Great Pyrenees Grooming

About the Great Pyrenees

The Great Pyrenees carries a thick, coarse, weather resistant outer coat over a dense woolly undercoat, built for a livestock guardian living outdoors in mountain weather year round. The coat is a piece of working equipment and it behaves like one.

Two things surprise new owners. The first is that a white dog with that much coat is remarkably self cleaning: the outer coat is coarse and slightly oily and dirt tends to dry and fall out rather than staining in, so these dogs need bathing far less often than they look like they should.

The second is the shedding, which is enormous and more or less continuous, with an extraordinary blow once or twice a year.

As with every double coat, it is deshedded rather than cut. On a dog this size that is a half day.

What a full groom involves

A half day, and often two people, and drying is most of it.

A full rake and brush out first, dry, working the ruff, the trousers, the tail and behind the ears. On a coat that has been left, this alone can take an hour or more.

Then the bath, which takes real effort to work shampoo through to the skin on a coat this dense, and a rinse that takes longer than the wash because shampoo left in an undercoat irritates skin and dulls the coat.

Then the dry, which runs into hours. A high velocity dryer drives the water off and blasts the loosened undercoat out at the same time. A Pyrenees sent home damp is a hot spot waiting to happen and on a white coat it also goes yellow.

Then the deshed proper, feathering and pads tidied, sanitary trim, ears and nails, which on a dog this size need proper tools. Pyrenees also carry double dewclaws on the back legs, which are a breed feature and need clipping like any other nail.

Never clipped, and the white coat makes it worse

The standard double coat rules apply in full: a clipper cannot tell the layers apart, so it removes the coarse guard hairs that block sun and heat and leaves the insulating undercoat against the skin. The dog ends up hotter and less protected, and on many double coated breeds the guard coat regrows patchy and woolly, permanently.

On a Great Pyrenees there are two extra reasons.

The skin underneath is pale and has very little natural sun protection, which a white coated outdoor dog badly needs. Removing the guard coat exposes it directly.

And the coat's self cleaning property lives in the coarse outer layer. A clipped Pyrenees is left with soft undercoat, which holds dirt and mud rather than shedding it, so the dog gets visibly filthier and needs bathing far more often than it did before. Owners who clip for convenience routinely find they have created work rather than saved it.

If the dog is struggling in the heat, ask for a full deshed, a belly trim and the pads cleared, and provide shade and cool ground. That is the real answer.

The shedding, which is on another scale

Great Pyrenees shed more or less continuously and then blow their undercoat spectacularly once or twice a year. The volume from a single dog is genuinely hard to convey: it comes out in sheets and can be gathered in armfuls.

The practical response is a deshedding appointment at the start of a blow and an undercoat rake used regularly at home. Ten minutes every couple of days does more than an hour once a fortnight, and on a dog this size it is the difference between a maintained coat and a much harder appointment.

Where it mats: behind and under the ears first, then the trousers, then the ruff at the chest, then behind the front legs. The tail on a heavily coated individual is fifth.

Check by pushing the coat backward and looking at the skin rather than running a brush over the top. On a coat this thick a brush tells you very little.

Dogs that live or work outdoors need the feathering and feet checked for burrs, seeds and matting after any time in cover.

What moves the price

Size and drying time, which here are the same thing and dominate. This is one of the most expensive routine appointments on the site and the reason is hours rather than skill.

Coat condition second, and it swings hard: a maintained coat is a long appointment, a neglected one is a much longer one that may need two people or a second visit.

Whether it is a blow, third, and on this breed that is a substantial difference.

Whether a second groomer is needed, which is a safety question as much as a speed one at this weight.

Book well ahead. Salons that take giant breeds fit half day bookings into a schedule built around ninety minute ones.

What to tell your groomer

Call rather than book online and lead with the breed and the weight. Ask what the table is rated for, whether there is a walk in bath, and how long they block out.

Ask for a bath, a full deshed and a blow out, and say explicitly that you do not want the coat clipped.

Mention the double dewclaws on the back legs, because a groomer unfamiliar with the breed may not expect them and they need clipping like any other nail.

Say if the dog lives or works outdoors, so they check the feathering and feet for seeds and burrs.

Say if the dog is older or has any joint diagnosis, and be open to splitting the work across two visits.

And do not be talked into a summer shave by anybody. On this breed it makes the dog hotter, exposes pale skin to sun, and destroys the self cleaning property of the coat.

Keeping the coat between grooms

Common Questions About the Great Pyrenees