St. Bernard grooming!

Question
Hi,
I am wondering if there is a good strategy to groom St. Bernards?  
I am having a hard time keeping up with the shedding.  I have one
St. Bernard and one St. Bernard/ Great Pyrenese mix.

Is it advisable to clip their hair early in the season to try to loosen
the undercoat?  What tools should I have to brush them efficiently?

Thanks!
Samantha

Answer
Hello Samantha, Wow do you have an undercoat problem.....Let's hope you have a strong arm! Your best bet is to keep ahead of the undercoat.  You can find some usefull rakes online at Petedge.com or order from their catalog.  A rake will get out the undercoat which is what is shedding.  They will still shed some, but minimal if you give them a weekly to biweekly raking.  This takes some strong arm muscels.  If you have a good groomer in the area that you know will do a complete brush out job, use them first and then it would be just maintenance for you.  The initial rake/brush out will be the most work.  If you rake properly then you should be able to get a metal comb to go through the coat and to the skin.  When you accomplish this you KNOW you have done a complete job and then you will notice less shedding.  As far as shaving the dog, that is a personal preference.  Some feel the coat comes in thicker, I'm not sure that it does, it may be that since they shaved the coat they slacked off on raking/brushing and thus it appears to come in thicker.  If they had of shaved and continued to rake/brush while the coat was growing back in they might have seen a different result.  Shaving will not loosen the undercoat it will completely remove the undercoat. And all the hair. My best advice is to find a shop good at grooming your breed, let them to the initial job and then you can try to maintain it from then on.  Maybe every 3 to 6 months you might let them groom them again just to make sure you don't get to far behind and just in case you aren't getting all the coat out.  The longer you wait the more work there is to be done.  And the more they will charge you.  However, if you can get a metal comb through down to the skin then your are all the groomer your dogs need.  Good Luck, Cindy lou :)