# Determining newborn coat length?



## roughhouse (Mar 1, 2009)

I am on a waiting list for a chihuahua puppy and since I have 3 smooth coat girls I am really hoping for a long coat puppy this time. The mother is a smooth coat from one long coat parent and one smooth coat parent and the father is a long coat. How do you tell what length the coat is going to be when they are very young? The breeder says there are things that she looks for but I am having trouble visualizing the difference. I really want to pick my puppy early as they go quickly and I know the breeder can make a guess to the coat length but I really want to be able to have an idea what to look for as well. Of course coat length isn't the only thing I am looking for but it is a factor for me as I can't keep adding chihuahuas forever and I would like to have a long coat pup. If anyone has pictures of the differences in coat in newborn pups I would love to see them.


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## Yoshismom (Jul 6, 2005)

I have no idea? I got my LC when he was 4 months old. I am sure someone experienced in this sort of thing will chime in soon


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## flippedstars (Dec 16, 2009)

There is no "sure fire" way to tell when they are young. Usually experienced breeders can tell around 2 weeks...but some can't tell til much older (4+ weeks). 

On a VERY young just born pup a thicker stripe of fur down the spine can sometimes indicate its a LC...but it also could just be a thickly coated smooth coat. The blending on LC from spot to solid color sometimes is smoother, too, but still thats hard to see in really young pups. 

If you are set on a LC possibly look for a breeder that won't place pups til they are a bit older?


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## roughhouse (Mar 1, 2009)

Thanks. I guess I will just cross my fingers and hope the right pup finds me. I know the perfect one is out there, it is just that the waiting is sooo hard!


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## LostLakeLua (Sep 6, 2009)

When we had Ellie's pups, it wasn't until they were a couple weeks old that we could tell a difference. They all looked fairly similar when they were born. Lemme see if I can get some pix...

Ok I don't know off hand the exact ages they were. I'm not on the comp that these are saved at; just using my online album. If you want to, you can go back through my old threads from starting February 2010 when she gave birth to these puppies. One was a short coat, the other two a long coat. I posted picks of them each week, so that might be able to give you an idea at what age their coats started becoming more obvious. I remember asking the same thing when she first had them as it was hard to tell lol.

Here they are at a few days old, less than a week:









This was I think around 3 or 4 weeks (just guessing) but it wasn't until then that they're coats were obvious. The guy on the left is a SC and the right is a LC.









Thats prolly not helpful since I don't know off hand how old they were LOL but like I said if you have time just search my old threads from when they were born, I posted pix of them at each week until they were 7 weeks old.


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