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ON THE COAT OF THE CARDIGAN CORGI by
Charlie MacInnes, Finnshavn Cardigans, Canada The Cardigan Corgi has two coats,
guard hairs and undercoat, both of which come in several lengths and
qualities. All the standards call for a
coat suitable for working cattle in all kinds of weather.
That requires a coat with a hard outer shell, one that does not
pick up twigs and straws, sheds mud, and hopefully sheds most burrs too.
That outer shell should lie flat, to be more weather-proof.
The individual hairs are hard and shiny, and coarse enough that
if you rub them back and forth between thumb and forefinger, a bit less
than half an inch (1 cm) from the tips, you should actually be able to
feel the individual hairs jump over each other.
If the coat feels soft and silky when thus handled, it is too
fine. Under the guard hairs, there is
a soft dense layer of undercoat that keeps the dog warm. In actual fact, it is the undercoat which provides most of
the waterproofing. A dog
with natural oil in the undercoat can swim for an hour, and the
undercoat will stay mostly dry. Bathe
the dog and try again, the undercoat will be soaked and soggy in less
than a minute. One breeder/exhibitor/judge
of Swedish Vallhunds recommended not bathing a dog for 30 days before a
show, lest the coat become too soft.
Vallhunds have coats similar to, but perhaps a little less coarse
than a Cardigans. A month
may be extreme, but the basic idea is correct.
It may be that the softer feel of the glamour coats is
exacerbated by the need to bathe them frequently. You will find below descriptions
of different coat lengths, but over and above that, the coat is not of
uniform length all over the dog. On
a Cardigan with a first class coat, the longest hairs are on the tail,
followed closely by the “pants” on the backs of the hind legs.
The coat over the neck and withers (the ruff) is generally longer
than on the rest of the body and this differential is greater in the
longer coats. The guard
hairs along the middle of the back are longer than those along the rib
cage, and the hair on the outer sides of the hind legs is shorter than
over the rib cage. Texture of the coat is important.
Wiry coats are often curly, and both features are undesirable.
Coats may have varying amounts of wave, from curly or square
“marcel” waves to a shingled effect. Where patches of coat on the
lower back overlap, they give the appearance of a cowlick.
The wire coats will, a slight bit more than smooth coats, catch
and hold twigs, straw, and burrs, and so are declared undesirable.
The shingle effect is acceptable as long as it does not reduce
waterproofing. None of the coats comes
automatically as a complete package deal.
That is to say, you might encounter a dog with close medium body
coat, but very long or rich pants and flagging on the tail.
I have seen one with an almost short body coat, but with pants
and tail flag 20 cm long! It might help if you mentally cut out a
cardboard silhouette of a naked Cardigan, and imagine paper cutouts,
with folding tabs, that you can put on the dog, like clothes on a paper
doll. Generally speaking,
the furnishings may sometimes be longer than would normally be expected
from the rest of the package. The quality of the coat of one
Cardigan on a particular day in a defined place is the result of
interaction between genetics, nutrition, climate, time, and other
environmental factors, compounded by countermeasures that owners have
taken. The problems in
sorting out exactly what is wrong with one dog are hard to solve,
because two or more of the above factors can have the same effect, but
corrective measures against one of these may not have the same effects
on the result of the second. 1.
The coat cycle. Cardigans
normally shed twice a year, roughly in the spring and late fall.
However, the timing of the sheds is not the same every year, and
spring comes earlier and fall later in low latitudes than high.
Moreover, the shedding of bitches coats is affected by their heat
cycle. A majority of
bitches shed, and grow a new coat just in time to come into season [rather
like human females!]. A dry
and brittle coat may be a signal of an approaching shed, and little can
correct this, except rinses and conditioners in the short term. 2.
The climate of a Cardigan’s home affects the thickness and
quality of the coat. Dogs
from hot, dry climates have sparser undercoat than the same dog would
grow under less severe conditions. A group-placing young Cardigan from
Bakersfield Califonia (very hot, dry and dusty) was sent to me (in
southern Ontario) one fall, to be bred, but part of the deal was to
finish his Canadian championship. He
still needed two points when the last shows of the year were done, so
owner and breeder agreed that I should keep him over the winter.
He lived mostly in a kennel with indoor-outdoor runs.
Indoors was heated, but cooler than the house. Flame enjoyed the snow, and spent most of the day outdoors.
One day he gave me a moment of panic:
there were big damp snowflakes falling, and there in Flame’s
run was a dog stretched out, lying on his side, wearing almost two
inches of snow blanket. I
ran out calling, and his head popped up „Wha?
I was having a nice nap!“
When he went home in May, I got an excited call from his breeder,
who picked him up, and then from his owner.
They had never seen a coat so rich on their dog!
Sparseness of coat in the heat is hard to avoid.
Shine and flexibility can be helped by diet, but that will not
result in a richer coat. 3.
Low humidity, be it desert heat or forced air heating with no
humidifier, can result in dry, sparse, and shedding coat. 4.
High humidity combined with hot weather may not harm the coat
directly, but it does make the dog more prone to “hot spots”,
surface infections of the skin which result in hair loss and ugly bare
patches. 5.
Soil and water chemistry have effects on coats.
Some soils result in dryer, harsher-feeling coats, especially
sandier soils that blow. (Remember, a Cardigan is close to the ground,
more in the blowing dust than an upright human.)
Some clay soils result in mud in the coat, which, when drying,
extracts some of the hair’s natural oils before it falls off, so the
dogs tend to have dry and brittle coats all year.
Some natural waters have similar effects, generally those with
high mineral or organic content. Sea
water is said to be beneficial, in that dogs that run on the beach, in
and out of the water, every day, are said to grow good coats. 6.
A Cardigan whose coat sheds continuously probably has a diet
problem. In North America,
most dry [kibble] rations lack some oils and micronutrients, and
supplements will both stop shedding, and result in a more flexible and
glossy coat. There are
proprietary oil additives, but simpler and cheaper oil may suffice.
In terms of desirability [and, coincidentally, price], the order
is wheat germ oil, fish oil, olive oil, corn oil, safflower oil or
canola oil. 5 ml per day on the food will improve the coat.
For micronutrients, there are several good food supplements.
One of the more economical, for those who have many dogs, is the
kelp or seaweed meal sold for horses.
Note that, if the coat is constantly shedding, oil and
micronutrients should stop that condition, but results will take several
weeks to develop. 7.
A well-nourished Cardigan whose coat is in good condition should
not require frequent bathing. It
is important not to remove the natural oils.
When bathing for show, remember to use conditioner that helps
replace the natural oils. Rather
than bathing before every show, on principle, one should feel and sniff
the coat. If it feels and
smells clean, let it be. The genetic variations of the Cardigan coat are not well understood. There is more to consider than just “normal” and “fluff”. There is more than one normal coat length; the glamour coat is more or less correct in texture, but a little long. While that may be an intermediate condition between normal and fluff, the frequency of occurrence of glamours and true fluffies does not conform to the expected if there is only a single gene controlling coat length. There is a verified record of a dog who seemed to have normal guard hairs, but whose undercoat was longer than the guards and so was trimmed. From the aspect of breeding and selection, this coat would be undesirable. The correct Cardigan coat should provide protection and therefore must be functional, easy-care and weatherproof.
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