Long

FAQ - Long-coats & Open coats

The desired coat for the Alaskan Malamute has 1-2" of dense undercoat (called woolie, don't let that confuse you later) and guard hairs that are longer than that. The coat is longer in addition around the neck (ruff) and tail and britches. The guard coat texture is harsh and repels water easily keeping the softer undercoat dry.

A long-coat (LC) is often MUCH longer than that and there is usually no difference in length between undercoat and guard coat (no halo when you hold them up to the light). The LC can also have a softer texture than desired so they can get wet much easier -- not always.

To make it confusing, both the normal coat and the LC have modifiers that determine the length of the hair -- short, medium and long. So a long-coated dog could have short modifiers and many people call that an OPEN coat -- it's softer than desired, usually has little or no halo, and there are often extra hairs like tufts at the ears and in the britches, the tail feathers are extraordinary as well.

There is currently one genetic test for the Alaskan Malamute, and that is for the long-coat (LC) gene. It doesn't tell you anything about the modifiers that determine the length of the LC and therefore is incomplete information -- it's also only been tested on a few dogs and there are some dogs we have had to shake our heads at the results.

In Wayeh dogs, the LCs all come down from Justice and her daughters Hope and Summer. Justice's seal & white LC was a more draping hair coat and Hope's gray & white LC was a puffier stand-offish hair coat. Summer was a carrier for the LC gene.

Why would you want the LC gene? In the Wayeh dogs, these dogs who are LC carriers throw the most correct coats, and our most correct coats also happen to throw LCs... Whether the LC gene has any affect on the correct coats or is a happy coincidence -- it doesn't matter. Maestro's coat has the correct length so many Mals are loosing these days, but it is absolutely stand-off, dense, weatherproof and harsh. He got this coat from both his sire Charles (who does not carry the LC gene) and his dam Singer (who does carry the LC gene). Maestro is our most prolific producer of LCs, but he also is our most consistent producer of correct dense, harsh, stand-off coats (and OFA excellent hips which has NOTHING to do with coat).

When we have bred to dogs who do not carry the LC gene at all, we also get very very short coats... Nikko, for instance, has a correct coat in the winter, but does not carry the LC gene, and is in fact dominant for gray -- he often throws very tight, short coats, almost a Siberian coat or a summer coat, as he does not carry the modifier for THICK coats that Maestro does.) Short coats are JUST as incorrect as LCs. There needs to be a definite LENGTH to the coat in order for it to work as insulation, without any softness or silkiness to it.

The long-coat (LC) gene is recessive, and must be inherited from both parents. Our best coats come from LC CARRIERS who get the LC gene from only one parent.

8y	b. 1992 Justice (Cherokee X Razzy) J is a seal & white with either a long-coat (LC) with short modifiers or a open coat with long modifiers or a normal coat with long modifiers. <g> She had a BIG harsh textured coat that stood off correctly before she was spayed and then the coat went soft (left).	Post whelp 3y
6y	b. 1995 Hope (Yuke X Justice) Hope was definitely a LC (gray & white) with a harsh stand-off texture -- she looked like an oversized dandelion PUFF. When shaved, she gathered every burr and briar within 3 feet.
2y	b. 1997 Juneau (Shadow X Justice) 1 of 3 LCs A gray & white LC with a harsh stand-off texture. Brother to Summer who was a LC carrier.
2y	b. 2000 Keeper (Cherokee X Hope) 2 of 5 LCs Keeper is a gray & white LC with a LOT of length. His coat stands off from his body, but it is SO long that it also drapes from the center line.
10m	b. 2006 Loki (Maestro X Kayobi) 1 of 10 LCs Gray & White LC with his normal-coated sister Freya.
1y	b. 2007 Parka (Maestro X Kayobi) 5 of 11 LCs Sable & white LC. She was the least puffy of the puffs in this litter, a repeat of the one above. At 1y reminds me of Justice's more draping coat, but is not as long, and is VERY harsh, very water repellent.
8m	b. 2007 Herman & Eddie (Maestro X Hannah) 3 of 10 LCs Maestro has produced LCs before and Hannah has LC siblings and half siblings. This litter was 10 and produced these 2 boys and a sister below that is maybe open-coated...
6m	Sister Akela 2007 (Maestro X Hannah) 3 of 10 LCs She has the ear tufts, but this is untrimmed and there isn't a lot of length here - is she a LC or an open coat?
	2007 (Maestro X Sunny) 3 of 4 LCs Black Jac, seal/white
	2007 (Maestro X Sunny) 3 of 4 LCs Kismet, seal/white
	2007 (Maestro X Sunny) 3 of 4 LCs Sonny Boy, gray sable/white
	2007 Atreya (Brady X Storm) 2 of 8 LCs A gray & white and a puffy harsh-textured LC with no halo, like her great grandma Hope a PUFF (above).
	2007 Maggie (Brady X Storm) 2 of 8 LCs Another gray & white but with a soft texture that you can see in face shots that her hair is already starting to fall over in a collie drape more like great-great grandma Justice (above)..
	2007 Denny (Brady X Storm) 2 of 8 LCs NOT A LC -- shown here to illustrate a correct texture. If you click on the picture you can see the halo. This is going to be a BIG coat, but it is very harsh and stand-offish and is NOT A LC.