[GreenDragonLady]

Both of my dogs are full lab. The older one seems to have a super-flat coat, without the dense undercoat. The puppy's coat is super thick and longer. I don't use any grooming tools or anything to pull out PJ's hair. Could it be because she's mostly an indoor dog and doesn't need the dense undercoat so she hasn't really grown it for the winter?

 

[Paddysmom]

Here is my experience with three labs. One yellow (RIP) and two blacks.
All different outer coats.

Yellow coat, stiff and a bit bristley... MAJOR SHED!
One black coat, soft to touch and wavy... MAJOR SHED!
One black coat, between soft and bristley... MAJOR SHED!

I've never understood what that undercoat thing is, exactly... mine just blow like mad in the warm months and I don't know if it's from the outer coat or that lower coat. Either way, I just try to keep them free of loose hair wherever it comes from.

And then there are my beagles...

 

[amazongold]

I just looked at your picture of the two girls back-to-back. Your pup has a proper Lab coat, but your older girl doesn't. Her coat looks like my Champ's.

Champ probably never had a true Lab coat to start with, but what he had was ruined by too much bathing. From the time he was a pup until he was two years old, he was bathed at least once a month, usually more often. His coat is very soft and straight, with little undercoat. It's changed a wee bit since we got him 16 months ago, but it will never be a proper Lab coat.

 

[GreenDragonLady]

That's weird, because we hardly ever bathe PJ. Maybe once a year! I think it's thinner this year than in other years. But I've never done anything "wrong" to her coat (that I know of, anyway) I know you shouldn't use that grooming tool that removes the undercoat. It's nice and soft, and people compliment her all the time about it, I just never really thought about it until we got Rosie and I really noticed the difference.

 

[mitziandjudysmom]

Mitzi and Bruno both have the typical thick fur. When you pet them on the back, your fingers would be completely covered into the fur. Judy, on the other hand, had thin, straight, silky hair. All three are full labs. If I had a choice, I would have them all like Judy. When she gets dirty, the mud just falls off of her when she dries, and she dries faster than the other two. Also, Judy never itches, and never needs to have her ears cleaned. (Don't know if that's related to the fur.)

 

[GreenDragonLady]

Thanks for the input, everyone!

Rosie's is definitely fun to run my fingers through! And down the middle of her back all the way down her tail is wavy.

I guess I can just chalk it up to different types.

 

[georgie]

My girls have different coats. Molly's is very thick with a dense undercoat. Abby's is not as thick & her undercoat is not as full. Both are field bred & full labs. Maybe it's genetics or something. Molly also sheds more than Abby. They are from different breeders also.

 

[blackandyellow]

Homer has a thicker coat than Misha, in and out of season. Don´t know if it is because he´s a guy and she´s a girl or because one is black and the other yellow (they are direct cousins so bloodlines are the same)

Misha dries up very easy when she gets wet, whereas Homer takes a lot of time and towel rubbing and still feels totally wet afterwards.

 

[Bob Pr.]

My Bess (BF, bench line from a competing kennel) had very thick inner and outer coats. She shed a great deal (thicker fur = more to shed?). The twelfth or twentieth pass through her coat with a wire brush ended up just as fully clogged as the first pass.

The difference in hairs between the outer and inner coats is this: The outer hairs have MUCH larger diameters and are stiffer, straight or sometimes with a shape like ")". They're often 1 1/2 - 2"/4-5 cm long and stiff enough you can grab one near an end and push the other end through a wool sweater almost llike a needle.

The hairs from Labs' inner coats are VERY MUCH smaller in diameter and shorter in length and so light they can float on the air inside a home. Their shape is krinkled, somewhat like ---/\/\/\/\/\/--- or variants on that.

Puff (YF, field line from a competing kennel) has a much softer outer coat than Bess did -- Puff's is almost velvety in touch (which contributed to choosing her name) and her inner coat is WAY less dense than Bess's was. Puff sheds but nowhere near the amount Bess did.

Puff's coat is so much less dense than a typical Lab's that you can often see her ribs when the angle of the sun is just right.

 

[patm]

Probably has more to do with breeding and pedigree lines. Just like anything else, some coats meet the standard better than others.

 

[Baloo317]

I think it's mostly genetics, just like people and their hair.