I know huskies have two different coats, but is it normal to see it?

Hannah has a visibly long coat from her head down to her mid back. However from her hind legs all the way to the back (not including the tail) she looks to have, for the lack of a better word, nappy type hair? It also feels very different when I run my fingers through it. Also when she sheds it's more visible in the back, like I can actually puck them out vs the front where it's long and straight.

She's a year and about a month old and I adopted her when she was around 8 months old.

Not sure if this is damage to her coat from the previous owner, or if it's a normal thing?

You can usually see and feel the two coats.
If you can post a pic of what you mean, that would be a lot more helpful.

My karma is blowing her coat as we type, and I'm able to "pluck" out all the clumps of fur.

Yes husky's have two types of hair. The longer hairs are called guard hairs and the shorter thick hairs are the undercoat. Yes they have different textures as well. The undercoat is generally softer and very thick and the guard hairs are rougher and less dense.

As for being able to "pluck them out" when she is shedding. The shedding of the under coat is commonly referred to as "blowing a coat" and there are often clumps (LOTS AND LOTS OF CLUMPS). Regular brushing during a blow can reduce the clump like appearance of the undercoat during this time.

As for blowing being worse toward the back than the front. I have noticed this with Saphire as well and have had her since 10 weeks old. So I would say this probably isn't unusual.

I think the OP is talking about different textures to the fur at different spots on the body.

With Lexi, her head and ears are VERY soft, her chest and back are semi-soft, and her hind-quarters are most rough. Sounds like what you are describing, and I believe is pretty normal.

I believe this is just because of different mixtures of the 2 coats at different areas.

Scott

Scott+Lexi wrote:

I think the OP is talking about different textures to the fur at different spots on the body.

With Lexi, her head and ears are VERY soft, her chest and back are semi-soft, and her hind-quarters are most rough. Sounds like what you are describing, and I believe is pretty normal.

I believe this is just because of different mixtures of the 2 coats at different areas.

Scott

Yup Scott, that's it exactly! Most of the huskies I've seen at the parks all have pretty consistent coats, but when I look at Hannah, I can visibly see the difference. I'll definitely take a picture this afternoon.

I took a look at some of my pics, and I don't have a great selection which show the difference in fur... but here are a couple which kinda show the difference




(Lexi trying to get some drive thru, even though there is a box in her way)

The white long hair on the back of her leg is very rough. Her tail and hind quarters are pretty rough too.

Scott

Thanks for the pics Scott! Yes I can definitely tell she has the different areas you were talking about.

I took some pics of Hannah on my lunch break...

Her midback you can see her long hair, then it starts to get blotchy kind of in the lower hip to back area.

Looks like a beautiful coat... I see nothing wrong with it

Scott

Thanks Scott! Lexi has a beautiful coat as well, and awesome gold/black/white tone!

Kay's tail and hindquarter fur is really rough and long. She has long neck fur too but right now all her fur feels really rough. I'm trying to get her coat a lot healthier but it is better from the time we got her. Her back fur is also fairly long but you can't tell because it lays along her back.




Maya and Sophie's tail and hindquarters are also pretty rough but the rest of their fur is soft. Their back fur is also longer then their side fur.




I think it's pretty normal for them to have.

Abby your dogs are gorgeous.

eander83 wrote:

Abby your dogs are gorgeous.

Thanks!

They're prissy females that must look good at all times.

Cooter has almost no Guard's on his sides it's a light grey, while his guard's are black.. he has a strip of guard's down his back, but that's about it ... every dog's unique and it's nothing abnormal

Azula has the longer-furred black stripe down her back with shorter gray fur on the sides as well. I've been asked a couple times if she's been shaved. That's just how she is! They are all different!

That appears to be a fairly usual juvenile coat. Denali had the same coat effect up until he was 16 months old, even if it's not a juvenile coat that's ok too it's pretty either way.

We call Appa's rough hindquarters his "pants." it's rough, wiry, and long all down the back of his legs and his tail.

Her coat reminds me of Ares' right now. The top is rough, and feels like there is no undercoat under it, while his sides are very fluffy, and right now he's blowing his puppy coat, and it's all brown and ugly but very plush. I'm sure by 2.5-3 years it'll all be the same.

Embry had a very thin coat until he was almost 2.

ugly, lanky 10 month old embry lol


3 years with his summer coat

Not only does that show the progression of his coat, but holy cow! He filled out beautifully!

Makes me wonder about my leggy girl...

Trust me, they do eventually start to look normal lol! It took Embry forever to fill out and mature. I think he was almost 2.5 before he actually looked like an adult.

his face at 10 months, all ugly and big eared lol


3 years

He is seriously gorgeous.

Pippa's head is so odd looking compared to the rest of her and I STILL get, "She's so SKINNY!" comments all the time. This gives me such hope!

Thanks

She will fill out eventually lol. I thought Embry would never stop getting those skinny comments

Hi everyone! I hope you don't mind if I go a bit off-topic!

These are my two huskies, Raven and Erika, and their pictures at 2 months and 3 months, respectively. (Raven's 9 months now and has grown up beautifully. She's the one in my avatar)

I've noticed that their puppy coats are waaay different from each other. Look.

RAVEN - this is the coat I see on every other husky out there, soft undercoat with thin baby guard hairs popping out everywhere. Somewhat waterproof (quite a bit of water is used to get down to the skin when bathing her). Doesn't stink at all.


ERIKA - her undercoat is super fluffy and plush. Very dense and gets frizzy when it's humid. It's becoming a problem because the fur around her butt and her legs absorbs pee and then she stinks for hours (never a problem with Raven). Her guard hairs are a bit short compared to Raven's at the same age. But still, really fluffy!


What do you guys think? I know it's just her puppy coat and I have to wait it out to see the final texture, but I'm just a tiny bit concerned.

I've heard a couple of people call that "coat funk" when dogs have more undercoat than guard hair. I don't think it will hurt anything, but you have to be more diligent about cleanliness and brushing.

Where are they from? The one picture looks like there were a lot of puppies in crates