Originally Posted by FlDebra (Post 2766228)

Hard to say. I think their coats can change up to 2 years old. That is about the time Ben's finally made it to the ground. Now it seems to grow so fast, it is hard to keep trimmed up. If his hair is really soft, he may have a cotton coat -- they are not as easy to grow out long but they are very soft to bury a face in! Cotton coats are usually very, very thick and do not reflect light the same. They often reflect with almost a brownish tint instead of the bluish tint of a steelblue silky coat, when out in the sunlight. Another things some note is eye reflection -- puppies start out reflecting blue eyes in pictures. Then they will go to either an orangish/red or a yellowish/green. It is the green refelction that correlates to the silky coat. This is not always true with photos as I have seen pictures of the same dog with both red and green reflection. But if you are out at night and shine a flashlight at the dog's eyes, you will see the true reflection. It really has some basis in truth too -- there is a genetic link between the genes that create silky hair and green eye reflection. I can't remember the technical aspects but there is actually a difference in the eye that causes the different eye reflection.