Soft Coat

[jetersmom]

I have a foster pup about seven months whose coat is very soft. On her head it gets sort of matted and appears a little messy almost oily. She also gets matted easily on her legs. Is it possible this is her puppy coat and needs to all be pulled or could she just have an unusually soft coat. I'd like to harden the coat up a bit but maybe its just her genetics?

[bradl]

Both are possible! A soft coat can be genetic and sometimes they just never get harsh. Other coats start out soft and can indeed be worked so that, in time, they are quite nice. We placed a puppy with a soft coat with an experienced breeder who had the time and the skills to keep working it, and darned if that coat didn't turn out to be enviable. Some coats take two or three (or four) full iterations to get nice and harsh. Others just never will. I suspect Stella's is a genetically soft coat. She has other very positive attributes, so we just don't show her and simply enjoy her for the special dog she is.

If no one ever pulled her puppy coat, it most certainly needs to come out before you can have much sense of what you've got to work with. Long way of saying, you have nothing to lose by pulling coat and you might find a nice coat coming in one day!

[jetersmom]

Thanks Brad. That's just the information I needed!