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Extensively and famously. The Dogue's heavy jowls produce drool in quantities that genuinely redecorate walls, and there is no management trick that changes it. Towels in every room, washable surfaces and a relaxed attitude to slobber are mandatory equipment, as essential to keeping this breed as the food bowl.
The coat record for the breed reads: Fine, short and soft to the touch. At 3 out of 5, the Dogue de Bordeaux's shedding is the manageable middle: noticeable on dark clothes, controlled by routine brushing.
Budget the coat as part of the dog.
Grooming effort scores 2 out of 5, so the Dogue de Bordeaux's coat care is minutes a week: a brush, nails, ears and teeth on a simple rotation. Puppies are huge, wrinkled and solemn; adults are serene, affectionate mountains with a stubborn streak and a comedian's drool. Owners warn that the breed's devotion is total and its lifespan heartbreakingly short, and they choose it anyway.
The fixed facts behind every answer here: giant size, 99 to 150 lb, 5 to 8 years of life, and a temperament summarised as Sweet, adaptable, playful and devoted.
Size context from the growth table: 8 weeks at about 10 to 15 lb, 9 months at about 59 to 90 lb, 18 months at about 87 to 132 lb mark the Dogue de Bordeaux's first year, against an adult standard of 99 to 150 lb. Standard colors: all shades of fawn, from a dark red fawn to a light fawn. A rich coat color is considered desirable. Limited white patches are permissible on the chest and the extremities of the limbs. The breed belongs to the Non-Sporting group and its home ground is France.
The stranger test summarises the social side: rated Friendly with strangers, the Dogue de Bordeaux meets the world as this page describes. Households should choose with that dog, not an imagined one, in mind, and the Dogue de Bordeaux profile shows the real animal in full. Start from the Dogue de Bordeaux profile if you are still deciding: it gathers every figure quoted here into one place.
Season changes the workload more than owners expect: most double coats shed hardest as day length changes, and households that step the brushing up for those weeks stay ahead of it.
A healthy fine coat lies as the breed standard describes, the skin under it is calm and the dog is not scratching at it. Persistent itching, bald patches or a sour smell in a Dogue de Bordeaux are vet questions, whatever the grooming routine. Brushing little and often beats the occasional marathon session, for the coat and for the dog's patience alike.
Season, age, diet, stress and health all move the dial on a baseline of 3/5. A sudden change with itching, baldness or behaviour change in a Dogue de Bordeaux is a vet visit; a spring increase in a double coat is the calendar, not a crisis. Photographs of show dogs set an unfair bar; the pet routine that keeps skin healthy is the one that matters.
The tool follows the coat: a fine coat needs the brush type that reaches its undercoat or curl properly, which the grooming planner specifies by coat type. The wrong brush skims the surface while the layer underneath mats undisturbed.
The Dogue de Bordeaux's daily exercise bill explained: what counts, how owners fit it in and what happens when it goes unpaid.
A Dogue de Bordeaux typically lives 5 to 8 years, and where a Dogue de Bordeaux lands inside that range owes as much to daily care as to genes.
These white mountain guardians come from opposite sides of the same Tatra range.
Last updated: November 4, 2026