sharing pictures of cotton and silky coats
 

hi everyone,

so i have been doing some reading YT and other places concerning Yorkies coats (hair) . there is alot of information but rarely any pictures which makes it hard to visually tell, especially if u have a puppy and want to know what coat they will have grown up.
so how about we share yorkies pictures as puppies then adults, or just adults and with what type of hair they have, cotton, silky, mixed...
i think this could make it easier for anyone who's trying to figure things out.

Silky Coat
 

This is my Lacie's AKC Championship photo. She has a very fine silky coat. My avatar pic (left) is Lacie as a pup.

Yorkie owners with more experience than I have might disagree, but I suspect it’s pretty difficult to distinguish a silky coat vs a cotton coat just from a photo. The difference is as much in how the coats feel and behave as what they look like.

Just as an example, I have an almost fourteen year old Havanese and a one year old Yorkie. My Havanese unquestionably has a cotton coat. It’s soft, but it’s very, very thick and somewhat curly. When she’s wet, she looks half the size she looks when she’s dry. When she was young, I tried to keep her coat long, but it was impossible. Even if I brushed her thoroughly twice a day, her coat matted like a felted cotton ball. I finally decided it wasn’t worth the effort, and I now keep her trimmed very short.

My Yorkie, I believe, has a silky coat. His hair is much thinner and much finer, more like human hair. It’s soft and silky. He doesn’t look any different in size whether he’s wet or dry. His hair doesn’t matt, even if I go a day or two between brushings. For now, I’m letting it grow long, and it’s not any problem to maintain. (Of course, it hasn’t quite reached full adult length yet. That may change over the next year.)

She’s beautiful.

From what I’ve read, I don’t think a cotton coat would ever grow that long. Or, at least if it would, it would be impossible to prevent it from being a matted mess, no matter how much effort was put into grooming.

A rule of thumb that has worked for me is that if the yorkie's eyes glow green or blue when a light is shined in them is generally has a silk coat. If the eyes glow red it is cottony. In the past I bred a few litters - had both silky and cottony coats. This proved quite accurate. I also tested this theory on many yorkies at dog shows. I don't understand how it works, but just for fun, give it a try.

I agree somewhat with Bluebells that you really need to feel the texture to be sure, but it is highly unlikely that a cottony coat would fall straight and lie flat. In my experience cottony coats tend to be a bit wavy and or bushy.

Thank you, I agree 100%

One of my now passed girls had a cotton coat, she always looked like a hot mess even after she was brushed. I kept her hair long, well, as long as it would get which wasn't really long because of the wavy hair, it never laid flat, her hair also matted easily. At age 10 I took her to the groomer for a puppy cut and OMG, she looked like a different dog and sooooo much cuter.

My adopted boy Cody was shaved when I got him, I didn't know what king of hair he would have, I let it grow for 8 months, saw he was a cotton coat, off to the groomer we went.

My other 3 girls now all passed had beautiful silky long hair.
I agree with Bluebells, it's difficult to tell looking at a picture, you do need to feel the hair texture.

I am attaching Sophie's photos. The site has limitation of picture size so, I cannot show you the blown up version.

I am unsure myself whether Sophie is silky coat or cottony coat. When she was young, I thought she had cottony coat because she was completely dark even her face. She became little lighter but she is still dark hair. She has a lot of hair... Her hair grows very fast and can get very long. She is on the dark side and really dense hair.

what a beauty 😍

that is helpful thanks.

from what i read on YT most yorkies will change colour. and it seems silky coated yorkies do not have such dense hair

I agree with you. From what I read and heard, silky coated yorkies have less dense hair, flowing and long. So cottony coat should be short and dense. Sophie, I think may be cottony coat but her hair grows long. So, I am little confused myself. Also, she has orange/red eye color. Someone on the post said silky coated yorkie have Green color eyes and Cottony coated yorkie has redish color eyes. My last yorkie had silky coat but she had thin and long hair and green eye colors(found old photos to confirm this).

Sophie is definitely higher maintenance... I brush her hair daily and learned to use thinning scissors when I have to give her hair cut. otherwise it gets tangled and puffy very easily. I enjoy taking care of her though.

I am really glad a member put up this post. I learn new things each time I visit... I just hope we can see more photos of people' yorkies...

I think cotton coats have the potential to grow long; however, most owners keep them cut short because they’re so impossible to groom and keep in good (unmatted) condition. I know the coat of my (cotton coated) Havanese used to grow very long, but — as I said above — it was impossible to maintain. Because of the matts, I would have to constantly cut out big chunks of matted hair, even though I was brushing her (it seemed like) constantly.

I’ve been thinking about it, and my experience was that she (the cotton coated Havanese) matted at the base of her coat, close to her skin, which was what made it so difficult to prevent the matts even with frequent, thorough brushing. My silky coated Yorkie, on the other hand, gets tangles in his hair, similar to a fine-haired child getting tangles, but reasonably regular brushing prevents the tangles from turning into matts.

From what I’ve read, there is a third type of Yorkie coat called “wired” or “wiry” and that kind of coat breaks off and won’t grow long. I don’t know enough about it, though, to know if wire coated Yorkies are really pure bred or perhaps mixed.

My Kyra is a cotton coat and her hair grows like crazy I keep her in full coat but it requires numerous brushings a day to keep mats away. I keep it trimmed monthly to keep it off the floor which helps with the matting.

Here's a picture
 

Attachment 413787

Pure silk coat. It feels silky but also cool to the touch. Oh and btw, while he was a show dog, he also swam and dock dived too. :rolleyes:

Razzle is my boys name