weird situation w/ dog hair

spiderlashes5000

Just thinking back to when I first got my puppy many years ago. He was a boxer/chow mix w/ a short, double coat. These two breeds are very unsmelly breeds so frequent washing was not required/recommended. And I could vouch for his cleanliness. His fur was kind of fuzzy, it was soft but it wasn't smooth or silky and it looked and felt "kinky," like in a zigzag way.

So I had him for a little over a month (and had never given him a bath but had brushed him plenty) when we got caught out in a heavy rainstorm. We were both soaked to skin. When we got home, I dried him off. I might have shampooed him, but I can't remember. But he got vigorously toweled off. And his hair turned smooth and silky! He lived for 9 more years after that, and from that day on, his fur was smooth and silky.

I was just telling somebody that, and they didn't believe a dog's fur could just suddenly and permanently change texture...because of water. The person I was telling said it was either 1) a coincidence...the rainstorn had nothing to do with it or 2) his fur had been dirty w/ afterbirth. Well, I think I would have felt/smelled that. It was never sticky or crunchy or dirty. He was an indoor puppy that looked, smelled and felt (relatively) clean. It couldn't have been that all of his rough guard hairs just got washed out w/ the rain because I used to brush him a few times a week.

So how do I explain his sudden change in hair texture?

Aries_jb

Hmm...maybe he didn't smell because his mother had licked him clean and he never had a real bath after that? That's the first thing I thought of.

spiderlashes5000

Aries_jb wrote:

Hmm...maybe he didn't smell because his mother had licked him clean and he never had a real bath after that? That's the first thing I thought of.

But why would the fur just change texture? It's like a 3b person gets wet from the rain and comes back a 1a. LOL How?

Aries_jb

Oh, well now you're putting it in terms I can understand!! In that case, I have no clue. Perhaps the rain just happened to coincide with him going through puberty? After all, how many stories have we read here where people get a perm or a haircut and their hair grows back a different texture?

RedCatWaves

If he was a puppy when you got him, it's likely he just got a more adult coat coincidently at the same time as the rain storm. My dog is a curly version of her breed (which comes in wavy and curly varieties), but she didn't show her curl til she hit a few months old. It's really hard to tell on puppies what their adolescent/adult coat will be like.

My seemingly short-haired kitten turned into a long-haired cat as she grew up.

Po

I have no idea.

I had a puppy that seemed to change fur overnight, but not nearly as quick as that dog.

Wierd. :?

akfr

i know this post is old but i just had to comment because this happened to my puppy but the opposite way. she’s always had wavy fur but one day we came inside from the heavy humid rain & ~most~ of her fur is now permanently extremely tight, kinky curls!!! she is just a puppy, so i’m sure it was just a coincidence & that it’s just changing to her adult coat, but i really think the humidity sped up the process