is an enormous amount of momentum, and the risk of injury runs both ways.

Expect a size surcharge and expect it to be fair. This appointment uses more water, more shampoo, more towels, far more dryer time and the only piece of equipment in the building that fits.

Bathing at home is realistic if you have a walk in shower or a yard in warm weather, and many owners do it. What you need is a shower or hose attachment, a non slip surface so the dog is not scrabbling, and a plan for drying, which is the genuinely hard part. A force dryer is worth owning.

Where a salon earns its money on this breed is the nails and a proper dry, not the wash.

And book time. Rushing a giant breed is how people get hurt.

The drool and the folds, which are one daily job

The Mastiff has deep, heavy, hanging flews and loose skin across the brow, the cheeks and under the jaw. Drool is structural rather than a habit, and this breed produces it in quantity, particularly around food, water and exertion.

The furniture is not the issue. The issue is that saliva keeps the skin under the jaw, along the lower lip and inside every fold permanently damp, and damp skin in an enclosed fold reddens, smells, grows yeast and eventually becomes raw.

Wipe the flews, under the jaw and into each facial fold with a damp cloth daily, and then dry them. The drying is the half that gets skipped and the half that decides the outcome.

The fold across the brow above the eyes needs the same attention and is easy to miss because it is shallow.

Anything red, sore, weeping or persistently smelly needs veterinary treatment before a cleaning routine will hold.

One thing that is not grooming and belongs here anyway: a sudden increase in drooling is a veterinary sign. In a deep chested giant breed it can mean bloat, which is a life threatening emergency, so restlessness, a distended abdomen or unproductive retching needs immediate attention. Avoid vigorous handling around a large meal, including a long grooming session.

The coat, the skin and the pressure points

The coat routine is a rubber curry or grooming mitt once a week, in circles then along the lie. It sheds moderately and steadily with a heavier drop in spring, and the sheer surface area of the dog means the volume is more than the length suggests.

A bath every couple of months, or when the dog gets into something. Over bathing dries the skin.

A deshedding bath in spring is worth booking and is where a salon adds real value on a coat with nothing to cut.

Pressure calluses are close to universal and worse here than on any other breed, because there is more weight going through the same few points. The elbows first, then the hocks, hips and sternum. A mild callus is normal; one that has cracked is painful, infects easily and heals slowly because the dog lies on it every day.

Thick orthopedic bedding in every room the dog uses does far more than any cream. Mastiffs will choose a cool hard floor over a good bed, so the practical answer is usually more beds in more places.

A soft fluid filled swelling over an elbow is a hygroma and needs a veterinarian rather than a poultice.

Check the skin while brushing, since on a short coat everything is visible early, and take any new lump seriously in a breed with this cancer history.

Nails, joints and a short life

Nails are the job that matters most and gets left longest, because doing them on a dog this size is genuinely awkward and a Mastiff that objects cannot be overpowered.

Every three to four weeks, small amounts, and a grinder is often easier than clippers once accepted. Overlong nails change the angle of the toes and load the joints of a dog already carrying more weight than any frame comfortably manages, and this is a breed with serious hip and elbow problems.

Start the handling on the day the puppy arrives. A Mastiff puppy that accepts having its feet held becomes a two hundred pound dog that accepts it. One that does not, never will, and sedation at a veterinarian becomes the only route.

Ears are drop and want a weekly lift and smell.

Teeth, which are easy to neglect because reaching into a mouth this size feels like an undertaking.

And weight, which matters more here than almost anywhere. Mastiffs are commonly overfed, the breed lives only six to ten years, and every excess pound is loaded onto joints and a heart already working hard. A lean Mastiff lives longer and moves better, and it is the single most useful thing an owner controls.

Growth matters too: mastiff puppies should be grown slowly, because fast growth on a giant frame damages joints permanently.

What to tell your groomer

Give the actual weight when you book and ask whether they have a floor level table or a walk in bath, and whether they have handled a giant breed.

Ask for a deshedding bath rather than a bath and brush, especially in spring.

Ask for every fold cleaned and dried: the brow, the cheeks, the flews and under the jaw.

Point out any calluses or swellings on the elbows and hocks so they are worked around, and say if any have cracked.

Ask for the nails and say honestly how the dog is about its feet, because that conversation belongs before the dog is on the table.

Mention when the dog last ate, given the bloat risk.

Keeping the coat between grooms

Common Questions About the English Mastiff