Is a Swissy for you?

Swissy’s range from 80-160 pounds when full grown and require a solid base in obedience and good citizenship to be welcome family members. You must be willing to work with a young Swissy to instill appropriate behavior to be fair to them and to you, your friends, community members and the Swissy fancy. If you are able to commit to this breed, we welcome you to our family.

Swissy’s are wonderful dogs, bred to be affectionate, hard working and funny. They are full members of the family, and do not thrive when separated from their people and can provide wonderful companionship. Cider makes me laugh every day!

To me, as a giant breed, Swissy’s have a "I’m big, I can, so I will" attitude. They are fun loving and exuberant, and sometimes don’t seem to understand how unmannerly they appear. For example, their size alone can easily knock over a child or elderly family member from the shear delight of their greeting.

Swissys are a guarding breed. They will bark at anything they deem a "threat", and you must know that dogs don’t always make the best decisions about what constitutes a real "threat." You will not need to encourage a Swissy to bark – they seem to do so out of necessity. It is important to expose your puppy to every situation possible and give them a solid foundation of appropriate behavior and coping skills so others are not frightened of your BIG BLACK DOG.

To be Swissy means to exhibit appropriate Swissy behavior including, as the standard states, "Bold, faithful, willing worker. Alert and vigilant." For example, I have Pointers who are allowed to run at a local Wildlife management area. Cider joined the group right away and enjoys her romps with the Pointers. However, my pointers ignore hikers, bikers and joggers, whereas Cider used to charge up to folks barking (an appropriate Swissy behavior), but by the time she had greeted strangers in this way, they were either wary or afraid of her which was painful to see because Cider wanted nothing more than to meet these new friends. I trained her in obedience, with a flawless recall and the ability to put her in a "down stay" from several hundred yards and now, everyone gets to meet her and they all love her!

Swissy’s seem to drink a lot of water, and they need to urinate frequently. When fully housetrained they are fastidious, but can be challenging until that point. I find the most successful way to housetrain a Swissy is to simply take them outside every few hours around the clock until their bladders develop – increasing the amount of time they can "hold it" weekly. Remembering that a puppy won’t purposely soil the house helps ease the frustration of coming inside only to have them pee on the floor. Puppies are notoriously sensory aware, so quiet time outside with plenty of encouragement once they "go" will help speed the process. Because of a short attention span, puppies also need to be taken outside every time they eat/drink or end a play session – and certainly right when they wake up. The more time you put into housetraining at the beginning, the more successful you will be.

Crate training is a must. A puppy needs a quite den space to unwind, and also a place to call their own away from well-meaning adults and children. You’ll find that, pretty quickly, your puppy will welcome time in their crate. Offer a treat and encouragement when the puppy goes IN the crate only, as making a big deal of coming out of the crate can be counterproductive.

Health concerns

You will find that most breeders of Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs are responsible and have the best interest of the breed in mind. While some things can be bred for, there are certain health issues which accompany giant breed dogs simply by virtue of their size. Bloat, orthopedic disease and epilepsy are the top three.

Bloat

Bloat, the common name for Gastric Dilation and Volvulus (GDV), is a deadly disorder where the stomach rotates on its access and cuts off blood supply to the stomach and intestines. The symptoms are swollen, tympanic (tight like a drum,) stomach, retching and unproductive vomiting, profuse drooling and eventually collapse and death. THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!!! Get your dog to the nearest 24 hour clinic as fast as possible!

There is some thought that true bloat has a genetic component and there is a difference between true bloat and a dog who has bloated because they have eaten too much food. Cider has "food bloated" because she has gotten into the food bin unsupervised and eaten until her stomach was over-full. This is not as dangerous condition as GDV, but can be very painful for the dog, so a trip to the emergency room for an x-ray is a good idea.

Orthopedic disease

Swissys are prone to orthopedic diseases common to giant breeds. OCD, a shoulder disease, hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia and other orthopedic diseases can be prevalent in our breed. Large dogs are also athletic dogs and care needs to be taken for the first 2 full years of life while growing.

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is within our breed and every breeder should discuss where in their dogs lineage it has shown up. It may be in lines far removed from the current litter, but nonetheless you should know where in the pedigree it has fallen as managing an epileptic dog is heartbreaking, can be dangerous and is expensive.