Hoping for some help with grooming my briard

[truthseeker30]

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone might be able to help me to approach giving my briard a summer clip.

She's coming into her first proper summer in Australia so I'm hoping to take a bit of the bulk out of her winter coat, but I'm a bit confused on how I should do it.

Some of the reading I've looked into says I should absolutely never clip her as she's a double coat and it will ruin her coats. Other places seem to indicate it's fine to clip?

We brush her with a pin brush almost nightly, and then use slicker, undercoat rakes, combs and untangler mini-rakes pretty reguarly as required, so her coat is pretty knot free.

These are a couple pictures of her current coat:

https://imgur.com/a/zVk4nN7

And then these are a couple images of her mum and aunty at the breeders when we first adopted her. The length of their coat is pretty much what I was hoping for. The breeder also shows briards, so I assume she wouldn't have done a method that would ruin the coats of her dogs...

https://imgur.com/a/Nk0BqX8

Thanks in advance for any help. We would have liked to find a groomer but it seems they are all booked out to after christmas or generally only deal in poodle trims.

 

[livelifeliving33]

@truthseeker30 Because she has a constantly growing coat it won't be as affected by a trim as a breed like a German shepherd might be. I used to groom a pair of briards who got a yearly summer haircut and their hair grew back as normal.

If she were being shown, you'd want to learn how to card and strip her, but for a pet it's completely fine to cut her off to whatever length best suits your lifestyle.

 

[brendacast]

@truthseeker30 Have you tried asking her breeder what she does? Especially since you liked the look of hers, that's where I would start.