Grooming a Giant Double Coat: Berners, Newfies, Pyrenees

A Bernese, a Newfoundland and a Great Pyrenees are three very different dogs with one thing in common: a coat that holds water like a sponge and hides trouble underneath it. Grooming them is not harder than grooming a doodle. It is bigger. And the part that eats the clock is the part nobody warns you about, which is drying.

Why a giant breed needs a longer appointment

Coat volume does not scale politely with body size. A 95-pound Newfoundland does not carry twice the coat of a 45-pound spaniel; it carries several times the coat, most of it dense woolly undercoat sitting under a weather-resistant top layer designed to keep water out — including the water we are trying to get in.

That changes almost every step. Shampoo has to be worked down to the skin rather than sitting on top. Rinsing takes longer, and an under-rinsed heavy coat is one of the most common reasons a dog looks fine leaving the salon and smells sour two days later. Then there is the brushing, which happens twice: once dry before the bath, because bathing a matted coat tightens the mats, and again during the dry, because that is when undercoat actually comes out.

Where mats hide on a heavy-coated giant

Owners of these breeds are usually brushing. The problem is that they are brushing the parts they can see. A Pyrenees can look immaculate across the back and shoulders and still have a felted mat the size of a paperback behind one elbow.

• Behind and inside the ears — the single most common spot, on all three breeds.
• Under the collar, and along the contact lines of a harness if your dog wears one for walks.
• Armpits and behind the elbows, where friction packs the undercoat down.
• The britches — the pants on the back of the hind legs — and the tail base.
• Between the toes and pads, and around a Pyrenees' rear dewclaws.
• The sanitary area, which is the one people avoid brushing at home and the one that matters most on a heavy-coated dog in warm weather.

If a comb will not pass cleanly from skin to tip, the coat is not brushed — it is smoothed.

Drying time is the real bottleneck

Here is the honest answer to why the appointment runs long. On a dense double coat, drying is not the step after grooming. Drying is the grooming. A high-velocity dryer pushed through the coat in sections is what separates the layers and blows the dead undercoat out, which is why the dry and the real coat work are the same job. Rushing it leaves undercoat behind, and it can also leave a coat that is dry on the surface and damp underneath — which is how a dog goes home smelling musty. If you ever see red, weeping or painful skin under the coat, that is a vet visit, not a grooming question.

Where a giant breed lands in the weight bands

Both Lillian Ruff salons publish grooming prices by dog weight, so a giant breed sits at the top of whichever range applies. The more useful point is that most Berners, Newfies and Pyrenees do not need the more expensive service at all.

Those two ranges cover every size of dog, so ask for your dog's exact price when you book rather than guessing from the band — and ask what the appointment covers for a coat like yours, since a heavily packed undercoat is a different amount of work from a well-maintained one. A note on what is not offered here, so nobody drives over for it: no cat grooming, no creative coloring, no show grooming and no hand-stripping.

Summer scheduling and heat sense

What actually helps in warm weather is a coat that is fully brushed out and free of packed undercoat, so air can move through it. Taking the first appointment of the day is a small kindness for a big dog too — you are not asking a Newfoundland to ride in a hot car in the afternoon. Grooming hours at both salons are 9am to 5pm.

The other summer job is tick checks, and a heavy coat makes them harder. New York State Department of Health surveillance splits deer tick activity into nymphs from May to September and adults from October to December. In Suffolk County in 2025, nymph density measured 61.04 ticks per 1,000 square meters, with 26.6% carrying the Lyme bacterium; adults collected that October to December tested 52.8% positive, roughly double. Worth knowing for perspective: Suffolk ranked eighth in the state for nymph density, though it does record the highest raw number of Lyme cases in New York. Groomers find ticks constantly on heavy coats and will point out anything we see — but removal protocol, prevention products and anything that looks like illness are conversations for your vet.

Boarding a big, heavy-coated dog: what to ask first

Grooming happens at both salons, but daycare and boarding are Ronkonkoma only — the East Northport shop at 16 Laurel Rd is grooming, Tuesday to Saturday. If you are in East Northport, Commack or Northport and need overnights, that means the Ronkonkoma location at 835 Portion Rd.

For a giant breed, ask about the kennel before anything else. Boarding is $60 a night in a 4x4 private kennel and $75 in a larger 4x6 premium kennel — and for a full-grown Newfoundland or Pyrenees, the 4x6 is the honest answer rather than an upsell. Every stay includes full-day daycare at no extra charge, which on a big dog is the part that matters most: it means time out of the kennel rather than time in it. Feeding runs at 8am, 1pm and 6pm, with custom schedules available for puppies, seniors or medical diets. Bring your own food, or have it provided at $5 a day. Check-in is 2pm to 7pm and check-out is 7am to 11am. Medications needing timing outside 7am to 10pm are a stated limitation, so raise those early.

Two things here should make you trust the answer more, not less. First, boarding is not for every dog: the stated eligibility is that a pet "must be non-aggressive, comfortable in a kennel, able to socialize, and free from bite history." A dog who cannot settle in a kennel is better off with a sitter, and the 30-minute meet and greet exists to find that out before you have a trip booked. Second, the vaccination requirements are county law, not house policy.

Questions people actually ask