Coats

I say that these things don't bother me, I say opinions don't matter .. but then for days things play on my mind. The person who did make the snide remark about Ross' coat at the show is not someone who can criticise, they should really look at their own dogs construction and movement before considering making comment on other people's dogs. To be honest I was quite shocked to see how poor they were and I would never swap places with them, but as is my nature these things do play on my mind.
I remembered a conversation I'd had with a person who too has a Larro daughter who was devoid of coat, she had put her on Vitamin C. Now at almost 12 months the bitch did look a little better than when I previously saw her. But of course the question we can't answer is, was that the Vit C or just natural and gradual coat growth? Like all others youngsters here Ross has yumega added to his diet, but to be honest in his case I doubt it has done anything to help.
Last night I was talking to a friend, the breeder of sable 2. She is a lovely lady and such a knowledgeable woman having written books on the breed. She was there for me during the hours before Sammi gave birth, an absolute Godsend at the time. Anyway I asked her opinion and she confirmed what I had previously written here and believed to be true; since Larro doesn't carry the L/C gene it is highly unlikely that Ross does therefore no pills or potions will improve his coat growth. If the gene for growing a longer coat is not there, it's simply impossible for the coat to become longer. Though she did feel that Ross' coat will continue to improve and thicken naturally into adulthood. Of course I adore my baby boy, he is what he is and I see potential in him, but I'm not blinkered I do see the faults and his lack of coat (or furnishings really) is currently disappointing but not totally unexpected.
I've only had one dog who lacked furnishing before and that was Blade. Of course with less knowledge I was oblivious to the facts then, I thought his coat and furnishing would improve with maturity, and they did, but he never did have a huge coat. He had enough to get by .. but not the profuse coat that I like to see on my current show dogs. To be honest if Ross manages to have the same amount of coat in adulthood as Blade did then I'll be happy. I just hope he does have better furnishings, particularly on his tail, poor Blade never did have the best tail, but my god he was proud of it!
In the first photo of Blade he is at about 7 months, you can clearly see here that he had no coat at that age .. to be honest I think Ross does have a little more but the furnishings are similar. In the second photo Blade is a mature adult male with enough coat .. did he carry the L/C gene? Well I doubt it as there where no L/c in the litter, but he was never used at stud so I guess we'll never know!