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Coat questions?

FranklinFreckles

Well-known member
I'm sure this as probably been addressed here in the past but I have a question regarding cavalier coats!

I posted here a few months ago about how devastated I was that my little cav had to have his ears shaved to deal with a bout of avian fleas :( They have been slowly growing back, even though they haven't reached much length yet, but this process has brought up allot of questions to me about the rest of his coat.

We've been meeting more and more cavaliers lately and the majority of them have the standard soft, straight and long coats.

Now my little guy is not show quality, he has freckles and tick marks but he ALSO seems to have shorter hair than other cavaliers his age. His coat has a few waves and curls in it and kind of sticks out wildly instead of falling nicely at his side.

It DOES seem to be growing longer and sitting better the past month or so but I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this in their puppies and if it ever does become longer/less curly as they age.

I'm also wondering if there is any nice coat supplement that might help with growth and quality?

Thanks for your advice! Here are some pictures to show you what I'm talking about :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24034832@N08/2281054516/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24034832@N08/2485207426/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24034832@N08/2484390355/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24034832@N08/2278503927/ (curly ears!)
 
AWWWW, I am certainly no expert as I am a first time cavalier owner, but he sure is cute......his ears are precious. Judy and Dixie
 
Franklin is darling!! He is only 2 weeks older than Dottie, and she started blowing her coat at about 7 1/2 months, right around her first (and last) season. Her coat is also kind of funny now. It is much thinner than it was and uneven with some "sticky upey" areas. I understand that genetics play a part, and also that most Cavs are a work in progress over several years. I read somewhere that many don't get their full mature coats until they are 2 or 3 years old.

Part of the fun of owning them is that they are all a bit different, darling and unique in their own way. Many purebreds look like cookie cutter versions of each other with very little variation. This is in my humble opinion one of the many things that I love about the breed! :lotsaluv:
 
Mika is about 16 months old and her coat is a beautiful mess! It's getting longer and longer, but is still quite thin and fly away. As her ears have grown, the fur is much straighter - just a nice wave now, and getting less and less fly-away. I hope the rest of her coat responds in a similar manner as it grows and fills in.

Linda
 
Suki is 17months now and her coat is probably similar in length and quite fine but so are both her parents, although she doesn't have any waves, Ralphie is 6 1/2 months and looks like he will have a much thicker/ fuller coat his does have a wave and some areas seem to have a mind of their own :eek:
 
It is genetic, really (just as there's no supplement you can take to make your hair grow faster or heavier) -- some cavaliers have curlier and shorter coats; some have coats that grow later in life, some are shaggy even as puppies. My boys both have slow growing coats. They are going on 5 and their coats are the same length as Franklin's and they've never been trimmed. Plenty of show cavaliers have shorter coats as well. The reason many dogs *seem* to have very straight coats is they are groomed (eg blow dried) into straightness!! The telltale sign is what the coats look like when they get wet.

Be careful what you wish for -- many who have heavy coated cavaliers have to have their coats thinned to cope with the grooming, shedding and mats. :eek: Now that I have two girls with longer coats I sure appreciate the much easier to manage boys and their tighter, lighter coats. Lucy has long hair everywhere that reaches the ground on her belly even and she is always a bit grubby and mats very easily -- and detests grooming, so she's always a bit of a challenge.

BTW if you use the img tags (click the little mountain when making the post and paste in the url for the image) the picture will actually show in the htread, rather than just the link.
 
He looks really cute.My three boys each have different coats. They are all fed the same groomed everyday etc. I think it is genetic.
 
Our two boys have completely different coats. Even as a little puppy Ashton always had a long coat like the ones you are talking about and Rio has always (so far) had quite a thin short coat but....I have to admit that I prefer the shorter coat, Ashton's hair mats up quite easily and he also hates being groomed where Rio's hair is very easy to take care of and he loves being groomed!:rolleyes:

I wouldn't worry about the coat it looks perfectly normal to me:)
 
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