Shedding or casting a coat?

[sanford]

The “Random Quote” on today’s Forum describes cairns that “cast their coats.” Is that the same as shedding? I thought the breed is considered to basically be non-shedding. The terms “casting” and “shedding” seem to be interchangeable. Confused.

[bradl]

More than shedding as we normally think of it I believe here the author is possibly referring to the process of the coat dying at the follicle end. Despite this, the length of the hair continues to grow. If you pluck one of these dead hairs, the tips are colorful and vibrant (the "live" portion) while the end closest to the follicle is clear, thin, lifeless, and often slightly crinkly. As the dead hair continues to grow in length (holy contradiction Batman) the proportion of dead vs live hair tilts toward mostly dead and the coat as a whole begins to look wild, washed out, and "blown." Such a coat is easily stripped and indeed will come out naturally if given the slightest tug (including from briar and bramble). These dead hairs are why Cairns tend to leave more clumps of "dust kitty" type  hair than the universal layer of thin undercoat that short-haired breeds shed, or the fluff that for example Northern breeds blow. It is true that left alone, different Cairns will be able to pull off an untended coat for differing periods of time.

Show folk (or those with a desire to stay on top of grooming) will "roll" the coat plucking a proportion of the dead coat on a regular basis so that the coat never blows as an entirety requiring the dog be stripped down to its underwear to start the whole process over from the beginning.

It's also possible the author is referring to the occasional shedding of undercoat, which can also happen seasonally or after whelping. Either way, I would say that Cairns are more accurately described as minimally shedding rather than non-shedding.  (I think of them similarly in regards to allergies — less allergenic than most, but no dog that I know of is 100% guaranteed non-allergenic.

 

[Hillscreek]

Digging back to the long ago years when I grew up in England and spoke English I seem to remember that among the several meanings of the word 'cast' is to throw off as in zoological terms e.g. the snake casts its coat. To my mind shedding and casting are the same for a dog's coat. Meaning the natural falling off of dead coat especially in Spring and Fall. Wondering if 'cast' maybe an older term not used today. Benyon and Fisher's book was published about 1960 maybe using terminology from years before. As to cairns as Brad mentioned how often you see coat coming off can depend on kind of coat maintenance of coat, kind of coat etc. Cairns don't shed much but they do shed.