Low to non-shedding coat - Page 1

Just a survey. We have a solid black female with the shortish, extremely thick, glossy black stock coat. It is the most beautiful coat we've ever had and her shedding is almost nonexistent. We've owned 12 GSD over the years of varying coat length, thickness, texture, color etc but all shed like crazy. We just took that as a given and have never heard anyone voice anything otherwise.

Sadly, we feel our girl does not have strong enough nerves / even temperment to breed because we would love a duplicate of her coat type. It is absolutely wonderful not needing to vaccum multiple times a day. We just don't know if she is just a freak or if this is common in some lines.

Has anyone else has a similar experience with solid blacks or dogs with glossy shorter coats? If so, please advise. Thanks.

None of my stock coat solid blacks shed that bad. And all of them have beautiful coats.

My sable working line has a shorter glossy coat like you are talking about and up until she was spayed at 3 hardly shed at all. It was really nice, not sure if it was due to the spay or just getting older that it changed, still dosent shed 1/10th as bad as most GSDs I've known, never blows coat.

My current dog is solid black and sheds very little and I have read other people have had similar experiences with their black dogs. I don't think it applies to all solid blacks, probably just a higher percentage than with other coat colors.

I trained a black/tan that had a shorter, tighter and denser coat than most others.  Any shedding came from his tail, which looked close to regular length, as did the guard hairs and undercarriage.  The shorter length above the elbows was carried most everywhere else, even the hair behind the thighs was only slightly longer.  I recall the hair on the thighs would get super dense, hard to comb and almost impervious to water.  There was never a time when he blew his coat.  This is a nice thing when you ride around all night with the windows down.  

https://www.dropbox.com/s/svej28zdtxyxs2a/Beny%20Card.jpg?dl=0

Astrovan mentioned his dog’s hair getting longer, which makes me think this dog had a little longer hair when I saw him after his service career ended.  It may have grew longer before that.  I never paid much attention to see if there was more sheen than the others.  Seems like several of the DDR dogs I worked had a tighter, shorter coat.

 

My current male has a normal coat.  Oddly enough, he only loses it once a year and takes just two days at the most to come completely out of it, which I’m sure my vacuum cleaner enjoys.  I sure do.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/u51livb4rf7wjrt/Farm%20Dog.jpg?dl=0   

Come to think of it, the only Black dog I had at work (going back 8 or 9 years now) was a low shedder. I put it down to his being an 'outdoor' dog, i.e. kennelled - they always seem to shed less than any which live indoors. But he was certainly better in that respect than all the Black&Golds and Grey or Red Sable dogs I've had over the years, whether they lived In or Out. So maybe there IS something about Black coated ones.

Doesn't apply to Whites, though ! This one I have now blows coat to buggery - the inside of my car looks permanently like a snowstorm hit it, and I don't have a garment which doesn't have white hairs on it. I've always thought it is partly illusory though, black and grey hairs just don't show out quite so much, comparing the house cats I have had of various colours over the years.

My black working line female sheds less than my black and tan show line. That's because her coat is much shorter than the show line. Generally, show lines are bred for more coat, because it makes them more eye-catching in the show ring.

I have a friend who had a bi color, very dark (almost black) ASL. kept in the house. she had what I would describe as the "shiney" coat and a very light undercoat. I never noticed excessive hair in his house.

never thought about it, but my B/R showline was an absolute hair factory and it was a full time job just trying to stay even.

no idea if it was related to color or just dense coat of some dogs. and there are dense coated blacks.

interesting topic.

When I said our 'only' Black dog, we did have a couple more came through the kennel but they were not around long enough to make an assessment of how much they were shedding. One pup, who we aquired around the same time as the dog in my above post, was a pet-bred long coat. He was exported. There was at least one more Black, an adult dog, who would not settle and was re-homed; he had a VERY short coat (not entirely convinced he was pure GSD anyway though).

The dog that was kept - and where I had time to notice his lack of shedding - had a Standard coat, but I suppose it was on the shortish, tightish side of that. His dam, also a solid Black, was a product of mixed GSD lines, largely ( Germanic) Showline but with some Working and some Pet dogs in her pedigree. She had a nice thick coat, even while lactating. I don't think her breeder had a very hairy house, as I recall ! This bitch was an 'inside' dog, too.

Thanks to all for the feedback. I've had several offline conversations recently with several different breeders and pretty common theme-for those interested is- tight glossy coated working lines tend to have the low shed coats. Solid blacks are most prominent as low shedders but sables, bicolors, and darkly pigmented black and reds/tans are also represented. Czech lines and some German strictly working lines seem to be the key.

It's no substitute for a superior nerve and proper GSD temperment but the coat is WONDERFUL if you can find it. So thick and dense and low maintenance. Its now high on our wish list for future dogs. Our black female's coat is thick and all weather- she has to be coaxed inside sometimes in even sub teen temps- but just doesnt shed. Breaks my heart she isn't balanced enough in the cranium to breed.