Coat

4303 Views 10 Replies 5 Participants Last post by Liesje, Jan 5, 2008

Liesje

Discussion Starter · Jan 3, 2008

I need to learn about GSD coat.

I know they have the undercoat and guard hairs on top, right? I think my dog has a pretty short, tight coat. She's not as "fluffy" as a lot of the west German show dogs seem to look. When I adopted her in July I would brush her once a day, mainly because we were on vacation and she was swimming or getting dirty a lot. When I brushed her then, hair would always come out. I could even pull chunks out with my hands. Each day I could get several brush fulls of hair. I thought I read that they blow a coat twice a year, so maybe she was blowing a coat at that time?

Now....she hardly has any hair. I guess I figured the coat would come back b/c it's winter, but I can brush and brush and brush and barely get a brush full. The top hair that is long and black looks REALLY nice. I have been giving her raw eggs and some fish with her meals so she doesn't get that "moldy" sable look.

Is it weird that she doesn't seem to have all the undercoat like she did in the summer? I'm certainly not complaining, she hardly sheds. My other dog, Coke, he has a lot of coat right now and when I brush him I get piles of it (he is a mutt).

I did give Kenya a bath two weeks ago, but I didn't notice a lot of hair coming out. I took her to a pet store that has professional tubs and dryers b/c we were going to my in-laws and someone was concerned about germs and dirty dogs around her baby.

This is a recent pic from last week, I don't know if it indicates anything, but this is what her fur looks like right now:

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MaggieRoseLee

· #2 · Jan 3, 2008

Looks like she has a nice short stock coat! I love that my Bretta has the same. Never gets tangled or get's stickers caught up in it. And I only normally comb thru her fur once a week (or less) if she's not in a shedding period.

Think this nice tight coat is fairly common the the 'working' lines. Here's a beauty V Falco vom Güldenen Winkel from the BSP results for year 2005 (click here)

Here's a bunch of sites talking about the different colors and coat types:

http://www.kerstoneshepherds.net/colors/colors.htm

http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/2788/colors.htm

http://www.4gsd.net/colours.html

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Liesje

Discussion Starter · #3 · Jan 3, 2008

Yes, I love her coat. Pretty low maintenance, yet still very warm. She often gets too hot indoors after napping and I have to let her go out so she can lie down in the snow and chew something.

Will she not get the thick undercoat this winter if it didn't come already? Is there timing for that, or do they just shed whenever they shed?

She does look a lot like that dog, especially the red behind the ears and the lankiness, but her saddle is more sleek and darker black.

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MaggieRoseLee

· #4 · Jan 3, 2008

For whatever reason, unless we end up with some genetic freak of nature, however thick these GSD coats are is thick enough for the coldest part of the winter. I have 2 GSD's, one with a thicker and more plush coat, one with the shorter stock coat it appears your dog has. NEITHER does better or worse in the winter (or summer). However nature arranges the outer guard hairs and the amount of undercoat just seems to work out fine.

And the stock coat is way easier to take care of so count your blessings!

Your dogs color (not coat type, but color) is a wonderful black/tan with a saddle. The dog I posted above has the sable coloring. So even though their coat TYPE may be the same (short stock coat) they are completely different colors. Did you have a chance to see the sites I posted for you in the previous post? It's just crazy how different our GSD's can look in color and coat.

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Liesje

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jan 3, 2008

I don't think Kenya is black and tan, she's sable, albeit lighter sable (red sable, not black sable?), but has black ticking on her fur. Her parents are sables (and I think all the dogs in her pedigree, save for a few blankets/bi-colors are sables). She tends to look more black and tan when I use the flash, as in that picture.

Most recent no-flash pic

Some other pics where you can sorta see the black ticking

Yep, I looked at those sites (I've seen them before). I'm pretty familiar with color and pattern, just not the actual coat itself, like how the fur changes and when it will change.

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DancingCavy

· #6 · Jan 3, 2008

Kenya's a saddle-marked sable. Whereas the hunk of a dog Jenn posted is not.

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MaggieRoseLee

· #7 · Jan 3, 2008

Ok, I will admit you have a saddle marked sable, but the first shot doesn't seem nearly as 'sable' and he looks like a black and tan there (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

)

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onyx'girl

· #8 · Jan 4, 2008

How old is Kenya? I posted a thread on this subject about a month ago as Onyx wasn't getting a thick "Winter" coat as I thought she would and some opinions were that they don't get a thicker coat til after they turn two. Onyx' coat has gotten a bit thicker in the last month, though, but not what I would expect for her winter fur...

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Liesje

Discussion Starter · #9 · Jan 4, 2008

She is four years old.

Is it true that outdoor dogs will naturally develop a thicker coat, probably sooner when it gets cold? We of course go outdoors, but she's not at all an outdoor dog (no tie-outs or outdoor runs, only outside when supervised).

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LisaT

· #10 · Jan 4, 2008

Before we treated our GSD for thyroid deficiency, his coat wasn't very thick. The coat was gorgeous, just not thick. However, he did shed.

If you ever do consider checking the thyroid, be sure to have a panel run that includes the TgAA.

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Liesje

Discussion Starter · #11 · Jan 5, 2008

Here is a picture from today. It's a bit noisy/blurred, but you can see her coat and color pattern:

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