Does My Dog Have Fur or Hair?

Does it really matter if your dog has fur or hair? Yes, it does matter! In fact knowing the answer to this question can help a lot to determine the type of care your dog needs for their coat. There are actually 15 different dog coat types (we're going to save that discussion for another post) but we can divide dog coats into two basic categories to determine a lot about what it needs.

Fur Type

A dog with fur has a predetermined coat length. This dog's pelage will grow to its determined length and it wont get any longer. If this describes your dog's coat, then your dog has fur. Dogs with fur have certain needs that dogs with hair don't have. Dogs that have fur will have shedding that is obvious. You will find their fur on your furniture, on your clothing and on your floor. These dogs can have a really short coat like a Dalmatian or they can have long coat like a Great Pyrenees.

Molly a Labrador Retriever has a Fur Type Coat

Hair Type

A dog with a hair type coat has an undetermined hair length. This dog's hair will grow and grow whether you cut it or not. We obviously recommend getting the hair cut. When dogs with hair don't get a hair cut they get tangles and matting in their coat. These dogs can have silky hair like a Yorkshire terrier or they can have curly hair like a poodle.

Coco Chanel a Toy Poodle has a Hair Type Coat

So now that you know whether your dog has fur or hair lets discuss the do's and don'ts of each of these types of pelage. Dogs that have fur will need to be bathed regularly to protect them and you from a build up of dirt, dander, excessive oil and dead undercoat. They may also need an occasional deshedding treatment to help remove the dead undercoat from the follicle. Did you know the shorter the fur the more often they will shed? The reason is because their hair growth cycle is shorter. Once that hair growth cycle starts over there is some dead undercoat that needs to be removed if it doesn't fall off naturally during the shedding process.

Husky a Siberian Husky is pictured with a pile of her dead undercoat that was removed via a deshedding treatment

One thing we don't' want to do to the fur type dogs is to shave their coat. Shaving this type of coat damages the coat and most of the time that damage is permanent. Sometimes a pet owner will request for this type of coat to be shaved because the shedding hair has become more than they can manage. If the coat is shaved it can cause hairs to be trapped in the follicle making it even harder to clear the undercoat. It can also cause the fur to grow back in patchy. This happens because you now have more undercoat in the follicle than you do healthy guard hairs. Some breeds can even get shaving induced alopecia. Alopecia is a condition that causes baldness. Some specific breeds that are prone to shaving induced alopecia are Pomeranians, Huskies, Samoyeds, and Chow Chows. Another undesirable consequence to shaving fur type dogs is the fur can grow back a dull color and will usually be fuzzy instead of furry. If you have a fur type dog and they have been shedding excessively and/or they seem itchy without an obvious cause consult your trusted dog groomer and request your dog get a bath with a thorough deshedding treatment.

Dogs that have hair will also need to be bathed regularly. Keeping the coat clean will help with keeping the hair untangled. Keeping your dog's coat cut to a length that is manageable for your at home care routine is also important. If you are able to do baths at home and coat brushing at home you will be able to keep your hair type dog in a longer coat. If this is not something that fits in with your regular home routine you would want to keep your dog in a shorter haircut. When brushing your hair type dog at home make sure you are using some type of conditioning spray. This will help to minimize hair breakage and it will also help to loosen any tangles that have gotten started. Breaking the hair can lead to mats developing pretty quickly. Even fur type

dogs that get pelage breakage can get mats or experience hair loss.

Sheablast Conditioning Spray by Natures Specialties is what we recommend and offer in our retail section.

Something we don't want to do to hair type dogs is to shave them too short. We want to keep a nice layer of covering over their skin to protect them from sun rays, parasites like mosquitos and ants, and even over heating. Even during the hot Summer months in the south your dog needs a protective layer of covering. Think of their coat like an umbrella at the beach. The umbrella keeps you cool similarly to the way the coat keeps the dog cool in the hot sun. Another reason to not shave dogs too close to the skin is to keep their Langerhans cells undisturbed. These cells lay close to the skin and they are a valuable part of the immune system.

This umbrella is protecting Paul from the heat of the direct sun similarly to the way your dogs coat protects them from overheating.

Combination of Fur and Hair Type Coat

Now that we have covered the basics of whether your dog has fur or hair and some of the do's and don'ts for both types there remains an obvious question...what if my dog is a mixture of both? This is actually common, especially today, in a world where everyone loves a doodle!!! Dogs that are mixed breeds of a fur type breed and a hair type breed usually result in a combination coat type. These coat types can be especially high maintenance because all of the do's and don'ts of each type apply within one dog. A common example would be a Goldendoodle or a Newfypoo. Combination coats seem to get matted more easily. The reason is because although it seems that they don't shed they actually do. It's just that the shedding fur gets caught up in the hair rather than falling onto your couch or clothing. When drying these dogs in the salon with an hv dryer we can see the fur type pelage flying off the dog while the hair type pelage is lifting and separating under the dryer. Its especially important to monitor the length of pelage on combination type coats, as well as to keep them clean and dry (bathing at home is a topic we will discuss in another post). Combination type coats require more frequent professional grooming than both of the other types we've discussed here.

Daisy a Goldendoodle has a Combination Type Coat

This post was intended to help clear up some confusion about which dogs need which type of coat care. This is not a comprehensive guide to all of the various coat types nor is it a complete guide to coat care. This can be used as a quick check point to make sure you are asking for the right type of service from your groomer and that you are providing the right type of at home care for your dog. Please note, at Charming Pets LLC if you ask us to provide a service for your dog that is not recommended for your dog's coat type we are going to help you and your dog by explaining what is recommended for them. More than once per week we encounter a new client that tells us their dog received a service from another grooming salon that we are now telling them is not recommended. We can't speak for why this is happening, but what we can do is to try and help you understand the theory and the science behind the recommendations we are making based on our professional training and continued learning journey. We hope you found this post helpful and we encourage any questions you may have. If we don't know the answer we are going to seek it out.