Thin face fur

[Karan]

Ive da my 3 y.o. Female rescue for a year now. I've just completely stripped her black/brindle coat for the second time. She has a nice dense rough outer coat everywhere but on and around her face. She's my 4th Cairn; the others had lovely, full facial fur. When I first got her, I took her face down to the "puppy" face when I stripped her. It grew back in with a terrible "football" shape because her neck fur is so thick. The fur on her face did not get any longer than

1 - 2 ". After a year, her facial fur still looks like a puppy's.

My ?: are some Cairns like this? Do some have the thin facial fur as a "fault" in the standard? (I don't know anything about her pedigree or background because she was a runaway rescue.

Thanks!

[Lynn in TN]

I have only had one cairn, but her face fur doesn't look as full as others on the forum.

[Idaho Cairns]

My dogs' "face hair" is not as thick as their body hair--there doesn't seem to be as much undercoat in the facial area as elsewhere. I think that is pretty standard for a lot of Cairns--it is one reason I leave their hair long. I know that a closely trimmed face requires quite a bit of shaping to get "right" and frankly, my girls' hair won't stick out like bristles naturally, I suppose I could use a goop of some kind to get it to stand up but I have no reason to try that. The avatar of your dog looks pretty good to me.

[wbjagich]

I was told by my groomer it's thinner when they are younger. Of course as they age, their coats change, which I assume is resembled in their face as well.

[Hillscreek]

Here's Angus at almost 14 months

His facial and head hair sticks out all around by itself.

Some have told me this may be because he is a red brindle and they sometimes have coarse hair even on the heads. I have stripped his body but never stripped his head. Just taken out hairs as they grew older and longer.

Angus's hair all over is quite thick but shorter than many cairns seem to have. Not more than a bit over two inches anywhere.On his head not that much.

There seems to be quite a variety in the thickness and length of Cairn's hair.

Sorry for posting twice by mistake. Not sure how/if I can delete one of them

[Dempsy's Mom]

Aw, Angus is a beautiful young lad. Love his color. Demps has very thin hair on his head - I think it's sweet looking.

[hheldorfer]

Count Buffy as one of the Cairns with thin face hair. I don't mind, though, and neither does she.

[Idaho Cairns]

Here is Bonnie with heavy and full facial hair, untrimmed, and as you can see, the hair flows from the center downward. I suppose if I trimmed it back to less than an inch it might stick out like Angus (really a sharp looking guy by the way) but then I would have to shape it to get that rounded look and when I have tried that I never seem to get the right perspective. Also, I would have to trim up her neck and body to match the shorter facial hair. Even as heavy as Bonnie's hair is on her head, it does not have the amount of undercoat that her neck, chest, and body has--it is less dense even tho it doesn't look like it is--especially above the eyes and on the forehead.

[hheldorfer]

Wow. Great photo of Bonnie - very sharp and I love the expression on her face.

[Dempsy's Mom]

Bonnie is cute as a bugs ear.

[Hillscreek]

Angus has fallen in love with Bonnie.She sure has the right name! Lovely pic.He is tinkering with his red wheels he got for his birthday. Looking at the map to find out how far Idaho is from Pennsylvania (far Angus far alas!)

It is lucky for me that Angus's hair is short and I don't have to fiddle with it to make it stick out. He has virtually no undercoat on his head. His body has very thick velevety undercoat.

[Nancyj]

Bonnie is a heart stealer. There's cute and then there's CUTE!! Thanks for sharing her with us.

I think ALL Cairns are cute, but Bonnie's eyes and her mouth remind me of Lindy whose running around on

Rainbow Bridge.