- Frequently Asked Questions -

What are the different coats in German Shepherds?

1- The correct coat for the German Shepherd is a stock coat (outer and under coat). The top coat should be as tight as possible, straight, coarse, and clinging closely to the undercoat. The head, including the inside of the ears, the front of the legs, the paws, and toes have short hair. Neck hair is longer and thicker. On the rear side of the legs, hair length increases downward to the pastern and hock. The rear of the thighs is covered, show moderate "pants". USA German Shepherd Standard: http://germanshepherddog.com/regulations/breed_standard.htm

Example of sock coat:

 

2- The Long Stock Coat (long, soft loosely fitting outer coat with undercoat, flags on ears and legs, bushy pants and bushy tail with flag on underside):

http://www.lsvd-net.de/

3- The Long coat (long, soft outer coat without undercoat). This coat type frequently is parted along the center line of the back, has flags on ears, legs, and tail.

http://www.vdvictory.nl/paginas/mijnhonden/sultan.htm

When puppies are young, it's not easy to tell if they are going to be a "long hair", or more precisely, a long stock coat. True long -hairs are not common, they have very silky coat, like a Setter and lack undercoat. Both the long coats and the long stock coats are not shown or breed under SV regulations (German) but they are beautiful in their own way. In Germany they have separate registries. Usually by 7-8 weeks you can tell you have a "longer hair" puppy, but you'll need more time to define  it more precisely.

What does AD mean?