Grooming a Newfoundland Dog

Grooming a Newfoundland dog is probably the hardest part of keeping one of these beautiful creatures.

I researched the breed carefully, found out about their temperament, their lifespan, their potential illnesses. But nowhere in my research did I find any mention of the vast amount of fur this dog possesses!

I honestly have never seen a dog with so much fur! There are two layers and on parts of their bodies there are three. Their coats need to first be brushed on the undercoat, with an undercoat rake, then move on to the top layer.

As puppies, their fur is very coarse, so not easy to brush, but you really need to get your puppy used to being groomed even if it doesn't do much good at that stage. A full grown newfie who does not like being groomed is a nightmare to handle.

Grooming involves careful combing behind the ears on a regular basis. They can get really badly matted behind their ears, so that the only thing left to do is cut the matts out.

Newfies can also get very matted under their chins and on their chests, because this is where the drool lands!

None of this would be so bad were this a small or even average large dog, but there is an awful lot of a Newfoundland dog, and grooming him can take hours.

During moulting season, when he starts to shed his fur, you could find yourself with enough dead fur to stuff a mattress!

I have found from experience that the best way to release all that dead fur is a dog blaster.

There are a variety of these machines on the market, and I have selected the best ones. They have two different uses. One is as a doggie hairdryer - a newfoundland dog takes forever to dry, sometimes two or three days, and a dryer of this power will do the job quickly and efficiently.

But their most important use is to remove all dust and dead fur from their coats. I could not manage my dogs' coats without one and the more powerful the better.

Between sessions with the blaster, the only real way to keep your newfie's coat under control is to groom him every single day. If you do not like grooming, if it is too much for you, you have two choices: get him used to a professional groomer early on, or do not get a newfie!