Hi,

I just got a St Bernard bitch 1 yr old. The last owners sold her dirt cheap. She is healthy apart from she is very matted in certain places like: her groin area, under her front legs, under her ears and worse of all under her tail, where the matts are huge!!! I can't believe they could not bother to groom her.

I have booked her into the groomers who are full until Sept 2nd! could this be a job for a vet? I have cut as many out as poss, but some are to the skin.

She is called Portia and is a beauty. I also own the Cav with Colitis! (from another thread).

You seem to be collecting a lot of dogs, A Westie a Cavalier and now a St Bernard.......   How do you cope especially when they all seem to have something wrong with them?

And you have a yellow and a chocolate labrador as well.  You must be very busy.

The labs have gone on to bigger things... I trained the chocolate up and now she is a gamekeeps dog along with the yellow, he also has 20 others!!

I don't mind the problems because I won't leave them. Portia is here to stay, and so is Charlie and Maisy.

We adore animals and have ponies too! Oh and goldfish and a cat!

Oh and you were so keen to field trial them too, I remember you asking about John's book and where to purchase training dummies and find training classes too; what made you change your mind?

Time was an enormous factor.. so I trained them up as much as I could now the gamekeeper is doing the rest. I do buy mistreated animals, vaccinate, them worm them & give them basic obedience training and then rehome them. I always take them back if need be.

sounds like you have your hands full there !!!!  try another groomers if it's a big job then it needs to be done properly it's not a vets job

Well good news the groomer had a cancellation! so Portia will be sorted tomorrow. It's £50 which is reasonable for the work that needs to be done.

I really appreciate all your help and advice - this place is great!

By gum thats cheap ..did you tell them what state she is in???? It costs me £40 for my male Malamute and he is in good condition!

Bless, poor thing. We had a lady turn up at training class this week with a St Bernard that she had collected from the RSPCA the day before. Had to be the biggest dog I have ever been up close to my goodness but he was beautiful, wanted to give him a cuddle! Perhaps you could give your girl a cuddle on my behalf?!!

AW I will! She is the biggest cutest thing! We carry a towel with us to wipe the slobber lol.

Portia is so soft and great with children - we adore her!

I wanted to show her, but it seems that she has a fault because she doesn't have white on her collar area.

All dogs have faults! Even the Champions!

Also one of her front legs is Mahogony instead of white, and she doesn't have the white on her collar area. So is there no chance for Portia in the show ring ever? It's a shame because she comes from a show line.

In every show-bred litter, there may be one or two pups who are show quality. The rest are the 'purely-pets'. That sounds like Portia - and as such she's like the majority of pedigree dogs. That's not to say there's no chance ever. If her construction is correct she should win over poorly-constructed but correctly marked dogs.
:)

We are going to take her to some Companions dog shows to get a feel for it. Her temprement is fantastic, and she has a lovely gait.

Study the Breed Standard to judge her chances in the ring (and be honest! ;) ).
:)

I have looked at that. She is currently 28" but am not sure if she has finished growing yet. She is a very powerful muscular dog. I think by going to the Companion dog shows I can speak with other people and get some opinions. We don't mind if she isn't good enough, we will still do it for fun, that's what a guy I have met does with his 3 Saints!

They came today a lady and her daughter, and it took one and a half hours. She was as good as gold! The £50 included the removal of mats, a full groom, a bath, and cleaning of her ears & nails trimming! She is booked in again for 6 weeks, and they will pick her up and take her to the parlour.

She feels so much better bless her.