"So, do Bernese Mountain Dog shed?"
Cue the laughter ... more laughter ... crying while laughing so hard.
YES, Berners do shed. Similar to a golden retriever or other nice fluffy dogs. Most the time, if we vacuum regularly, we don't see much dog hair. But twice a year, we have THE BLOW OUT! This is when the Berner sheds its coat heavily, and for us, it happens around the time summer and winter start. Right now, Dakota is getting a double whammy - summer has just begun, plus she just had puppies. Just like when women loose some hair after giving birth, mama dogs lose fur from those hormone changes.
This is one light stroke of the brush from this morning. I am using an undercoat deshedding comb. This is a GREAT tool for deep grooming during the blow-out time. Its the same thing as a "Furminator", but I bought a knock-off brand deshedding tool at Target. We don't use it often, pretty much only when Dakota is blowing her coat, but its worth every penny during that time!
After 15 minutes of using the deshedding tool! Each little clump is about the size of my fist. I don't know how Dakota still has fur left on her, but she does! I will probably comb her out like this 1 more time. It makes the blowing of the coat much more manageable.
It works well for us, the metal side keeps tangles at bay, and the soft bristles keep the coat smooth and pretty.
I'm not a fan of the "Slicker" brushes ... Dakota hates them, and they seem to hurt her. I'm not sure if that's all Berners, or just ours though. Its not a brush we keep around though.
The deshedding tool and combo brush are the two brushes we keep around. The deshedding tool isn't one you need while they are a little puppy, more around a year old. The combo brush is great from the beginning, and we use them on our puppies from the very beginning so they grow accustomed to being groomed.
Now, once your dog is brushed, that is NOT the end of grooming!
Your dog's nails need to be kept trimmed short. If they walk on sidewalks often, the concrete may wear down the nails enough, but usually they need a trim every once in a while. We start trimming puppies nails at just a week old - those baby nails grow fast and sharp!
There are two tools we use for dog-nail-care.
First off, is a regular nail trimmer:
If you've never trimmed a dog's nails before, don't worry, its not hard.
If you do accidentally cut the nail too short, you may cut into the "quick", and it will start bleeding. It happens to the best of us, so just make sure you have some quick-stop / styptic powder on hand. You just stick some of it on the bleeding nail, and it helps the blood coagulate quickly. Without it, the bleeding can be very difficult to stop.
Another option we use is the "PediPaws" trimmer.
Its basically a nail file for dogs, its quick and fairly easy. Dakota does not like it - we bought it when she was already a year old, and she hasn't gotten accustomed to it. We have been using it on the puppies from week 2, and none of them seem to mind it at all.
Those are our main grooming tools. Sometimes we'll use hair scissors to trim the hair around the paws, or in the ear, but that is a rare occurrence. If our dogs seem to have tartar build-up, we use a dog toothbrush, but usually their rawhide bones keep their teeth quite clean.
BATHS
We don't do full baths (or showers) very often. Typically we will spot-clean with a wet wash cloth. The nice thing about Berners is that their beautiful thick coat seems to repel dirt and water. When they just NEED bathed, we use the big master shower, and a removable shower-head for easy use. We use gentle DOG or PUPPY shampoo (never human shampoo!). Make sure to rinse all the soap out of your dog's fur - this is easier said than done sometimes! Once they are done, we usually have 3-4 towels ready, and hand dry as much as possible. However, Berners can be hard to get all the way dry! One of the best tools I use is a hair-dryer on cool (no heat), and blow their coat dry. We do this with our puppies, and they seem to love it - more than half of them fell asleep while I was using the blow dryer on them!
There you have it! Grooming a Berner can be very involved, but if you keep up on the small things, then it is very manageable!
