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silky or cotton coat?

10K views 18 replies 10 participants last post by  Kathie 
#1 ·
Hi everyone,

How do you tell if your puppy has a cottony or silky coat? And will it change as he gets older?
Thanks Joan
 
#5 ·
When they go through coat blowing it feels as if they mat the minute you stop taking the last one out. Ruby is in the middle of it right now and it's a nightmare.
 
#11 ·
The difference is pretty obvious. Pam can now tell as soon as they are born while the hair is still wet. We have some of both. The silkier coats are MUCH easier to maintain. Some of our older, retired dogs have the curly gene, but Pam now keeps them in a puppy coat. The thicker coat is a curly coat even though it can still be blow dried straight.

We used to try to simply select away from it, but you really didn't know if a dog with a straighter coat would produce the curly until she was bred. Now that there is a test for it, it's much easier to select away from.

If you notice the pictures of Fifth on our website, her puppy coat was not curly. After blowing her puppy coat. and when her adult coat came in thick with curly the test became available. We had her tested and she is carrying two copies of curly, so we had her spayed since we don't want to continue to produce it, or wait another generation out of her to be sure to select away from it.
 
#12 ·
The difference is pretty obvious. Pam can now tell as soon as they are born while the hair is still wet. We have some of both. The silkier coats are MUCH easier to maintain. Some of our older, retired dogs have the curly gene, but Pam now keeps them in a puppy coat. The thicker coat is a curly coat even though it can still be blow dried straight.

We used to try to simply select away from it, but you really didn't know if a dog with a straighter coat would produce the curly until she was bred. Now that there is a test for it, it's much easier to select away from.

If you notice the pictures of Fifth on our website, her puppy coat was not curly. After blowing her puppy coat. and when her adult coat came in thick with curly the test became available. We had her tested and she is carrying two copies of curly, so we had her spayed since we don't want to continue to produce it, or wait another generation out of her to be sure to select away from it.
Tom,

How long does it take for the dog to completely blow the puppy coat? Lily is 17 months now and blowing coat as we speak. It seems to be cottony and mostly straight with some wavy areas, but nothing I would call curly (compared to the "curly" Havs I've seen, I could be wrong) . I think she looks better air dryed and not completely straight. When she is blown dry, it gets bone straight and she has a somewhat drawn appearance.

How long until I know how she will turn out? (Surprise, surprise, puppy surprise!)

I love Lily (obviously:rolleyes:) and think she is gorgeous, but I will try and get a silky dog next. I just picked her up from the groomer and they cut matts out, I'm calling her Patches.
 
#13 ·
Tom, Cicero has a very thick coat but he is straight with just a little wave. After the blowing coat his hair changed, but that could be the belton gene. I remember when Fifth was born and wanted her so badly. Just as I talked DH into letting me contact you is when you posted you were going to keep her. She is a cutie and doesn't look curly in her pics to me. When I think curly, I think of coats like Ann's Scooter, who makes me smile everything I look at his pic. He has the cutest expressions! I love the work you have done on your web page!!
 
#16 ·
Tom, Cicero has a very thick coat but he is straight with just a little wave. After the blowing coat his hair changed, but that could be the belton gene. I remember when Fifth was born and wanted her so badly. Just as I talked DH into letting me contact you is when you posted you were going to keep her. She is a cutie and doesn't look curly in her pics to me. When I think curly, I think of coats like Ann's Scooter, who makes me smile everything I look at his pic. He has the cutest expressions! I love the work you have done on your web page!!
All the pictures on her webpage were before she was a year old. She now has a sable, curly coat. We were really hoping she would keep that red, silky coat, but it wasn't to be. Our first stud dog, Smallhaven Trip to Remember did something similar, so I guess that's where she got it from. We have managed to keep Trip in our pedigree, but have gotten rid of the curly coat.

Thanks for the compliment on the webpage, but there is still a lot of work to do. A lot of the dogs' individual pages are pretty old. I need to put up a Retired dogs page and link to their individual pages, but just haven't gotten around to it.
 
#19 ·
Tom, while we're on the subject of coat - I have a question I haven't heard on the forum before. Do some Havs just never get really long hair on their faces? Abby was three in June and has never been cut and although her coat has been very slow-growing, her face is significantly shorter than the rest of her plus a little bit on her head right above her eyes never seems to get longer than about 1 1/2 inches. The rest of her head hair is long. I'd appreciate any input you can share.
 
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