Hair Change in Cavs ...

[Tricolor Toby]

Hello from a newbie! Recently our family got a TriColor Cocker/Cavalier puppy. We got him 1 month ago when he was 3 months old. Already we are noticing quite a change in his haircoat, he is getting so cute and feathery around his legs, he looks like a baby Clydesdale! We knew the hair would change, the part that I didn't expect is the actual change in his coloring. The white stripe on his face is changing and he is developing small spots on his white legs. How long will this go on? At what age is the 'adult' coloration complete? Thanks for shedding some light on this!

[Karlin]

Hi and welcome .

It is hard to know what kind of coat you will get on a mix as there's no certainty -- they are all unique. His coat will likely keep changing in small ways til he is around a year old and often longer... -- white tends to get crowded out by colouring and black tends to spread the most of all colours, so a narrow blaze on the head will often completely disappear, for example. Ticking, or the freckles on legs, often starts to come in starting now on some dogs. This would be a lot more likely because you have a half-cocker cross -- they have ticking as a feature in some colours in the breed. Cavaliers often get some ticking too -- it is generally not desireable in a show dog in the breed but still is only a cosmetic element and thus not a major deal.

As you have a cross you could end up with any kind of coat -- hard to know which side will predominate. Their coats often 'blow' or completely shed when they get a bit older, but before they reach adulthood... which is normal. But he won;t have a full adult coat til well over age one and it will keep coming in and getting longer and heavier. With the cocker influence you may well be looking at needing regular grooming to shave off some of the coat -- cockers have much much heavier coats than cavaliers. As with any crossbreed, you could have a dog that looks like a cocker, or a cavalier, or a bit of both.

There's a picture of cocker colour varieties (and an example of what happens if you don't groom this breed for more than 6 months! ) HERE.