UKC

I've tentatively agreed to my partner getting a puppy. It's a Jack Russell. I really like the 'breed', in particular their tidy look which is in part a result of their short coat.

I've just seen photos of the pup and the parents. The pup is lovely and shares his coat, for now, with his mum. She is is short-haired with a mainly white body and tan head. The dad is not long-haired but does have considerably longer hair, approx 4cm, he's entirely white.

There are 5 pups in the litter, all short-haired. I'm assuming that coat length as a pup may have no bearing on what happens as the dog ages. Given however that the male pup we may be getting shares same colouration as the mum, is he more likely to retain her coat characteristics when adult?

I realise this may all sound ridiculous but I really would prefer a short-haired dog. If anybody has any particular knowledge of what is / isn't likely to happen to a puppy's coat based on parents I'd be interested to hear. Ultimately, I'm guessing there are no certainties, for example a pup from 2 short-haired parents may end up with a longer coat as a result of a gene that is expressed in that particular individual?

In reply to ksjs: you caught me during genetics revision like you say at then end, entirely dependant on the dominate allele for long coat which we don't know! Coat colour and length are likely to be two independent alleles, meaning while the coat colour may be expressed, the length may not! As far as i know, jack russels tend to have quite short coats, so maybe the longer coat is recessive? sorry i cant help more! looks to be a gamble! either way there cute wee dogs haha good luck with it!

In reply to Starkey92: In a slight aside, our dogs (terrier mongrel) puppy coat was considerably shorter than his final winter coat, and dad drops him in to get it trimmed for the summer

In reply to ksjs:

I don't think they change, I have got a 6 year old Jack, her hair as been the same since she was a pup.

I too prefer short haired dogs, but they do seem to shed more readily, I seem to be losing a contract battle with dog hair around the house.

In reply to ksjs:

Dogs get their adult hair coat at about 3-4 months with new primary hairs growing through in addition to the previous puppy coat. The look of the coat at that stage will stick with variance depending on the season to a small extent. It could be a difficult call to say for certain that the pup will be as you want it in the longer term, although if short-haired now there is a good chance.

In reply to ksjs: Thanks all for replies. Sounds like the consensus is that it's likely he will end up short-haired but you can't really be sure. So, I think it's a yes then, I'd sort of said yes already but wanted a bit of re-assurance.

Also found this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_%28dog%29#Genetic_basis_of_colour_and_pat...

The bit on coat length states that short hair allele is dominant to the long hair so fingers crossed.

I'm a mix of excited, slightly anxious and looking forward to teaching him how to: belay, guard kit, move bouldering mats (especially if doing traverses), spot and boulder. He won't actually be mine as it were but I'm confident of being able to kidnap him to go on adventures.

In reply to ksjs:

I encountered a dog on a beach on Ko Tao in Thailand whose favourite trick was pulling bouldering mats away. His second favourite was going for a swim and then shaking the water off over the mat. Finally, he liked to drag them into the sea and float around on them in the shallows. Irritating. Amusing, but irritating. Very quick he was too - I wonder why that was?