# Two Types of Fur?



## KatieNeptune (Apr 18, 2012)

Is this pretty straight forward in terms of coat style? My dog appears to have a saddle of longer/more coarse fur along the ridge of his back, then as it goes down it gets baby soft, then coarse again. I've tried to capture it in a picture - you can see that the softer part is definitely shinier than the coarse part!

Just generally curious. Don't have other Sheps to compare her to 

Try this to get the photo: https://twitter.com/KatieNeptune/status/431153619132760064/photo/1


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## Sp00ks (Nov 8, 2013)

Shepherds have two coats. A top coat and an undercoat. Top coat should be the courser fur. The undercoat is rather downy. 

I'll let someone else reply with a better explanation. I will likely muck it up  

Your dog has a gorgeous coat.


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## KatieNeptune (Apr 18, 2012)

Cool! Thanks for the reply. For some reason I thought that "top coat" and "undercoat" meant the undercoat was a layer of fur under the top fur.... both on top of the same area of skin (if that makes sense) instead of the incredibly obvious "the top coat is on the top of the animal and undercoat is on its sides and belly" etc. Thanks re her good looks, she's a keeper.


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## Blanketback (Apr 27, 2012)

You're right, they're both on the same area  
My pup's coat went through some crazy phases before his adult coat settled in. At one point he had a really wavy wedge of long hair running all down his spine, almost like a mohawk, lol.


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## KatieNeptune (Apr 18, 2012)

Blanketback said:


> You're right, they're both on the same area
> My pup's coat went through some crazy phases before his adult coat settled in. At one point he had a really wavy wedge of long hair running all down his spine, almost like a mohawk, lol.


Yes! That's what she looks like now, kind of! She just turned 2 years old. Not sure if she's "finished" yet...


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## SuperG (May 11, 2013)

Blanketback said:


> You're right, they're both on the same area
> My pup's coat went through some crazy phases before his adult coat settled in. At one point he had a really wavy wedge of long hair running all down his spine, almost like a mohawk, lol.


My bitch had the same as a young pup...the mohawk wave.

SuperG


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## Traveler's Mom (Sep 24, 2012)

Since no one had much else to say, I'll -try to add to the discussion.

My WGSL GSD had fuzzy soft fur as a pup all over. As he aged the black saddle on his back became a little longer and thicker- more coarse. The outer coat fur everywhere else also became longer. Not nearly as coarse as his saddle but definitely more coarse than the undercoat which always remained shorter in length but soft and downey.

When I say "coarse", I mean a thicker hair shaft, not prickly or anything.

When I brush him, it's very rare for any outercoat hairs to be in the brush. It's all about the undercoat.

Yeah, I probably mucked this up as well ;-)

Lynn & von Traveler


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## Scout's Mama (Oct 30, 2013)

The top coat looks like bristles of a paint brush, undercoat hairs are the soft, almost invisible hairs that stick to all your clothes! 

Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## OrangeJillius (May 29, 2013)

My girl is 9 months old and her coat looks like this currently as well. My husband calls it her toupée . This pic is probably a couple of months old, but it has not really changed. Her sides are very soft and has a fluffy tan underlayer, the top of her back has longer, coarse hair (but also the tan underlayer).








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## volcano (Jan 14, 2013)

Some are wire or guard hairs, mine has more along the back and belly like yours.


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## Wolfenstein (Feb 26, 2009)

It's just the adult coat coming in. Some dogs get it right away, some dogs it takes years for it to fully cycle over. The thing with double coated dogs is that since the guard hairs shed insanely less than the undercoat, they grow SUPER slow by comparison. So the sides probably have shorter puppy guard hair still, but more adult-like undercoat, making it much softer!


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## KatieNeptune (Apr 18, 2012)

Thank you for all the replies! Nice to know my dog is "normal" - I freaking love her soft/baby fur on the sides but I'll be curious when/if she fills out all the way. She definitely looks like she is wearing a toupee for sure!


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