Coat of Ceskoslovensky Vlcak

[Wolfsirius]

I have noticed, that there is lot of differences between coats in pictures at gallery. Example many Italian dog have very good coat (lot of)
What you Italian breeders do to your dogs to get that kind of coat?
I try to find answer on pedigrees, but is not there.
I also noticed that standard give a very much "free" for coat,

"Straight, close. Winter and summer coat differ greatly. In winter an immense undercoat together with the topcoat, forms a thick coat all over the body. It is necessary for the hair to cover the belly, the inside of the upper thigh, the scrotum, the inner part of the ears and the area between the toes. Well coated neck."

What kind of differ is between winter and summer coats in Italian dogs?

-Suski

[z Peronówki]

What you Italian breeders do to your dogs to get that kind of coat?

I hope we will get an answer from Italian people but I heard some breeders there have kennels with air conditioning. And also if you keep dogs in kennels (expecially if you live in mountains) the dogs will heve much better coat then these living at home.

Anyway - you have to see Slovakian (or some Czech) dogs in winter. They have beautiful hair. The difference to Italian breeders is: Slovakian/Czech dogs are our of hair in summer and Italian dogs have the same hair during the whole year... (of course not all - 'normal' Italian dogs have 'normal' hair...

I try to find answer on pedigrees, but is not there.

No, there is no answer - it must be bacause of the conditions and because of the additions to food or something like this. There was nice example: some people were delighted with the hair of some italian dogs. They decided to buy an adult female with very beautiful hair. I saw this female after her arrive to CZ - she had very thick coat.....but after some months she loosed everything and never came back to the same condition. In CZ she was not different from other dogs living there...

I also noticed that standard give a very much "free" for coat,

The standard is alway like this. But there are internal rules for everything which are much more exact....

=====================

Straight,

We can sometimes see dogs with curly hairs - it is a fault. Sometimes even disqualification fault.

close.

Sometimes breeders want to reach long coat. But instead of "wolfish" hair they get long hair over whole body. Such coat doesn't look good and also have tendency to "open" on the back. It is also a fault.

Winter and summer coat differ greatly.

It is very important. It is a huge fault if a Wolfdog has winter hair during the hot summer. I really saw a Italian dog which get the description "untypical hair condition" because of it.
Of course not all judges know the standard and it is sometimes funny - with one and the same dog you can get on two dog shows in summer two different descriptions. If the judge is expert you will get something like "hair typical for the season" (possitive) and if the judge have no idea about this breed you will get "hair sheding" (negative).
There is really a huge problems with such judges because they think we breed collies where only the hair is important (even if it is untypical for the season)...

In winter an immense undercoat together with the topcoat, forms a thick coat all over the body..

Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs have different type of hair over all body. It is a fault if the hair have the same lenght.... (you can see something like this by Huskies and also some CzWs - also these from Italy). From the first view you must see the differences by a dog - if not it doesn't have good hair even if the coat is nice....

The coat should be about 6 cm thick on the sides... CzW have mane (longer hair on the neck) like wolves and there is also longer hair on the withers and the back - it should be to 13 cm long. The longest hair are in the middle of the back - on the backbone - it should be about 15 cm. The numbers I wrote are numbers for an adult male dog - females have shorter hair and also not so rich...

It is necessary for the hair to cover the belly, the inside of the upper thigh, the scrotum, the inner part of the ears and the area between the toes.

It is also important because commont fault are ears 'bald' inside - such dogs look more like GSDs. Also typical for CzW are hairs on the belly - none of the judges will check it but breeders much pay attention to it so also this part of body is good coated and protected from the cold...

[fenris]

The quality of the wintercoat is not only related to the cold or the diet, but very much by light. Research on arctic mammals clearly shows that light (through hormonal processes) is important for the amount of fur on the animal. Because of this fact some sled-dog owners have lamps with light on in the wintermonths to decrease the amount of fur (in their kennels). They do it bacause too much coat can heat the dogs too much during the dog-races.
On females the coat-quality varies according to oestrus-cycles (hormonal changes) too.

The reason why italians have nicer coats are not explained by this. But a beautiful or long coat isnt necessarily a coat of good quality!!. The quality of a coat is more than dense and long. It is the quality of the hairs itself. Rough weather, cold and wet, will indicate the quality. Also look for how long time it takes to dry off after a swim. And also how long time it takes for dirt to fall off after becoming muddy or dirty. In northern regions it is also important that ice and snow do not collect or cluster in the coat between the pads which will make the dog sore-footed on a longer trip.

Speaking of coats. I have a question to the description on each dog on this web-sites lists. Why is there a rubric on Coat . Every dog is classified as shor-coated even if the leangth varies a lot?

fenris

[z Peronówki]

The quality of a coat is more than dense and long. It is the quality of the hairs itself.

That's right. It is another important thing when we talk about coat. I wrote about lengt but I forgot to write about quality. Wolfdogs should have "goat's coat" - I don't know how it is called in English but the topcoat must be tough and rough (like goats or terriers). Only such hair dry out fast, protect the dog and is also easy to clean (it cleans without human help).
I saw wolfdogs which have soft coat - also many longhairded dogs have incorrect coat. It is easy to control - one touch is enough. It is a pitty any few judges (and breeders) pay attention to it....

Why is there a rubric on Coat . Every dog is classified as shor-coated even if the leangth varies a lot?

It is the tradition - every dog is short-haired even if there are huge differences. But also every dog is wolfsgrey even if there is huge difference between CzWs - some are grey-white other almost brown... It is written so in the pedigree.
Sure there is possiblity to make some differences. But how to make it? We have to measure the long of hair. And write there cm...?

We had the same problem with colour - we are working to change this option in our database (it will be finished soon) but still it will be pretty hard to say more about the colour because the dog change it during the year and it also depends of the food and on age. So we can only establish the basic variations. But it is imposible to establish something more (f.e. the shade)...

[fenris]

A "goats coat" is a very good description. I know exactly what you indicate. The guard-hairs are stiff and hard like a "goats coat". I`ve seen it in indigenous dogs from Greenland, some working huskies, some Saarloos and in wolves. This outer layer of stiff guard-hairs repel humidity and keeps the under-wool dry. I regard this an important functional quality and I think many dog-owners disregard this. The coat isnt only there for beauty, but is purposeful - and should be kept intact to the convenience of our dogs. This quality of the coat will be quickly lost if not breeders are aware of it when selecting (as seen in other dog-breeds).

Health and functional qualities first, beauty second....

fenris

[Wolfsirius]

i guess, you mean "harsh" coat?
And about length, example standard of Spinoni is that hair should be from 4 to 6 cm. So it can be there. But otherwise "wolfish" is good, even it will give lot of "free" what kind is right, cause you really can see wolves with very different coats....

Suski

[z Peronówki]

Originally Posted by Wolfsirius

i guess, you mean "harsh" coat?

Yes.

Originally Posted by Wolfsirius

But otherwise "wolfish" is good, even it will give lot of "free" what kind is right, cause you really can see wolves with very different coats....

That's right. But the standard help us giving advice the CzW should look like "Carpathian Wolf" and these wolves (European Wolves) are very similar and even. There are very nice publication writen by Okarma about EW - there is really good description how "typical" wolf should look like. And this description looks really like our breed standard but is more exact... And more interesting....