KOMONDOR COATS PUPPY TO MATURITY
BY ERIC LIEBES
A dult Komondors, well groomed, have amazing corded coats. There is no denying it. It looks good on TV at the big shows and is an attention-getter wherever they go. Really, the coat is a tool that protects the dogs from predators and from the weather when they are doing their flock guardian job. The coat is important, but we want our judges to eval- uate the sturdy, athletic dog underneath the coat at all ages. The coat obscures the key aspects of the dog—differently at different ages. Komondors are not born corded. Babies have a dense coat with some crimp (or curl). There is often some cream color on the ears, which fades in a few months. We don’t brush or trim this coat. It just grows. Later, the cords will have soft tips; this is the original puppy coat. It is easier to see the dog under the coat now than it ever will be again. By the time a Komondor might see the ring, at six months, much has changed. The 6-9 Puppy has several inches of fluffy puppy coat. Their neck has disappeared into the coat, their topline is entirely covered, and how much bone they have in legs and head can only be felt, not seen. Still, the properly presented Komondor puppy is not brushed or combed (except for maybe the feet and face). It is just a clean, tangled, ball of hair. Evaluation of the dog under the coat
must be done with the judge’s hands. Find the withers, feel the length of neck and the angle of shoulders from there, follow the shoulders down to the point of shoulder and prosternum, and then down to the elbows, to understand the front construction. The same is done to determine the length of rib cage, the shape of topline, and croup angle. The coat might feel a little matted at the base—that is OK. Between nine months and a year, the cording is happening. It starts as clumping on the thighs or hips or whatever part they lay on. The “outside” of the coat may still just look like unbrushed hair, but at the base this is likely clumped or matted in plaits. The owners should start splitting the clumps and plaits into cords. Cords are the diameter of a quarter (coin) at the skin. The details of the manner and the speed of cord progress depends on how much curl and how much undercoat a particular dog has. Also, cording will be sped up by getting wet and drying out. So at this point, there is a lot of handwork in splitting the cords. Still, it is never brushed or combed. By the time the dog is 15 months old or so, the coat is fully corded at the skin. Our “Failure of the coat to cord by two years of age...” disqualification is not very hard to achieve; most would
A Six-Month-Old Komondor
A One-Year-Old Komondor Coat —Cording Is Underway
A Seven-Week-Old Komondor
146 | SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, FEBRUARY 2023
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