Dog Hair Types
Dog hair 101
MetPet.com Staff Writer
Dogs can have three types of hair:
Whiskers (tactile or vibrassae) : on the face,
protruding from the muzzle and over the eyes
Fine (or secondary) hair: makes up the undercoat
Guard (or primary) hair: makes up the outercoat
The number, type and length of the Fine and Guard hairs
make up the distinctive coat types of different breeds. For example:
Poodles have predominantly fine hairs that are
particularly long and need to be clipped regularly
since they do not shed.
Dobermans have predominantly guard hairs that are rather coarse and short.
Boxers have predominantly fine hairs that are soft and short.
Yorkshire Terriers have only guard hairs that are soft and long.
Rough Collies (like Lassie) have a generous undercoat of fine hairs as well as
long guard hairs.
All dogs shed some hair. In a natural environment,
dogs shed hair every six months. Dogs that live inside, however, tend to shed year
around although some seasonality may still occur. Although long haired dogs may
appear to shed more, the actual number of hairs shed are approximately the same as short
haired dogs.
Dogs that are clipped or shaved grow their coats back in
3-4 months for a medium-length coat and 12 months or more for very long coats. Dogs
that do not shed need to have their coats clipped every 6-8 weeks. Coats tend to
grow faster in the summer than in the winter.
If your dog has a particularly beautiful and full coat,
you might consider learning how to spin it into yarn. Dog fur has a reputation for
being extremely warm although cloth made from it may emit the familiar "wet dog"
odor when wet.
Related Information:
Dog Hair for the Birds
Bathing the Dog
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