Weird Part on Coat

[Stephanie Bowman]

Hi all!

I recently started noticing a part developing on Teddy's coat. He never had it as a baby, and now at four months, it seems to be getting more pronounced. I am not sure if it's because his hair is getting longer or because he's shedding his baby coat. The hair in the part seems to be more coarse, shorter and darker than the rest of his coat. Anyone else experience something similar?

[Amy and Annabelle]

It is pretty common, Annabelle had a darker course stripe down her back. She still does slightly at 3.5 years. Though may not be noticeable to anyone but me now

[Stephanie Bowman]

Did it get better over time, or is it just less noticeable because his hair changed? My concern is that his whole body will turn like that. I don't understand why it seems to be getting progressively wider?

[Amy and Annabelle]

Annabelle's coat color didn't change. The stripe eventually lightened up, and became soft like the rest of her, but did not go away entirely.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Luna had a weird stripe down the middle of her back at around 4-5 months old.  

You can *sort of* see it in this pic, but I think it got a bit more pronounced after this.  

The "stripe" type of coat ended up being what her adult coat is like.

[Stephanie Bowman]

Luna is such a cutie! Her coat looks soft in that picture, not coarse. Is it soft to the touch?

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Her coat is super soft, it's the #1 comment people make when petting her ;)  

She does shed like crazy though, she basically has the coat of a Golden.

[Stephanie Bowman]

Yes, I can tell from her pictures! It looks silky smooth. The "stripe" on Teddy is coarse, while the rest of his coat is silky smooth. I know he's still pretty young and his coat is inevitably going to change, I'm just afraid of that hard, coarse hair taking over his beautiful locks.

I see goldendoodle puppies who have beautiful coats when they're young, and suddenly when they are 1, their coats drastically change. I've never had a dog before so I have no clue what to expect with the coat change.

[J and Riley (and Luna)]

Teddy's a lot more "doodly" than Luna is, but her "stripe" part was definitely coarser than the rest.  We were worried she wouldn't be soft as an adult, but the coarse hairs are more spread out now and in between the super soft stuff.

[Beamer1115]

Beamer experienced similar changes around 4 months as well. He’s 5 months old now and the “stripe” has spread to most of his back but the rest of his body is still patchy. 

From what I’ve read on the discussions this “coarse stripe” occurs in many doodles; some pups keep it and some of them grow out of it. 

Our pups are still young and they’ll have many more changes as their adult coats come in :)

[Beamer1115]

 Here’s a picture from the front.

[Stephanie Bowman]

Looks very similar to Teddy’s! Let me know where you were able to find information, as I barely found any on my end. Beamer is so adorable! Reminds me of Teddy but with more of a beard!

[Beamer1115]

The “From Pups to Adults” group has a few discussions on this as well as the “Puppy Madness” group!