another great thing about britts

[gagesbarb]

Pouring rain here this morning...JJ just went out and came back soaked...but he does NOT smell like "wet dog"
Neither of our other two ever smelled bad either (unless they found something yucky to roll in)
something about their fur???

[Cindy]

One of my favorite things about Britts is their "Teflon fur." We always have people asking us how often we bathe our dogs - their fur is so white! It seems that no matter how dirty they get the dirt just dries and falls off leaving them looking totally clean. We live in Virginia and much of our dirt is red clay that seems to stain clothing and many other things beyond hope. But not our dogs - they are white and bright!!

[janet909]

I rarely bathe our Britts......only when they truly roll in something dead or stinky. They just always look and smell wonderful......or is that just a mom talking ???

[Barb Wright]

Just add "easy to keep clean" to the long list of what is neat about the Brittany I think Cindy is right on about the silky coat that easily cleans itself. One of the interesting things about the Brittany too is that it is a "single coat" breed, which means no second or undercoat like most breeds of dog. Some of the other breeds that are single-coated are Poodles, Maltese, Wheaten Terriers (softcoated), Afghans, and Saluki's. The single coat can be different lengths on the individual dog, also straight, smooth, curly, silky, or wiry. This also means just general year 'round shedding (like humans) rather than the spring cascade of double coated dogs. Also double coated dogs that live in climates that have cold winters generally "fur up" as winter approaches which means a fall shed while new fur comes in. But of course the spring shed is the heavy one.

When I lived in Alaska I had a friend that would have those of us who had double-coated dogs save for her all the Spring sheds we accumulated from brushing and combing and she would spin it....just like wool is spun....and she would make yarn out of it to sell for knitting and needle point. I have two framed needle point pictures of Husky's made from the hair of my own dogs An interesting side point about spinning dog hair....she had to burn incense to try to cover up the awful odor of the hair....that undercoat managed to collect many odors during the long time it was on the body, and if the dogs had been eating a lot of fish, which was a winter time staple, then you can imagine just how bad the odor could be I can't remember now whether she washed the bags of hair before spinning or washed the yarn after, but the finished yarn product didn't have any odor....thankfully