by: Rita Rail

I found that my small pom, Emily, achieved her first adult coat when she was nearly two years old. She was more of a dark brown colour and very dark in others. She also showed some blonde on her underside. Her mother was very blonde and her father very black with many streaks of all colours from blonde, red and brown in some areas. He was beautiful and had a wonderful long outstanding coat. If Shelley had considered selling him, he would have been mine in a flash. Don’t worry about your pup if she begins to look strange. It is her adolescent stage, long legs and not co-ordinated in structure at times. She had looked very strange. The following year, when she became two, things started to co-ordinate. By some miracle I think her legs shrunk. I now believe it was because her hair had started to grow and grow and grow.

amazingly, she also turned a beautiful red with a white underbelly and a some black hairs at the back of her neck which I found when grooming. She has a tail on her so beautiful in it’s fall and a mane the envy of any lion on her front and from her head to her haunches. She is beautiful. The colour of hair you see at birth and for nearly a year is not what your dog will be later. I believe that only dogs with wiry hair will have this type of hair that Emily has now. Crystal has very soft darker red hair with a white underbelly and nearly blonde in places. She shows more white than Emily. This is the same as we adults we go through as babies to children. I have seen this in my own blonde family. We all started out with white blonde hair and over the years nearly all became a dark brown and some nearly black before it began to turn white again. Human nature and animal nature. Be patient and enjoy the changes, Take care RR.