short or long coat - Page 1

Hi , can anybody tell me how soon you can tell if a puppy is going to have a long coat . Are there any telltale signs and at what age is it clear - thanks

NO UNDERCOAT and thick and long hair comming from the insides of the ears, long hair on face and back parts of the legs... Thick and fuzzy hair outside ears during puppyhood?... not sure,.. I think they call it LONG STOCK COAT and not LONG Coat

Wavy fur on the back sometimes comes as early as 3 weeks, but some do not show up until 8 or 9 weeks. Best Wishes, Jonah

you cant always tell!! I sold a fuzzball to a lady in Houston and looked like a teddy bear, cute and cuddley and hair everywhere....6mos later the most normal coated sable female , not even heavy coat..slick and beautiful I was shocked because this female and male have thrown 3 coated dogs in past and they look like bears when 5-6 weeks old no hair in ears though I have lots of plush coats in my litters but this one fooled me....I have a long coat Fleisherhiem and Bullinger who has 5 pups and I bred her to a Enclavehof and SteffenHaus male and all look like they are plush or may be one long at 5 weeks old hair everywhere but none out of ears so ?????

I had a "plush" coated male but from what I've read on here he was not a "true" long coat, he had a very thick undercoat. I got him when he was 8 weeks and had no idea, by 10 weeks the hair was long around his ears. He was a sable and when he was about 11 weeks all of his black hair was gone and he looked red all over. Then a black stripe started on his back and within two weeks he had a beautiful sable long coat. He had a cow lick on his thight for a while but other than that he had no wave to his coat. The hair around his ears would zig zag when it got wet and then dried but other than that his coat was soft, long, thick and straight. People always asked what he was "mixed with" and I got so tired of it I started saying WOLF!!! The idiots believed me, LOL.

go to www.bullingshepherds.com and on the lower left corner is a pic of what my Asta looks like and Tracey has an article on long coats, if you click on that pic, I believe...been a while since I went there.....I like the plush coats till they get wet and one of my males has a bad habit of laying on the wet concrete , and wont get in the dry doghouse when concrete here in TEXAS gets wet, it stays wet and then he gets stinky and even has a staph infection start because his skin gets nasty......I have taken him off the concrete now and he stays on a special floor with holes and aireated bottom lot of trouble ..His hair is so thick you cant get the brush through it....Hes a red sable and his father is the one that throws all this hair , thanks to his ancestors!!!!

I think you might be able to send in a CHEEK SWAB with a $58 fee to get his genes analyzed. If he is not a coat he will be either coat factor free or carry the recessive (0,0) and (X, 0). If he is going to turn out to have a coat he will carry two recessives for the coat factor (X,X). You can contact the lab by e-mail and ask thenm if their test will work for this (it is my understanding that it will but you need to verify that with them). If you want their e-mail,say so in a reply here and I'll post it. If this works out, then not only will you know what the GSD will be coat-wise, but will know if he carries the coat factor if he is not a coat.

Yellowrose, try a coat rake. I had trouble finding a brush that worked for mine and the rake went all the wat through his coat. His undercoat was so thick the brush just got the surface. We also took him to a groomer once a month to have him bathed and trimmed, that seemed to keep him in pretty good shape. Mud on the other hand was a real mess and he just loved the rain! One shake and I had polka dot walls, but I'd welcome it now if I could have just one more day...

I was just ready to suggest that too, Preston. It's the simplest way to know if your puppy is a coat or if it carries the gene. Some of my friends in other breeds swab their puppies almost as soon as they are born so they know whether or not they are longcoated and/or carry the gene.