Mutli color fur???

[Buddha4me]

We gave Buddha a good bath a few weeks ago, he normally goes to the groomer, but he was a stinky boy! Any way, he was sold to me as a Red Chow. His father is Red and his mother is one of the whitest creams I've ever seen. So now that he's pushing 2 years old, he's Red with a beautiful white chest and white on his rear and tail. Here's the bath part, we got him good and soaked and he is a multi-colored dog?!? His hair shafts start out with about 1 inch of black hair, then 2 inches of white, and the rest that you see when he is dry is red. It looks like a bad hair dye job and his roots are growing out! I havent' seen this in a chow before and was curious if anyone else had a similiar experience?

[Sirchow]

I bathed Bramble a few days ago and found that most of the length of each hair is a sort of grey colour and is just pale red at the tips. I just assumed that that was because it was still her baby coat in most places and that it would all turn red when her adult coat came in. Now I'm not so sure, you have got me wondering Buddha4me.

[Buddha4me]

You're little Brambles puppy picture reminds me of Buddha as a pup, they have a similar muzzle. I wonder what will happen. Seems like when I bathed Buddha when he was a tiny puppy, he a greyish undercoat?

[Buddha4me]

Some Pictures of Buddha as a puppy:


First Snow

Baby Pic

[Sirchow]

You even have the matching snow on the nose picture. Buddha is just too cute in his baby pics. He is several shades darker than Bramble though I think unless it is the lighting. You can see the grey in Brambles coat clearly when she was little. These are about nine weeks old.

[nean007]

Both of your babies are so darn cute!

[chowpups]

Those guys are adorable.. sirchow bramble sits just like Nikki with the foot in the middle??? We call it her sidesaddle sit.. I never noticed my other dogs sitting like that??

[Auddymay]

I love the frog-stretch photo and the nylabone photo. Chowlings are so darling! In chowlings, gray coat is seen in cinnamons. That is why I had such trouble telling if Lily was a cream or cinnamon. She has white undercoat instead of gray and never had a dark mask, as most cinnies have. Even though Chows are supposed to be 'solid' color, many have a blend, which looks like one color overall.

[Victory]

Most of the reds have a dark 'root' to their coats. Dreamdancer does as well, he even has a small dark tip to his tail. It's kind of cute.

[Coco Chow]

Coco had a grey undercoat as a puppy too, especially the spine, but now with her adult hair she has a beautiful red undercoat (or cream color where she is a lighter color).
Only around the mane some grey undercoat is still there...

[kiwani]

...His hair shafts start out with about 1 inch of black hair, then 2 inches of white, and the rest that you see when he is dry is red. It looks like a bad hair dye job and his roots are growing out!

The black pigment closer to the skin would act as a body heat collector and do a better job shielding the skin from UV ray damage. In dilutes, that role is performed by the gray pigment. The black pigment also acts a heat collector/skin protector on the extremities, such as ear tips, tail tips, along the spine, lips, eyelid edges, muzzle, etc.

The white section would act as a heat and UV ray reflector, and overall the long-haired double-coat is designed for heat regulation insulation. The cream Chows usually have darker pigment on ears, tail tips, along the spine, paws, etc.

[lola chow]

lola has multi coloured fur she has a lot of black in her coat and a racing stripe around her tale lol

[DOHMAN]

My baby allie has a small red streak down her back " Kind of like mohawk" That is red hair. It is just the tips that are that color so it is very strange. So I know what you are talking about