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GZ BREED COLUMNSherdingand tight enough to prevent this. Thetopcoat hairs sit closely together toprotect the undercoat (and thereforethe dog’s skin) from the elements, andthe individual hairs are rigid and noteasily bent or indented. You should beable to run your hand against the directionof hair-growth and see an obviouschange in color, lifting the hard, darker,sabled topcoat to expose the soft,lighter-colored undercoat. In a correctcoat, the topcoat should almost “snap”back into position after you removeyour hand.A clean Swedish Vallhund coat canfeel quite smooth when stroked withthe direction of hair growth, but theindividual hairs will feel quite hard. Youcan hold a piece of the coat betweenyour fingers and rub to get a goodsense of the harshness. An “open coat”is usually a faulty topcoat, which lacksthe correct rigidity and/or lengthand/or density and thereby allows theundercoat to be exposed.“Medium length” can encompass areasonable range of correct coat lengthsin this breed. The density of the coatcan vary widely, and can be directlyaffected by climate. Dogs in warmerclimates and in summer tend to havemuch less undercoat and sometimeseven shorter topcoats, whereas dogs incolder climates and in winter have verythick and dense undercoats. When aVallhund is blowing his undercoat, youreally get a good sense of just howmuch coat is on these little dogs! In aworking farm breed, a correct coat isvital to protect the dog from the elements;a correct coat sheds water easily,the undercoat stays fluffy and nearlydry, and the dog stays comfortable.This truly is a “wash-and-wear”breed; most of the time, they just needa good bath and brush. Blow-dryingcan help the coat look neater, faster,and it can also help to prevent the“wrinkle” many tailed or longer-bobtaileddogs can get in the coat over thecroup (which can fool the eye intothinking the dog is high in the rear),but in my experience, a correctVallhund coat will generally sort itselfout in a few days even if it initially airdrieslooking funny.While we should definitely showclean, brushed dogs, we should keep inmind that the standard calls for theSwedish Vallhund to be shown in an“untrimmed, natural state.” —AmandaLowery, amanda@alkemi.org; SwedishVallhund Club of America website:swedishvallhund.comA K C G A Z E T T E • 41 • S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 2