Greater Swiss Mountain Dog Grooming

About the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog

The largest of the four Swiss mountain dogs and the short coated one, which makes it an interesting comparison with the Bernese that shares its markings and much of its ancestry.

Same tricolor pattern, same origins, same broad job. The Bernese carries a long silky double coat that mats behind the ears and in the britches and needs real brushing. The Swissy carries a short dense double coat that needs almost none.

It is the same lesson the site keeps returning to: the breed name tells you very little and the coat tells you nearly everything.

What a Swissy does share with the Bernese is heavy seasonal shedding and a short life, often only eight to eleven years, which is short even for a giant.

Most of what makes this dog demanding is size rather than coat.

A short coat that sheds like a long one

The outer coat is short and dense, about an inch to an inch and a quarter, over a thick undercoat that is often a different color and shows when the coat is parted.

Weekly brushing with a slicker and a rubber mitt is enough for most of the year, and there is nothing to cut, ever.

Then twice a year the undercoat blows over several weeks, and the quantity from a dog this size is considerable. Owners who chose the short coated Swiss over the Bernese specifically to avoid hair are usually surprised.

Rake daily during a blow with an undercoat rake, and book a bath with a high velocity blow out at the start. On a dog this size a professional dryer removes in an hour what days of home raking will not, and it shortens the whole thing.

Bathe every ten weeks or so otherwise, and dry to the skin, since a dense undercoat left damp on a heavy dog grows yeast at the chest and armpits.

Matting is genuinely a low risk. There is not enough length for the undercoat to felt into.

Do not clip. It is a double coat and the usual consequences apply, and there is no reason to on a coat this short.

Size, joints and the table

At eighty five to a hundred and forty pounds this is a serious animal, and logistics matter more than the coat.

Confirm a salon can physically handle the size and has a table or ramp rated for it. Many cannot, and a mobile groomer is often the practical answer.

Ask for a non slip surface and breaks, and for as much work as possible done with the dog lying down. Standing still on a hard floor for an hour is tiring on a giant frame, and the breed has real rates of hip and elbow dysplasia and of a shoulder condition affecting young dogs.

Swissies are also slow to mature, taking two to three years, and adolescents are large, clumsy and enthusiastic. Handling has to be routine before the dog is heavy enough to make it a negotiation.

Nails are a two person job. Start in puppyhood.

Deep chested, so bloat is a genuine risk: no large meal around an appointment, and unproductive retching with a swollen abdomen is an emergency.

Some Swissies also have a documented tendency to urinary incontinence in females and to a seizure disorder, which are veterinary rather than grooming matters but worth knowing.

The weekly check on a short lived giant

Eight to eleven years is short even by giant breed standards, and it changes what the weekly session is worth.

A short coat is an advantage here: it hides nothing. Run your hands over the whole dog every week, down each limb, over the ribs and spine, around the shoulders and hips, and along the belly.

Feel for new lumps, and for anything firm or fixed. Bone cancer affects giant breeds and most often shows as a swelling on a limb or a lameness that does not resolve, and both need a veterinarian quickly.

Check the elbows and hocks for calluses, since a heavy dog on hard floors develops them and they crack and get infected. Soft bedding is the fix.

Feel for ribs to judge weight rather than looking, because a heavy boned dog carries condition deceptively and weight is hard on giant joints.

Ears are drop ears, so lift weekly, look and smell.

Older Swissies tire fast and get unsteady on smooth floors, so appointments should get shorter and gentler with age rather than staying the same.

Not a Bernese, and why it matters

The two are constantly confused, sharing markings, origins and a general shape, and the difference at a grooming table is total.

A Bernese has a long, silky, moderately wavy double coat with feathering, and it mats behind the ears, in the britches and under a collar. It needs brushing two or three times a week and a real grooming appointment.

A Swissy has a short dense coat that mats essentially nowhere and needs a weekly going over. There is no haircut, no dematting and no scissoring.

What they share is the undercoat, which is why both shed heavily twice a year, and the short life.

An owner quoted a long coated price for a Swissy is being charged for work that does not exist, in the same way as an Oriental Longhair.

The two other Swiss breeds, the Appenzeller and the Entlebucher, are also short coated and smaller.

What to tell your groomer

Confirm before booking that they can physically handle the size, and ask about a ramp or floor work.

Say it is a Greater Swiss and not a Bernese, since there is no haircut and no dematting on this coat.

Ask for a deshedding groom during the seasonal blows: bath, high velocity dry and a full undercoat rake.

Say the coat is never clipped.

Ask for a non slip surface, breaks and work done lying down, and mention any joint trouble.

Say not to feed the dog around the appointment because of bloat risk, and ask them to report any lump on a limb.

Keeping the coat between grooms

Common Questions About the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog