Grooming through "Cyote" phase.

[tofu pup]

Of course I have the Black Swamp of Sucking Death that I have to wash off daily (but that is mainly paws and legs).

Perhaps MMM is trying to help you, through daily application of a BSoSD mud-mask to his coat? If you can convince show folk that it makes hair grow (and it doesn't take much to do that), you can sell it as a coat treatment and make a million!

You didn't quite mention this, but another potential difference is where the pup sleeps... a big part of how we get the coats that we do is that our dogs sleep in an unheated shed through much of the year (particularly in the winter). This might not make such a big difference in summer, but even in a ring full of unneutered showdogs you can tell which ones were "raised on a radiator" and which ones sleep in the cold.

 

[Lightplum]

Yes spay and neuter does make a difference in coat, but like Tofu pup said the spay and neuter have that plushy almost borderline out of control coat

All mine are in the water every day too..im not sure what difference it makes in the coat though...
Since Six and Tucker (littermates) have 2 completely different coats. Six is well on his way into the coyote stage...all legs and adult coat coming in so puppy fuzz is GONE...however Tucker is still fluffy puppy plush and portioned.

I was spoiled by Noah though since he never really went though the coyote phase...

But yes just brush brush brush and they will grow into themselves! (eventually)

 

[Lightplum]

Perhaps MMM is trying to help you, through daily application of a BSoSD mud-mask to his coat? If you can convince show folk that it makes hair grow (and it doesn't take much to do that), you can sell it as a coat treatment and make a million!

You didn't quite mention this, but another potential difference is where the pup sleeps... a big part of how we get the coats that we do is that our dogs sleep in an unheated shed through much of the year (particularly in the winter). This might not make such a big difference in summer, but even in a ring full of unneutered showdogs you can tell which ones were "raised on a radiator" and which ones sleep in the cold.

We can get Jan a booth at the shows...She'll make a Mint...Heck dog show people will try ANYTHING!

And Yes I forgot about the Sleeping..That is the huge difference between MMM and Noah. Noah sleeps downstairs, no heat in the winter so its around usually the high 50's low 60's and its AC'd in the summer so its constantly below 65 degrees.

 

[Justicemom]

Even our show dogs have weird coat stages... our fancypants champion Annie went through a "tubular porcupine" look where she had no puppy fuzz and black guard hairs three inches long that stuck out in all directions. Take pictures so you can embarrass him later.

Oh thank you, you just made me feel better. Diva is from a slow maturing line(slow!). She just lost her coat again. She looks aweful. Too the point I just had a full thyroid panel done. Everything great, everything normal or high normal. Skin normal. No itching. I know she'll get coat, the other related intact girls I know did around 3yrs. I just wish Diva would hurry up and get coat already. She had such a nice puppy coat. Best of any of my dogs. Sigh.

BTW she is due to go into season in about a month and she blew her coat about the same time before her last season. Aren't they suppose to lose coat after the cycle not before? Ember always did.

 

[Justicemom]

You didn't quite mention this, but another potential difference is where the pup sleeps... a big part of how we get the coats that we do is that our dogs sleep in an unheated shed through much of the year (particularly in the winter). This might not make such a big difference in summer, but even in a ring full of unneutered showdogs you can tell which ones were "raised on a radiator" and which ones sleep in the cold.

Interesting. I was talking with a owner of a stud I was thinking of using with Diva and she was evaluting her and she asked if she was a house dog. Yes. SHe nodded knowingly at that. I didn't think to ask about it at the time. Not sure how I could fix that. I live in the city and I don't trust my neighbors. I do have a secure 3 season porch I could do something with next winter. What temps do you try to keep them in the summer. How cold do you worry about in the winter. It can get well below -0 here in the winter sometimes as low as -20- -25 for days.

 

[corbinam]

Lexi's in a weird hair growth stage now, too (she's 9 months). It seems like her undercoat is growing faster than her topcoat, so she has these "chunks" of undercoat poking through. I call it her "chunky monkey" look. It's especially noticeable on her rear.

Is this pretty typical? It's not the prettiest look since the undercoat is a light cream color, and her topcoat is a beautiful red with black tips.

(Oh, and she has always had that leggy coyote look. I assume one day her fur will cover her looooong legs!)

 

[tofu pup]

Interesting. I was talking with a owner of a stud I was thinking of using with Diva and she was evaluting her and she asked if she was a house dog. Yes. SHe nodded knowingly at that. I didn't think to ask about it at the time. Not sure how I could fix that. I live in the city and I don't trust my neighbors. I do have a secure 3 season porch I could do something with next winter. What temps do you try to keep them in the summer. How cold do you worry about in the winter. It can get well below -0 here in the winter sometimes as low as -20- -25 for days.

Hm, yeah... being a full-time house dog makes a big difference. I believe that the limit for my mom is around 15 below, at which point they come into the house and sleep in the basement (where it's still cool). Remember too that we have 6-8 dogs sleeping in a bank of double-stacked crates. In the winter, there's a piece of fiberboard insulation on top of and underneath the bank, and a big wool blanket over the whole thing. A second blanket gets folded down over the crate doors. The dogs all go to the backs of their crates, and the whole thing stays warm enough that their water bowls aren't even frozen in the morning. Your porch might do the trick, especially if you keep an eye on the temps for when it gets really-really cold.

How old is Diva? There are age factors in blowing coat, along with weather and hormones. Sometimes they just don't follow the rules.

 

[OntarioSheltie]

Layla was blessed with a perfect transition from puppy to mature -- show coat at 5 months! Beckon followed in his sister's footsteps. But Bits looked like a coyote. We just sucked it up. I have to tell you, though, that Bits had us really worried there for a while. I mean, here we have Little Miss Perfect (and we thought that was normal - HA!), and then we get Coyote Ugly. We thought we had a mutant.

Ginny also had a smooth transition, she was always this pretty, dainty little furball.

Sadie looked completely awkward and my husband commented more than once that looks wise we'd picked the wrong dog.

Here is Sadie at that awkward stage. The photos don't really capture quite how awkward she was. Her head was so puffy at one point, and the fur on her body was so short that her head liked like a big pom-pom. I don't think I included the REALLY awkward ones in this album.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Ontario...key=Gv1sRgCMvUzITllqDT2QE#5205499482404825122

Here's one of Sadie and 'Uncle Milo,' my parent's sheltie. He had a very short coat till he was almost 3 and look how beautiful he is now.

http://picasaweb.google.com/Ontario...key=Gv1sRgCMvUzITllqDT2QE#5205494547487401970

http://picasaweb.google.com/Ontario...key=Gv1sRgCMvUzITllqDT2QE#5205505357920086194

There's not much you can do when they're in this phase except to wait it out.

 

[RonandJan]

I will say this though, Ron and I only heat our house over night to 53 in the winter and 60 during the day. We heat with fuel oil(no other choice without a huge investment we don't have at this time) and are very concerned about our future oil resources.

So other than the fact that he has two warm bodies to sleep next too, his overnight accommodations are not any warmer than the kennels.

Now the opposite is true for summer. We use absolutely no air conditioning and only a fan if it is above 98 degrees.


Hey this BSoSD mud might have a hitch. MMM loves his swamp more than food and that is saying something. How can I market this!

 

[Justicemom]

How old is Diva? There are age factors in blowing coat, along with weather and hormones. Sometimes they just don't follow the rules.

Diva is 20 months. She blew the last of her puppy coat in Dec at 14 months. Went into season for the second time in Jan. Was getting a pretty nice coat going by end of April and then started blowing it all at the end of May. Several warm bathes and she is done and naked. Due to go in season again end of July- beginning of Aug. But I must say there is more undercoat left then last time. Ember did sort of the same thing but always after her season. She had a nice coat going when I spayed her at 2.5yrs and then it seemed like she didn't blow her coat until this year. Got the haystack of cotton you talk about.