r/SwissMountainDogs

Out of all the breeds you could’ve chosen, what made you choose the GSMD?

My family (myself, 29F, spouse, 31M, 2 sons who are 5 and 2.5 yo, and an old cat) is finally in a good place to get a dog, and my husband and I are having a hard time deciding on a breed. My biggest reservations about larger dogs is the shorter lifespan, but I've seen that GSMDs tend to fair better than many giant dog breeds. Give me the good and the bad, how has your dog's health been? How long did they live (or how old are they currently)? How big has your dog gotten? Your biggest pros and cons of the breed? Even though you may love this dog, would you recommend them to friends and family if they were looking for a dog? Thanks so much for the feedback!

I must admit that I find my dog difficult to handle. Veterinary visits is always a challenge. He needs to get sedatives in advance, for them to examine him. He is so stressed in there. He is not aggressive luckily. But he has seriously thrashed that place 2 times. It's embarrassing. And however I try to calm him down it has not helped. The other dogs at the vets are always so calm and well behaved. I feel like a bad dogmom, and I feel everyone has their eyes on me and judging..

And I have had to give him treatment for lots of things myself, and it always ends up me having to force him to do it. It's a fight every time. He has cost me so much money I don't even know how much it is. I don't even want to know. He always looks so sad/ depressed after I have to force him to do anything. Even to cut his clavs feels like participating in a sumowrestling competition.

He's also in his teenager period, and he does not listen to me outside 95% of the time. It's so embarrassing sometimes. And he is so strong. He's fine by walking past another human, but if they look at him and smile/ gives him attention he becomes really difficult to handle.

Then he totally forgets me, and makes a fucking Sircus when greeting someone. He jumps at them, that's a huge problem. And I loose my control over him. Most of them does not seem to care, but instead encourages his bad behavior by showing joy, using ridiculous babyvoices, complimenting and petting him. I get so fucking irritated. I try to tell them I don't want him to jump when he greets someone. I want him to have a calm behavior and that he sits before they interact with him. They don't care what I say, and continues to play with him.

I'm so tired. I feel like a failure, and to be honest I can give him to you for free.

Would be nice to hear if you've had a challenging Swiss, what the challenging part was, and would be nice to hear some encouragement if you have any

We have started to walk our pup on a harness transitioning from a flat collar. We have tried a few harnesses but they all seem to have the same problem where it is loose around the chest in order for it not to be tight around his front legs. Any suggestions for harnesses for a growing puppy?