# Does Puppy Hair Come Out?



## Luciledodd (Sep 5, 2009)

This Blowing Coat thing has me stumped. Since I had schnauzers I knew that the puppy coat was never coming back. My first one had her plucked--the next one was trimmed. I really couldn't tell the difference in the adult dog and the second one really appreciated the difference. But if the Havanese puppy coat sheds, then why not trim it off and not worry about the matting thing? Rosie has all of this new hair, really thick and curly growing in about two inches long now and it is matting with the whispy long puppy hair she came with. I am tempted to cut off the whispy hair. What do you advise? Her legs are long and thick and don't have the curly hair coming in and not matting. I would not bother them. Please advise.


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## nanatotwo (Dec 21, 2008)

I'm interested in hearing the answer to this one too. I'm confused about what happens to the puppy coat as the adult coat comes in.


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## Luciledodd (Sep 5, 2009)

Surely there is someone out there that can answer this question for us.


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## good buddy (Feb 20, 2007)

I am not the expert you're looking for but will chime in. Hav's will blow coat or mat around 10 months of age and it can be a bear to keep the mats out. If you want a long full coated dog DO NOT CUT, but just keep brushing and combing. If you want a shorter coat or don't want to deal with the huge amount of mats during this time, then cut it. The only real loss is if your dog is a sable coat (has darker tips) once you cut off the tips you will lose them forever.

I found this information on Wikipedia to help explain about coat loss and thought it explained better than I could.

The below is copied from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havanese
COAT

"The coat is long, soft, light, and silky.[3] Havanese, like other Bichons and related dogs like Poodles, have a coat that catches hair and dander internally, and needs to be regularly brushed out. Many people consider the Havanese to be nonallergenic or hypoallergenic, but they do still release dander, which can aggravate allergies. It's best to be exposed to the Havanese before deciding to choose one as a dog for a house with allergies.

The Havanese often appears on lists of dogs that allegedly do not shed (moult). However, such lists are misleading. Every hair in the dog coat grows from a hair follicle, which has a cycle of growing, then dying and being replaced by another follicle. When the follicle dies, the hair is shed. The length of time of the growing and shedding cycle varies by age and other factors. "There is no such thing as a nonshedding breed."[4] Some dogs shed more than others. While you cannot say that Havanese are a nonshedding breed, you may say that Havanese shed very little.

Havanese are supposed to have a slightly wavy, double coat. However, unlike other double coated breeds, the Havanese outer coat is neither coarse nor overly dense, but rather soft and light with a slightly heavier undercoat. Not all Havanese have coats that match the standard. Havanese coats are supposed to be very soft, like unrefined silk(compared to the Maltese coat, which feels like refined silk). However, in some dogs the coat can become too silky, looking oily. On the other end of the spectrum, Havanese coats can be too harsh, giving a "frizzy" appearance.

Because of the tropical nature of the Havanese, the thick coat is light and designed to act as a sunshade and cooling agent for the little dog on hot days. This means that the fluffy Havanese does need protection against cold winter days, in spite of the warm woolly look of their fur.

The coat can be shown naturally brushed out, or corded, a technique which turns the long coat into "cords" of fur, similar to what dreadlocks are in Humans. This corded look may be difficult to achieve for the first timer, so it is always recommended that someone interested in cording their Havanese consults someone who has done it before."


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## cloe's_mom (Aug 21, 2009)

_" The only real loss is if your dog is a sable coat (has darker tips) once you cut off the tips you will lose them forever. "_

My question is, if the dog has darker tips and they grow out, eventually each of those hairs will die and fall out, losing ultimately the dark tips, no matter if I clip or not, right? Chlöe has black ears going to light blond, eventually the black/blond hairs will fall out and she'll have blond ears (unless they keep changing colors). Am I right? My first hav, Cassie, was white with butter ears from the start, she stayed white with butter ears forever, so I'm curious how Chlöe's going to change, if it's even possible to predict.


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## Luciledodd (Sep 5, 2009)

I am still not understanding what happens to the puppy coat. I know that it has to be replaced at some time if it is just one hair at a time. As to the tipped hair not coming back in, all hair eventually falls out and is replaced, so it doesn't make sense that cutting off the colored tip would lose the color forever. Rosie has white tips on her head hair, I am a good notion to snip some off and see what happens.


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## Sheri (Oct 11, 2008)

This has been discussed quite a lot here on the Forum, and that may be the reason you aren't getting a lot of responses. Can you do a search on here? Look for "Blowing Coat" and variations on that. If you don't know how to do that let me know and I'll pull some up for you.


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

Sheri, 

Sometimes doing a search results in lots and lots and lots of threads and it is just too much to read. I have tried doing the search thing many times....sometimes I find my answer and sometimes not. 

Sometimes, new posters just want a quick answer. I am going to see if I can understand this blowing thing. 

From what I understand.....each hair has a follicle, each has it's growing cycle, as you know the Hav's hair can grow quite long. So, another follicle growing near. a growing hair can sometimes become tangled with the existing hair growing. 

Is this right???? I am going to study some more....


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

*Link on Hair Growth*

An interesting link:

http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=2+2083&aid=357

More information I gathered is that a hair follicle grows and along side that same follicle is growing the new hair and the new hair can become tangled with the old follicle hair. The old follicle hair will eventually fall out.

Another interesting link: 
http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/sample/Dog-Grooming.html


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## JASHavanese (Apr 24, 2007)

Depending on the lines the dog can blow coat before or after a year old. It can be a really mild coat change (the one you pray for) or can be one that leaves you saying words you thought you forgot in high school. The good part is that it doesn't last long...around 2 months seems to be an average, at least for me.
The puppy sheds it's coat and the fur doesn't come out on your clothing like a shedding dog, it tangles in the other hair. When it tangles, you get mats.
You can avoid it by getting the dog cut down or try keeping the dog in a full coat. If it gets on your last nerve it's time to take the dog to the groomer and save you and the dog the hassle of it
Edited to add: See the standard poodle below? Want coat change that leaves you pulling your own hair out? Go through it with a standard poodle. Egads! A Hav was a snap compared to that


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## HavaneseSoon (Nov 4, 2008)

Jan,

Where is that link on Poodles?


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## Luciledodd (Sep 5, 2009)

Okay, the long puppy hair that is matted is getting cut out. No more torturing Rosie de-matting her when it will eventually fall out anyway. The short new hair will get de-matted. Does that make sense? After the spay, I cut out big one under her arms (legs forgot that she wasn't human) they don't show anyway. The only other mats she has are in the long fluffy stuff she came with so far and mostly on the tips. I think that is from the onesie. I just snipped them off. She is so much prettier than a schnauzer even with me taking off a mat or two and in the long run I don't think it will make any difference on the final coat a year from now. Thank for all the advice ladies.


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