Cross Breeds

I had a litter of german shepherd puppies 4 out of 10 had long hair and both parents are plush why is this?

The pups are now 9 months old and stayed coated. I did extensive reserch into their pedigree (which is excellent) before we bred them after the pups were born I re looked it over and could not find any long coated in it.

Public Comments

  1. With my experience i have seen this many times, Most cases they will all lose the fluff at about 4 - 6 months of age they will lose the puppy fur and become plush. Most of the time you will see this is the brownish colors not in the black and tan but it could vary, some may stay long haired but i doubt it!!
  2. If you're breeding your dog, you should have at least a basic understanding of genetics. This would have been something to research before you decided to breed these two particular dogs.
  3. Each dog carries two 'genes' for coat type, getting one from each parent. In order for a dog to be long coated, it must carry two "L" or long coat genes. So, LL= long coat. Each of these parents, being plush, must've carried one L gene & one short "S" gene, or SL (short+long). So four of the pups got an L gene from each parent (LL), while the others got either an S+L (SL) combination, or an S+S (SS) combination, and therfore are either just carriers of the long gene, or free of it altogether. (Note I've used the S/short gene here for simplicity. Typically 'N'/normal is used instead) ADD: For all the other 'experts' giving you a hard time here, the 'L' gene is common in the breed, and being a carrier (recessive) does not in any way disqualify a dog from showing or breeding. In fact the SV in Germany will allow long coats to be bred again in 2010. Put that in your pipes and smoke it. ;-) ADD: To King Lofty; I'm fully involved with, and have complete understanding of, what's taking place in my breed. What you call muddled, I call simplified. Not everyone wants to read a novel, be corrected for grammar or spammed with e-groups.
  4. Both parents most likely carry the long hair gene. You didn't mention the age of your puppies. Keep in mind that the hair coat can change as the puppies grow older.
  5. long coat is a ressesive -which means it can travel "undercover" for many generations with no visible sign..... Some top GSD studs from a few generations back are known carriers
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